This was likely an alpha or beta release and I don't think the dock is going to exist as it does now. iPhone, iPad - I think that's how the dock is going to be.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mac OS X Lion Notes: iOS Scroll Bars, Any Corner Resizing, Dock Changes
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Everybody is focusing on the scroll bars and lights in the dock.
However, I am excited about being able to resize from any corner. A couple weeks ago there was a thread where some folks vehemently defended Apple, saying resize from the bottom-right corner was the right choice and anything else was just clutter on their window. While others argued that clearly being able to resize from any corner makes the most sense because it provides more options.
As somebody who often finds himself dragging a window up the screen just so I can reach the little handle in the bottom right to resize it, I am thrilled at the idea of resizing from the top-left or top-right.
Truth be told I often move a window just after I resize it anyway, but I like the idea of doing it in the order that comes naturally to me. Right now it usually means, move, resize, and move again once I have it at the size I want. Hopefully, this will reduce to resize and move once.
I probably run into this more often than some because I use two different size monitors, and windows sometimes are too large for my smaller monitor when I am re-arranging things.
However, I am excited about being able to resize from any corner. A couple weeks ago there was a thread where some folks vehemently defended Apple, saying resize from the bottom-right corner was the right choice and anything else was just clutter on their window. While others argued that clearly being able to resize from any corner makes the most sense because it provides more options.
As somebody who often finds himself dragging a window up the screen just so I can reach the little handle in the bottom right to resize it, I am thrilled at the idea of resizing from the top-left or top-right.
Truth be told I often move a window just after I resize it anyway, but I like the idea of doing it in the order that comes naturally to me. Right now it usually means, move, resize, and move again once I have it at the size I want. Hopefully, this will reduce to resize and move once.
I probably run into this more often than some because I use two different size monitors, and windows sometimes are too large for my smaller monitor when I am re-arranging things.
Yeah, that might come in handy. Can't remember too many times when I would have needed to do that, but it might be a good thing.
My thoughts on scroll bars....
I will miss the at-a-glance "how much left to go" of the current scroll bars, but its not a deal breaker to me. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of scroll bars taking up screen real estate. Ever since I got my Magic TrackPad, I find myself wanting OSX windows to scroll like my iPad does.
That said, I tend to work with bigger documents on the iMac, so if iOS scroll bars and rubber-band scrolling are coming, it would be nice if Apple provided alternative ways to do the following:
1) At-a-glance tell how much is left to go (without clicking the window, and then activating scrolling to make the scroll bars appear).
2) Provide a way to jump to a point in the document. The tap-hold on the iPad scroll bar to jump a page at a time (as many apps do) has its uses, but it does not provide the same functionality.
Anyway, options are good, and many things are optional in OSX. So maybe some of these new features in Lion will have some good optional settings.
I will miss the at-a-glance "how much left to go" of the current scroll bars, but its not a deal breaker to me. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of scroll bars taking up screen real estate. Ever since I got my Magic TrackPad, I find myself wanting OSX windows to scroll like my iPad does.
That said, I tend to work with bigger documents on the iMac, so if iOS scroll bars and rubber-band scrolling are coming, it would be nice if Apple provided alternative ways to do the following:
1) At-a-glance tell how much is left to go (without clicking the window, and then activating scrolling to make the scroll bars appear).
2) Provide a way to jump to a point in the document. The tap-hold on the iPad scroll bar to jump a page at a time (as many apps do) has its uses, but it does not provide the same functionality.
Anyway, options are good, and many things are optional in OSX. So maybe some of these new features in Lion will have some good optional settings.
Ah yeah...some of you need to go read some of Jef Raskin's work on the original plan for the Macintosh. The computer for the rest of us.
Jef wanted to build a computer as easy to use as a toaster. Steve Jobs took this plan and pushed it forward.
I imagine that it kills Jobs that we still have file systems, utilities to defrag disks, command lines (Terminal), software "installation", memory to manage, Activity Monitor, etc.
Apple wants to make killer machines and software that allow people to do great work. Things that allow people to create and consume information and media.
Apple wants the "computer" to disappear, to get out of the way. This has been the Mac's vision from the beginning. We are getting closer and closer. I honestly, find it hard to believe this many of you have a problem with it.
Do you really think Apple wants to prevent you from getting work done? From being productive and creative?
I see a similar path to that of iMovie. Many (most) iMovie loyalists and power users hated (hate) iMovie '08 - '11. I was an iMovie power user and while I still do miss some 3rd party plugins, I use and enjoy the new iMovie. I can get stuff done even faster. I can create beautiful movies and slide shows with no effort wasted on the "how". I just spend time on the "what". That is a beautiful thing.
I don't need to know about engine timing, gear ratios, fuel mixtures and air intake to enjoy a nice country back road in my sports car. I get to enjoy the ride...
Not quite. With a mouse, you can click on the scroll thumb to quickly move to another area of a document (right to the top or bottom for instance). This is faster than scrolling all the way with two fingers. That said, iOS often allows you to touch the titlebar of a window / app / pane to jump to the top... but what if you want to jump quickly to the bottom? Or the middle? The mouse + scroll thumb is faster. That said, I'm sure Apple has thought about all of this. They know what they're doing when in comes to UX.
That's cool for them, I don't write tech support ever, I am currently doing about level 3 support (Unix sysadmin) as my job. I also don't reinstall my OS ever, nor repair permissions (I don't really change them unless I need to and I know what I am doing). I do run growl, CS5 installed it, I didn't even know about it. I do think it is nice for MSN/Transmission/Skype notifications. I don't even have Activity monitor up unless there's a need for it.
So thank you for assuming tons of stuff about me. I don't want a utility or app to run all the time for something that's as simple as a couple of pixels on the dock.
Possibly. Maybe in Mac OS X they will just make them a little thicker than in iOS so that you can still grab the suckers with a mouse. I'd be fine with that. It does makes sense to make the two OS's look more consistent with each other. But there is no reason to think that they are going to go so far as to remove certain mouse interactions... like click / dragging a scroll thumb.
Yes, that's what I said, it shows all recently used apps which, of course, includes all apps that are running. But you can't tell from an app being in the multitasking bar that it's using any resources because it looks just the same as any other recently used app, true?
And (as I said, can't check for sure because I'm on 3.2) doesn't the bar show the Cancel badge also on apps that aren't using any resources? I.e. the only thing you'd do is delete them from the multitasking bar?
And still the iOS way is a clumsy workaround which is owed to the very limited resourses. On OS X, it wouldn't be required to cancel an app only for the minute usage of resources required for the "reinvoke daemon".
My favorite thing about this is everybody saying "well duh of course!" after criticizing Android for doing exactly the same thing in the past.
Yes. And it would stop a website interface from jumping sideways as they do now when the scrollbar appears / disappears depending on the length of the page. Speaking as a web designer, that would be a welcome change actually. Although it would only affect Mac / iOS users.
As a Linux users back in those days (System 9 and before), I thought the practice was retarded myself and constantly laughed at our resident Mac zealot about it.
Who said anything about process management ? That's up to the OS scheduler. I don't want to do process management.
What is talked about here is Application management. I get to decide what App runs and when, not the OS. Whatever the OS wants to do with the App's processes is up to it, as long as the app responds in a proper way to what I or the network or the hardware inputs.
Again, I care when connected to my office's network. If Skype is suspended, what garantee do I have that it won't resume ? That the push servers won't resume it ? That some hidden daemon won't resume it ?
CMD+Q garantees Skype will remain dead until I click it. That's how it should be. The visual cue offered by the light tells me quickly if it is running or not.
Like I said, I offered many such scenarios. The dots have nothing to do with app suspends/resumes. Yes it matters if an app is running. And while this has nothing to do with the dock lights, suspend/resuming apps is something out of the 80s. We stepped away from it because our computers are not resource limited, there is no reason to go back there.
The left? Why? If you're going to put it somewhere by default, move it to the right since most people are right handed. (That's where mine is, just like it was in NeXTSTEP.
Having no indicators just means you won't know what is running. I find it hard to believe that they would remove that critical piece of information for users.
Well, in a perfect world with perfect software you'd be right. But right now I want to know when various programs are running because many software titles - including Safari - have memory leaks that can significantly impact system performance over time. Right now it's easy to quit a program, like Safari, that has such issues.
I imagine command-Q will still quit a program in Lion; but I don't want to have to launch Activity Monitor just to see what's currently in memory. However we'll see how this all works; it's early days yet...
I still find Quick Look amazing! But Quick Look to me is the opposite of the iOS way. iOS is all about the app, with virtually no document management. QuickView is all about the document being able to view it independently of any app.
I find this quite interesting. Long ago, I thought Apple was going in the direction of making everything centred around the document, when they started talking about OpenDoc. Anyone else remember that? I honestly thought the future was going to be one where you could work on a document and not have to think too much about what app you were using. Well OpenDoc failed of course, and with iOS it's gone the other way completely, with an even greater focus on separate, self-contained apps.
I've often wondered if it's the right direction.
Forget ressource management. The most important reasons to have apps not running during certain moments is network traffic. I gave 2 examples of this and no one has yet to even try to offer a counter argument beyond "Don't do illegal stuff!".
- Limited bandwidth situations. 3G tethering is limited and costly. Before I tether the laptop, I want to close down any bandwidth hog apps that might have remained opened. A quick visual cue tells what I have and don't have to stop.
- Secured networks with audits. Before I plug into work, I need to make sure unapproved apps are shutdown. The company doesn't mind the laptop, they mind the traffic however. Again, quick visual cue is quick.
There is no reason at all to even remove the visual cue. It does not prevent anything, not even the suspend/resume thing people are going on about.
i find the indicator lights VERY useful albeit gracefully subtle.... i also use activity monitor that provides a lot more info on what's happening in my mac's mind for example, current upload speeds, cpu usage, apps running 64 bit or not, etc. ....
IF the indicator lights are/need to be removed in LION let it be a user selectable option
i prefer the bottom, auto hide
at least we can still select where we as individual users want it
