Mac OS X Lion Notes: iOS Scroll Bars, Any Corner Resizing, Dock Changes

MacRumors · Oct 25, 2010

During last week's media event, Apple demoed a few early features of Mac OS X Lion which will be released in 2011. While Apple focused on a few particular features (Mac App Store, LaunchPad, and Full Screen Apps), readers have noticed a few other user interface changes coming to Apple's next operating system.

One rumor that was posted ahead of the event predicted that Mac OS X 10.7 would be getting iOS-inspired scroll bars. During the event, Apple showed off new versions of their Apps with these new scroll bars in place. Like iOS, the scroll bars disappear when not in use, but reappear during scrolling or with mouse movement.

Meanwhile, one reader who had accurately predicted these changes also reveals that in Mac OS X 10.7, users will be able to resize windows from any corner.

ALSO you can now resize the windows from any corner, again, works nicely.

Currently, windows are only resizable on the bottom-right corner of the windows.

A couple of other new features that Apple glossed over during the presentation was "Auto Save" and "Apps resume when launched". As a result of these new features, it appears that Mac OS X applications are no longer depicted as launched or unlaunched in the Mac OS X Dock:

Top: Lion; Bottom: Snow Leopard

This actually represents a big shift in Mac OS X's representation of apps. The typical "light" indicator under each launched application is gone from the Mac OS X Lion dock.

Article Link: Mac OS X Lion Notes: iOS Scroll Bars, Any Corner Resizing, Dock Changes

Totti · Oct 25, 2010

wouldn't that be confusing? Not knowing what's running at a glance?

vant · Oct 25, 2010

Its funny how ideas from their iOS which were derived from OSX are coming back around.

macintoshtoffy · Oct 25, 2010

Totti said:
wouldn't that be confusing? Not knowing what's running at a glance?

I agree - maybe they're trying to come up with a better notification system because the little light at the bottom can be difficult to notice especially for new comers to the Mac platform.

Compile 'em all · Oct 25, 2010

Totti said:
wouldn't that be confusing? Not knowing what's running at a glance?

What difference does it make? I open my computer to get work done. Why should I worry or even have to think about what is running and what not? If the OS can handle seamlessly resource management and it doesn't slow down anything then why not? One less geeky thing to worry about.

Blue Sun · Oct 25, 2010

What was wrong with the light indicator? If it ain't broke....

roland.g · Oct 25, 2010

Invoke Application Switcher through keyboard, mouse, or trackpad gestures and you get a nice on-screen visual of running apps. I doubt that is going away.

BrianMojo · Oct 25, 2010

Removing the light represents a fundamental shift: Apple doesn't want you to think about what's "open" or "closed," just like an application being open or closed shouldn't be an issue on iOS. But honestly it's not the same -- the amount of RAM that, say, Photoshop eats up when in the background is not the same as a piddly iOS app, so unless Apple begins restricting what OS X apps can do in the background I don't see this as exactly a great feature.

Hallivand · Oct 25, 2010

So now were going to have to double tap the mouse button to show what apps are running

adomanico18 · Oct 25, 2010

I definitely want to know what is running! NOT COOL

ThE.MeSsEnGeR · Oct 25, 2010

Blue Sun said:
What was wrong with the light indicator? If it ain't broke....

Don't fix it?
but they're not fixing it. they're making it better.
in iOS you don't get a light indicator of Apps running in the background. Think about it, for example if iTunes is playing music you'll get the small "play" icon in the menu bar, just like it does on iOS devices. [Think Lion = Think Back to the Mac]

Winni · Oct 25, 2010

ALSO you can now resize the windows from any corner, again, works nicely.

Wow, that's innovative. KDE, Gnome and Windows have had that since... Ever?

scottness · Oct 25, 2010

Wirelessly posted (iPhone Dark: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8A306)

Weird. I like knowing what's running, too.

So does FaceTime replace iChat?

Zax · Oct 25, 2010

If the typical "light" indicator under each launched application is really gone, then the dock could save the space reserved for the "lights" and become shorter.

aiqw9182 · Oct 25, 2010

adomanico18 said:
I definitely want to know what is running! NOT COOL

Command-Tab

Nobita · Oct 25, 2010

I don't like the dock...

zen · Oct 25, 2010

Hmm. Seems a little odd to remove the indicator, unless there is a significant change to the way apps handle memory and CPU time. When I'm hard at work with several processor- and memory-intensive tasks running, I often glance at what inessential apps are running and shut them all down to free up resources. Makes a huge difference (on a C2D iMac here).

ThE.MeSsEnGeR · Oct 25, 2010

Zax said:
If the typical "light" indicator under each launched application is really gone, then the dock could save the space reserved for the "lights" and become shorter.

Remember this was a sneak peek at Lion, and not a GM preview. so, yeah, definitely they're going to take that into consideration!

aiqw9182 said:
Command-Tab

exactly! that's what I use since ever, I sometimes even forget about the lights!

I love how Lion is shaping up!!

Totti · Oct 25, 2010

Compile 'em all said:
What difference does it make? I open my computer to get work done. Why should I worry or even have to think about what is running and what not? If the OS can handle seamlessly resource management and it doesn't slow down anything then why not? One less geeky thing to worry about.

What if I left a task running and came back later (Could be hours, or even days later). Wouldn't it be handy to know at a glance as is the current situation now?

Resource management has nothing to do with it.

AAPLaday · Oct 25, 2010

As a gamer i always close Safari, Firefox, iTunes and iPhoto before doing any Steam gaming. Unless you have buckets of ram then it will affect performance. I will miss those blue lights. Hopefully they are being replaced by another feature and not just removed

macsmurf · Oct 25, 2010

ThE.MeSsEnGeR said:
Don't fix it?
but they're not fixing it. they're making it better.
in iOS you don't get a light indicator of Apps running in the background. Think about it, for example if iTunes is playing music you'll get the small "play" icon in the menu bar, just like it does on iOS devices.

I have a new iPod Touch. I regularly have to close apps to free up RAM. That kinda sucks.

If they can do something intelligent about which programs dump their state to disk and which don't then it's cool. Otherwise, it's not cool. Hard to tell from screenshots.

Totti · Oct 25, 2010

aiqw9182 said:
Command-Tab

Command Tab is irrelevant. Mac's philosophy of seamless integration and no unnecessary steps is the reason it's products are so seamlessly designed. Having to command tab to see what's running is the windows equivalent of 'Are you sure you want to run this' that we were poking at when Vista first launched.

Not that it matters. It's probably just a build step. I'm sure something better is in the pipeline.

res1233 · Oct 25, 2010

It would appear that the new "Mission Control" could very well be a way to see what's running. But... It doesn't seem very apple. I wonder what else they have up their sleeve. Steve mentioned that there are other features that will be released in the coming months. Could be good

EDIT: Actually, now that i think about it, this might mean that we'll be quitting apps far more than before. From the sounds of it, it's possible that all apps will have their state saved to disk so you can easily quit it at any time. Sort of like hibernation mode, except that it's for apps, not for the OS. This would be a huge leap over windows. I like the sound of it.
I'd imagine that this mode would have to be built into apps though. I could conceive of problems where an app that started up a bunch of processes is quit and put into this "mode" while the other processes are still running, and they're all like "WTF?". It's also possible that Mac OS will simply keep track of which processes were started by which app, and hibernate them all simultaneously, or maybe this feature will just be built into apps that come with Mac OS X for now, and adopted by others later on. Then again, i could be far off base. It sounds good though

Benny08 · Oct 25, 2010

This is crap.... its just unacceptable! like seriously atleast have it optional...i am not happy having it opening as it left off...i quit programs for a reason and thats for a fresh open when it runs slow!

Apple better be making alot of things optional otherwise i aint gonna upgrade!

mixel · Oct 25, 2010

Hmm! Considering how much of a hard time new users have between closing the apps windows and actually closing the app fully this could make things a little more intuitive..

I like being able to see what's running too though. Very interesting!

Mac OS X Lion Notes: iOS Scroll Bars, Any Corner Resizing, Dock Changes

macrumors bot

macrumors member

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 601

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 604

macrumors regular

macrumors regular

macrumors member

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68040

macrumors 65816

macrumors newbie

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502a

macrumors member

Guest

macrumors 65816

macrumors member

macrumors 65816

macrumors member

macrumors 68000

Our Staff