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Apple Exploring 3D Desktop and Application Interfaces

I don't think I'd like the whole OS being 3D(ish) like this. However, if some different apps utilized an interface like this - like iPhoto and iTunes - I could see how it would be incredibly useful and cool.
 
sukanas said:
it looks like its one of those things that look really cool but is really inefficient and unecessary
Click to expand...

Actually I have to disagree with you - you could be right - but I have been thinking about a 3D desktop for a while and here is why:

The computer essentially has done the same thing since the late 1990's - there have been no dramatic shifts in the way we interact with them. This is in large part due to the 2D interface, I believe we have reached the maximum potential of the 2D structure and the next step logically is to jump to 3D. This would also allow for the use of virtual reality headsets to enhance the user experience - which Apple has also been looking in to.

While it could end up being a total stinker, I think there is a lot of potential with moving to 3D - even television is going there so it is on the horizon in a big way.
 
Schizoid said:
I've been experimenting with Apple's new 5-dimensional desktop, it can get complicated though...

Take the Dock Preferences for example, in 10.5 it can be bottom, left or right...
In 10.7 it's bottom left, bottom right, back left, back right, intermediate middle left, intermediate middle bottom or left back front, or combinations of rear, left, middle, side, back bottom, side or middle of the screen (intermediate hasn't yet been implemented)

It's quite good, but because it's multi-dimensional, you have to be careful when you use Dock Magnification, easy on a 10.5 Mac I know, but the Dock icon expands into the fourth dimension, becoming invisible or expanding into an unknown realm, opening up a black hole, spilling your documents into the delta quadrant...

The new Windows version is great though they have this...

C:\>_
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Reading this comment was worth all of the nonsense waded through to get here.

I like the windows dig at the end. Nice touch!

Thanks...
 
AppleMojo said:
Reading this comment was worth all of the nonsense waded through to get here.

I like the windows dig at the end. Nice touch!

Thanks...
Click to expand...

Imagine phoning apple care to ask how to get your files back form the black hole that opened in your desktop and appears to be sucking in the contents of your machine.
 
Call me "Dumb Name" but I don't really get the point of this. Or at least, I don't get how this could change our World... But then again, it's apple so nobody knows what they'll do with that!

[sarcasm]
I like a "working-rock-solid" OS better than any "flashy-widginnovations"
[/sarcasm]
 
I have a feeling apple won't implement this until/unless it can be useful... otherwise they would have done it already just for eyecandy I think.

bumptop is intruiging... at the very least it's creative. Not sure how practical it'd be though.
 
3D Stacks would be useful - they are already a little bit, with the first item first on the dock, the second item in the folder just behind that in the dock. 3D windows and things? Probably not so useful... i'll stick to two screens thanks.

Makes me wonder what crazy things go on inside apple's R+D department.
Some of the reasons the modern gui/file system came about was because of the untidiness of traditional desktops - so they'd have to make it practical as well as just creative/interesting/new.
 
Schizoid said:
I've been experimenting with Apple's new 5-dimensional desktop, it can get complicated though...

It's quite good, but because it's multi-dimensional, you have to be careful when you use Dock Magnification, easy on a 10.5 Mac I know, but the Dock icon expands into the fourth dimension, becoming invisible or expanding into an unknown realm, opening up a black hole, spilling your documents into the delta quadrant...

The new Windows version is great though they have this...

C:\>_
Click to expand...

Dude! Don't you know your way around the 4th dimension yet?
 
For the most part every 3D desktop system I've seen has been incredibly gimmicky. Usually just eye-candy that, if it doesn't actually hurt productivity, has no real use.

The third illustration in the news post is the first illustration of an idea that I'd actually kind of like (of course looking more at concept than necessarily the specific rough implementation).

061036-pat1_425.png


The sidewalls, and even to some extent the floor that apparently serves as some kind of expanded taskbar, seem like a good use of the third dimension. For some things like my buddy list (or even occasionally iTunes, though I rarely need constant visible access to it), I always try to make their windows as skinny as possible, so I can sit it at the side of my screen and always be able to check it just by looking. The problem is, there's only so much shrinking you can do before it either stops letting you shrink it or it starts cutting off letters, and then it eventually gets accidentally covered anyway. Tilting the window onto a "wall" would both save screen space and increase legibility. The eye is surprisingly good at processing fake 3D images.

And oh yeah, it looks pretty cool. Reminds me of Expose, actually: extremely functional, yet it still manages to impress visually. Not saying I'm totally convinced, but it's a classic Apple-style solution.
 
These are just patent app diagrams, so there not going to reveal much about what Apple is messing around with here.

They apply for patents for a lot of stuff, most of which never reaches the light of day.

3 or 4 years from now, who knows. Maybe the smallest iMac will be 28" holographic/3-D display with more pixels than what most people would know what to do with, along with very deep and precise gesture recognition. Who knows what might work in such a scenario.
 
Interesting. Years ago, in 1988 or so, Todd Rundgren (a big Mac user and a very smart person and great musician), showed me a three dimensional interface design and prototype implementation on a Mac (the SE30 as I recall). It bore a great many similarities to the drawings in this article. The reason we didn't bite (not Apple, but another company) was that the Apple (or PC hardware for that matter) wasn't up to the graphical tasks, and the company I was with wasn't really in the business. I pointed him to Jean Louis-Gasse, but I don't think anything came of it.

Technology catches up with art from time to time ;-)

Eddie O
 
Anybody but me get instantly reminded of "Microsoft Bob" when they first saw the diagrams?

(obviously on a much, much simpler level)
 
longofest said:
Sun was working on this as far back as 2003/2004 with Project Looking Glass, and it is remarkably similar.

Edit: better link

Edit 2: added to the article.
Click to expand...

thanks for the link.

Graphical coolness - oh yes.

Being able to embed comments on the flip side. Not so sure about.

Putting applications out of the way. Hmm still thinks it clutters a bit. I think minimize and Expose handle most of putting out of the way, swiching and the abilily to watch everything on the desktop to run.

3D dock - now there you go. Rather than what my doc looks like.

I can see this being cool for games.

I think it is just one of those things, where maybe once I use it - i would think differenty. But from being in a 2-d computing world for so long. Hmm. Maybe I would not need 3 19-inch monitors for work then?
 
longofest said:
reminds me more of Sun's Looking Glass. Bumptop has just gotten so much exposure that that is what people think of first, but Looking Glass has been around since at least 2004.
Click to expand...


ah looking glass 🙂. as someone who contributes code to that project it's nice ot hear that people still remember it.
 
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