Dashboard in 10.7 - secret iOS launching pad?

[mabaker]

As many of you surely noticed, Apple copied 1:1 Tiger’s dashboard to the iPhone in a miniaturized way. They even used a similar texture for the iPhone dock as it’s the case with the “add widget” menu slice.

Now that a convergence OS is nearing, would you think that Dashboard may transform itself into iOS apps launching pad? Widgets are already categorized like apps in the iTunes Storem, so are the similar icons, hence my thought how easy and intuitive would it be to implement Dashboard for running the iOs apps.

Anybody agrees that the kind of forgotten Dashboard (haven’t heard of new Widgets in AGES!) is a Mac OS X feature that may see its revival in 10.7?

 

[appleguy123]

I think that it'd be pretty neat to use these apps with a sort of 1:1 ratio on the MagicTrackpad, or on a slightly reduced scale on the laptop's trackpad.

 

[Sky Blue]

How would you play a game like labyrinth? Pick up your iMac and shake it about?

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

I'm not sure what you're getting at exactly, but I don't see the two OS's merging.
They are fundamentally different.

There are many limitations on iOS because it is touch activated.
There can be no right-click. There is no click-and-drag. Touch is just very different from a click. Apple has addressed this point in their Thoughts on Flash statement. Also, it is designed for devices with smaller displays than Macs.

But for its drawbacks there are also plenty of new and wonderful features that are made possible by Apple's touch-controlled interfaces. Touching and swiping is often faster than clicking and dragging, for example. iOS is ideal for gaming when it comes to simple 2-D games that require a quick reaction. Not to mention those which make use of the gyroscope/accelerometer. 3-D first-person shooters or RTS games utilizing many keyboard shortcuts on the other hand are best suited to a mouse & keyboard control scheme. It's all about the right tool for the right task, and Apple's understanding of the differences between touch interfaces and traditional cursor/keyboard interfaces has been one of the key elements of their success with mobile devices.

That said, Apple's recent trackpads have multi-touch support and that is one step closer to the marriage of traditional controls and touch-based controls.
As far as I'm concerned, the more options the user has at their disposal, the better.

I for one would love to see a version of Mac OS X that can run on a touch-only device such as a tablet. I would buy a Mac tablet in an instant. The iPad didn't really do it for me since it is a big-ass iPod touch running iOS that can't handle Mac software such as Photoshop or even browse files with Finder, and it requires a "real" computer with iTunes installed in order to use it. Also, pressure sensitivity on touch devices would make Wacom's tablets obsolete overnight and would be completely awesome in every regard.

But hey, Mac OS 10.7 is supposedly on the horizon, so we shall soon see what kind of new innovations Apple has cooked up.
Looking forward....