Mac OS X Lion Set for Summer 2011 Debut, Mac App Store to Launch Within 90 Days

[bankshot]

Also, I'm curious how Launchpad gets populated. If it's iOS-like, the Folders in it won't reflect the real file system. But then how will apps already in file system folders (e.g., Utilities) appear in it? I saw System Preferences on there, so it must work, but I want to know how.

I suspect it will simply be a configuration file in the user's Library folder. Each entry will point to a real app in the filesystem and include any information about where it resides in the user's Launchpad. Much like the Dock can be rearranged at will, not affecting the underlying locations of apps and folders in the filesystem.

Actually, the Launchpad is really just a giant full-screen Dock when you think about it. Though I wonder if it will have the same kind of right-click menus and things for app icons; probably not, at least initially.

 

[RebootD]

I couldnt agree more, seems like all they have been focusing on has been the ipad and the iphone and the iOS...but after over a year, they have come up with only a couple of features that are good but come on...

I've stated this earlier but I also agree.. I don't need multi-touch anything on my Mac Pro. I don't own any devices nor want to. (My desk is cluttered enough as it is).

Since the iOS makes up 2/3 of their revenue of course they are going to focus on that division and make changes on the Mac side to accompany the majority of their users. Does that mean I have to upgrade? (or like it?) Nope.

I'll hold off judgment but if the majority of the features revolve around multi-touch I have no reason to upgrade.

 

[rwilliams]

Most have said, prior to the Keynote, that summer would be around the time frame for Lion. It wouldn't be delivered prior to WWDC. Why would Apple want to give Microsoft or Goolgle for that matter any kind of indication of a new GUI, other features etc so that they can rush to institute these into their OS before Apple? I think by now you know Apple better than that.

Makes sense to me. WWDC will likely be the big reveal of Lion's features. This was just a preview.

 

[mozumder]

Database filesystem

If they had something like this, where registered object types were managed throughout the OS, so many things could happen.

If you import a photo into iPhoto or Aperture or create a sound in GarageBand or iTunes, they are accessible and placeable through an interface in iMovie or iWeb.

Right now database objects are only shared among sets of applications, such as iLife/iWorks, or within Creative Suite - you can't use the Lightroom library with Aperture library, for example.

An OS level change of this magnitude would mean we could have known registered objects handled by the OS, and apps would have an easier time managing them - it would be impossible to misplace a file or deal incorrect permissions.

Photos in Lightroom would be shareable with Aperture, or any other raw processor, taking advantage the strengths of each app - the organizational capability of Aperture, with the processing capability of Lightroom/Photoshop. We could do this without the user having to manage the files.

Of course, data can be shared between apps right now - you can send a file from Aperture to Capture NX, but the object interface isn't standardized, which means the user has to create folders, organize pictures, etc.

The whole point of the database filesystem would be for the user to not have to deal with the filesystem at all, saving operating time.

Fonts, for example, are currently a pain-in-the-ass to manage, and a database filesystem would allow things like an font-store to manage the fonts.

 

[firewood]

I think I'll skip the Mac App Store. I prefer to give 100% of my money to the developers who did the actual work, not 30% to Apple for simply providing a place for them to hock their wares.

Hard to do unless you know the developer and hand them cash.

My CC processor took a percentage, and the e-commerce site had its monthly costs as well.

And, the big one, buying the equivalent amount of advertising that comes with just being listed as a new app in the App store for a few days might well cost well over 100% of the revenue for some app titles.

Even for Free apps there will be benefits. A developer might get 10's of downloads from their own web site, but 1000's of downloads from the App store, with a bunch more happy users and thankyou letters. For many devs, that exposure alone will be worth the $99/annum.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

So how long until the Mac Store is the ONLY way to add new applications to your Mac? Sure you can say that this isn't the only way to add software, but we've all seen the monstrosity that is the lockdown of the iOS systems.

Can apps downloaded the from Mac Store access your system or must they also be sandboxed apps? I use little programs that add computer functionality within easy reach in my menu bar. Can things like this still function in the Mac Store? Can I install something such as Shades from the Mac Store? It's freeware that will dim your bright iMac screen below it's standard minimum brightness normally found. How locked down will Apple make this? They have not set a good precedence so far, so why should I trust that they have the best of intentions now that they're extending their toy gadget bull **** into my work machine?

 

[Eaon]

I've always thought that eventually the Track pad on laptops would become a screen, I just didnt know what it could display. Now I know, launch pad/mission control. It may take a few years, but launch pad would be totally awesome if it popped up on the track pad and you tapped the app you want.

Meh. Maybe. On the one hand it sounds cool, but on the other hand, it would mean looking away from the main screen down to the trackpad to find the thing you want to tap with your finger. Now if they could master that tactile feedback tech that was brought up a while back where you could just feel things on a touchscreen, then a grid of icons (say 3x3 or 4x4) that you could just feel was there and know which one you were hitting, like touchtyping, now that would make that cool.

 

[bankshot]

• Will it also be $99/year?

Answering my own question: yes.
http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac/distribution.html

Join the Mac
Developer Program

Gain access to all the resources and support you need to design and distribute Mac OS X apps on the Mac App Store.

Enroll Now $99/year

 

[spockie]

Lion Dock

Anyone else noticed that in Lion there are no dots in the Dock marking running applications left? Does this imply that there won't be the cmd tab shortcut as well?

 

[alent1234]

We build and host e-commerce web and in-app stores for many of the top Mac software developers. While it's possible the new Mac store could have some impact in terms of reducing the # of Mac developers that rely solely on their own website for Mac sales, I can see a number of issues that will come into play:

- Apple takes their whopping 30%, so many developers will do all they can to have as many of their sales occur via their own webstore or embedded in-app store where they are generally paying less than 10% total in e-commerce expenses. Mac devs may well charge a higher price for Mac store sales, thus encouraging Mac users to visit webstores before buying an app from the Mac store.

- It don’t believe the Mac store offers free trials which many Mac publishers want to offer.

- It introduces an approval-by-Apple process, which will be fine for some, and add some difficulty for some others.

- Some are weary of Apple's growing "Gated Community" hold on its ecosystem, as another poster mentioned.

- While I can see the advantage of using the iPhone app store and iTunes to download products since it integrates with iPods and iPhones seamlessly post-download, I'm not seeing a similarly compelling advantage for a user to download from a Mac desktop Apple store to their Mac desktop. There is some advantage, sure, but it seems pretty limited.

That's just my 2 cents.

- Dan from FastSpring

with CC fees being around 5%, there is no way developers are paying 10% of revenue as e-commerce sales

 

[alent1234]

So how long until the Mac Store is the ONLY way to add new applications to your Mac? Sure you can say that this isn't the only way to add software, but we've all seen the monstrosity that is the lockdown of the iOS systems.

Can apps downloaded the from Mac Store access your system or must they also be sandboxed apps? I use little programs that add computer functionality within easy reach in my menu bar. Can things like this still function in the Mac Store? Can I install something such as Shades from the Mac Store? It's freeware that will dim your bright iMac screen below it's standard minimum brightness normally found. How locked down will Apple make this? They have not set a good precedence so far, so why should I trust that they have the best of intentions now that they're extending their toy gadget bull **** into my work machine?

no way it's going to happen since a lot of expensive professional apps that rely on licensing and support contracts will be able to distribute via the app store.

with pro apps you don't automatically update to the latest version without testing either

 

[arkmannj]

I wish Steve would have just made a side comment about some of the other planned updates (or a graphic showing icons, glimpses, etc...) you know, just enough to wet the whistle so to speak.

Like, oh man we're planning on 250 new features and 100 updated features, you know the old school way he used to do things

Then we'd wonder about file systems, Mail, core ____, Finder, etc....

 

[marksman]

I love how the big feature is the Mac App Store (more money in Apple's pockets). Mission control doesn't look good enough to justify the upgrade.

GL

An App store is just what the Mac needs.

It does a good job bringing developers and customers together. Small developers are usually programmers and not marketing/promotion/sales genius, so they often can have a hard time finding their audience. For the users it becomes catch-as-catch-can in finding what is out there.

An App store will be great on the Mac. I am really looking forward to it.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

no way it's going to happen since a lot of expensive professional apps that rely on licensing and support contracts will be able to distribute via the app store.

with pro apps you don't automatically update to the latest version without testing either

I'll save your comment and come back in a few years, once we know whether we're now tied in to the mac store or if we still have software flexibility.

 

[marksman]

Bingo!People won't let go of this fantasy that the iTunes/app store is some kind of money printing machine for greedy Apple.Especially in the case of apps,where Apple bears all the hosting and distribution costs for FREE,the total profit on the operation is pretty small when compared to the rest of the company.
It is there for one reason and one reason only:

To Sell Hardware!

Yeah people don't understand what a boon it is to most developers too. A fixed 30% cost for all your promotion and distribution costs for your software? Allows you to spend more time writing software and not managing how to distribute it and get it to the people who might want it. The service is a win-win-win. Win for Apple, win for developers, win for consumers.

You're completely missing the point. The age old comment about Mac's is that there aren't enough programs out there for it. If you consider the opening comments about the growing Mac developer community and huge sales, it makes perfect sense. You provide a focussed repository of a huge variety of apps for people who are new to the Mac, that's a big win for the users and developers.

Also, if you consider what it takes for both established and new developers to market their product, 30% isn't all that bad. If you go your own route, you have to pay for hosting, bandwidth, credit card transactions etc, advertising. With Apple providing all that in the app store for a set fee...complete with a focussed user base, user ratings and comments....it's not bad value to get your app out to the community. As an iPad and iPhone owner, I know I check the App Store for new products regularly. As a mac user, where do you go to find what's new and exciting?

I do realize this is a potentially huge new revenue stream for Apple, and so it should be. Without the revenue, we wouldn't see great new products as R&D is expensive.

Smartly, Apple realizes they sell a lot more iPads and iPhones than Macs. What they want to do is leverage that familiarity for those users and offer them a similar comfort zone on a Mac and in turn sell more Macs to people who love their iPhones and iPads. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Yamcha]

I wonder if the finder window will look like this ?

 

[o0samotech0o]

Yep, okay, a lot of people weren't impressed with what they saw, but just wait a bit. I don't know if anyone noticed, but it is completely conceivable that what we saw today wasn't really 10.7 but in fact 10.6 modified. The only things that changed were based around the dock, parts of the application windows, and expose, which (correct me if I am wrong), but most of these aspects aren't heavily linked in with the OS itself.

I think we have a lot more to come. Theres more than 7 months left to develop.

Oh and also, I think everyone will agree, the Job advertisment description wasn't listed long ago, so I think the 'killer feature' may not be for sometime to come.

 

[goobot]

Where is my game center for Mac????!!!!

 

[Narrisch]

Thats it? The new "killer feature" on mac OS X? Apps? LOL!

 

[Bigdaddyguido]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I was thinking more when I'm doing stuff on the main screen and how expose/spaces gets a tad annoying popping up, and then I go to open more apps, and more translucent windows pop up on my crowding screen.

I am totally a space purist tho, and so I use the hell out of some spaces. Maybe most people would find it aggravating to glance at another screen, but for me, I *think* I'd like it more than windows on top of windows on top of windows. I could be wrong, never gotten to try it out.

 

[LbrTradr]

I'm a little surprised at all the fuss over the mac app store. Isn't it the same thing as their current download section? What am I missing?

I am a little concerned that Apple is moving it's mac users to a closed platform. Maybe not when Lion comes out but it sure looks to me like Apple wants that down the road. This may be a baby step to see how well it's accepted.

 

[MCIowaRulz]

I'm surprised no one brought this up. Is bandwidth speed and size
Some people aren't going to be able to use the store due to the fact that not everyone has a 10Mb+ connection. I have a 3Mb connection for the insane price of $30 a month. Also, I doubt that your going to download the Mac OS X 10.7 DVD due to the fact that it will probably be 7 or 8 GB from the App store.

 

[Cougarcat]

I wonder if the finder window will look like this ?
<snip>

No, the title bar will only be removed in single-window apps where it serves no purpose.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm surprised no one brought this up. Is bandwidth speed and size
Some people aren't going to be able to use the store due to the fact that not everyone has a 10Mb+ connection. I have a 3Mb connection for the insane price of $30 a month. Also, I doubt that your going to download the Mac OS X 10.7 DVD due to the fact that it will probably be 7 or 8 GB from the App store.

The Mac App Store is for applications, NOT operating systems. However, you do raise a valid point. Dial-up users are going to have problems with the Mac App Store. Believe it or not, there are still places broadband has difficulty reaching.

 

[JaniV]

I'm kind of hoping that the app-store and OS would be closed in the future to see the nerd rage..