Coverflow in the Finder: More Evidence the Mac Touch is Coming?
The rumor of the impending Apple Tablet, or Mac Touch, is back once again, with one source claiming another source has said this about that. Great, that’s all fine and good, but what about bringing some cold hard speculation into the mix? I mean, insider knowledge is one thing, but its of no use to anyone without a little outsider guessing. You know, to balance things out a bit.
My guess is that, yes, oh yes, the Mac Touch is on its way. My reason? I believe Apple has been prepping us.
No, I’m not simply referring to the iPhone and its interface. Just look at the shape OS X has taken in the last few years. I’m a major fan of keyboarding my way through tasks, but Apple seems bent on making everything gestured. Panther was a step in that direction with Exposé. Gesture to a corner of the screen, perform a number of common tasks, mostly related to finding and changing open windows. Leopard added yet more tasks to the Exposé hot corner list, including Spaces (I’ll get to that in a moment). More strikingly, Leopard also brought Coverflow into the Finder, which, on any Apple notebook from the last few years, can be gestured through with two fingers via the mouse pad.
Finding and changing open windows, navigating through files: both common tasks on any computer, both now made easy on the Mac through gesturing.
Now place two fingers on your screen and flick. Welcome to Spaces on the Mac Touch.
And look at the big old crazy activation switch they put inside Time Machine. Clearly brought over from the iPhone.
Which leads me to my next point of speculation. Remember how Leopard had to be delayed because that team had to go and help the iPhone team get that product all pumped up and out the door on time? Do you think it’s a coincidence that the OS X team, (Team X) and the iPhone team (Team Touch) became engaged in a little cross pollination? I’m not suggesting that having these two teams together in the same room suddenly gave Steve Jobs the eureka moment that gave birth to the Mac Touch concept. No, no, no. But perhaps this mingling session was a more necessary evil than Jobs lead us to believe. Perhaps Team X and Team Touch needed to fuse together certain concepts inherent to the development of, oh, I don’t know, say…the Mac Touch? I mean, since iPhone, iPod Touch and Leopard have all launched, has anyone even seen these guys and gals around?
Perhaps this was the plan all along. Then again, perhaps not. What do you think?
Brilliant thoughts.
Take stacks for example, it reduces the amount of clicks (or taps) needed to access a file. It would actually make sense on a touch mac.
Really, OS X isn’t the big problem here, I think it is very adaptable. What really stumps me is
1) What the input will be (maybe the purported keyboard that’ll raise it’s keys when needed).
2) When this is coming. By the way rumors are going, I don’t see what else Steve would announce at MacWorld.
Then if it does get announced at MWSF2008, will it be released soon enough so I don’t go crazy waiting?
I totally agree about the Time Machine switch. It seemed weird to me at first look. I don’t even see one single reason why this activation switch was not implemented with a check box, like it’s the case for parental control for example.
And there is one other thing that makes me… think. Have you guys heard of BumpTop? It’s been around for at least one year, it’s got the Apple touch and we’ve heard no news about it recently. Don’t you think that Apple acquired them and is preparing that feature for Leopard on Mac Touch? That would be awesome. That and a good handwriting recognition technology, and a Nokia-like touch-feedback screen. Oh my…
Try something. Pretend your monitor is a touchscreen. Pretend to do stuff with your fingers on the screen for a few minutes. How long does it take for the pain in your arms to make it impossible?
Does your arm hurt when you write or draw with a pen on a notebook. Of course we’re not talking about a desktop here…
Jobs said it at the “D” conference. Dramatic changes in the UI have to happen a step at a time. Just look at the fuss over square corners, blue Dock dots, folder icons, etc. People don’t like change.
Apple could do a new UI in the iPhone as it’s not really a “computer” and can start out successfully with a limited set of functions. The multi-touch conventions for a desktop UI still have to be developed (how do you do cut & paste?), and be introduced slowly.
I believe we’ll eventually see a Apple developed, Wacom style, tablet replacing the mouse and maybe the keyboard.
If the Mac Touch drops (and it will), it won’t be as a replacement for anything currently in the Mac family. It will be a new addition, fulfilling a specific need: ultra portable media and data consumption, with the built in ability for casual input. The Mac Touch will not try to push input as its primary function.
Consider the way Quick Look has captured the hearts and minds of the people. No one’s complaining that its not a fully functional replacement for the application normally associated with the files it can preview. The difference with the Mac Touch is that it will enable you to compose and edit documents, it just wouldn’t be your primary tool for doing so.
Desktops are powerful but in no way portable. Notebooks are great, but who really wants to lug one around with them everywhere they go? The Mac Touch will fill that space, putting a computer at your fingertips anytime, anyplace. Not to replace your other computers, but to fill the hole that they can’t.
Interesting and intriguing, yet priorities would make a touch screen tablet Mac much less appealing, than a Mac of any kind having an OS able to run simultaneously four operating systems in Expose & Spaces. Just to list so we have no misunderstanding, Mac OSX, Linux, Windows (if still desired) and Unix.
Since Intel has and will have Quad Processors, developing a software to run four OS at the same time would be a small step toward switching Windows users immediately, but a giant leap in cornering the market on the long run.
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