Mac OS X v10.7 predictions

[TZRaceR6]

TRIM support

god I hope so. Would be great for all of us that have bought SSD's (with TRIM support capability)

 

[Brien]

Apple will stop the further development of 32-Bit APIs. 32-Bit software will still run, but new APIs or features will be 64-Bit only. In 10.8, 32-Bit support will completely disappear.

There will be more corporate features, as for example a better integration with Microsoft Active Directory.

There will be more support for multi-touch screens or other input devices.

I think it's very likely we'll see the end of 32-bit support in 10.7, thus shutting out Rev. A MacBook and MacBook Pro's. I think we will also see the removal of Rosetta entirely on 10.7.

I don't know how, but somewhere along the way Apple became less friendly to older hardware; my 10-year old G4 could be upgraded to 10.4.11, yet 4-year old machines can't run 10.6, so something has definitely changed.

I think we will see a further merge behind the scenes of iOS and OS X, e.g. CoreMotion in 10.7 is likely. 3G-equipped notebooks would be something to think about as well.

I don't think the UI will change very much. In 6 versions of OS X, and 4 versions of iOS, the UI has changed little. 10.5 was a huge makeover, but some things, such as progress and scroll bars, date back to 10.2. If we get a new UI I will be surprised.

Blu-ray is never going to happen; in fact, I think we'd see the removal of optical drives from notebooks happen first, and I think this is the real reason behind no Blu-ray support, as Jobs plans on doing to DVDs what he did to floppies with the original iMac. It's possible that in 2 or 3 years, no apple product, except the Mac Pro, will have an optical drive.

If any of that happens, I will never buy another Apple product.

I agree. I don't think Apple will replace OS X with iOS, nor would they put iOS on Macs. Instead, I think we will see a gradual downsizing of Mac offerings and expansion of iDevices. For example, it is possible that Apple's hardware line-up in 2015 looks like this:

Macs:
Mac Pro
iMac (one SKU)
MacBook Pro (only 17", other two discontinued)

iDevices:
iPhone
iPod (by this time, only iPod touch and iPod nano remain, nano goes to a touch interface)
Apple TV
iPad: 11", 13", and 15" versions

Just off the top of my head. The Mac is on it's way out.

 

[Corbin052198]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

A new code name from the cat kingdom.

That would be a shocker

I predict end of support for Rosetta, a slightly different UI (new defult wallpaper, different Aqua elements, etc.

 

[maflynn]

Further Finder enhancements. I have sneaking suspicion that we will NOT see TRIM support.

I wouldn't surprised if apple provides a basic ad-supported version of OSX as per their prior patent applications. Maybe even going so far as forcing that version to use some sort of app store and will only install signed apps.

I hope apple updates the UI and makes it consistent through the OS. I'd love to see a better iDisk integration that doesn't suck. Its a egg sucking dog and always has.

 

[brijazz]

All the focus is on iOS; they're really losing their edge with OS X.

Not so fast! Recent reports show that Mac sales are on par with iDevice sales; obviously, iPad/iPhone are getting all of the media attention, but clearly MacBooks and iMacs are doing very well also.

As such, I don't see them giving up on OS X development anytime soon. In fact, Snow Leopard seems to exist just to provide a foundation for further advances (going to true 64-bit systems for example). And let's not forget about LightPeak, either...

 

[drjsway]

Not so fast! Recent reports show that Mac sales are on par with iDevice sales

Really? The last quarter had Apple selling nearly as many iPads as the ENTIRE MAC LINE and that's not including iPhone/iPod Touch, which sold many more times the iPad.

 

[elppa]

http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=1&method=mExternal.showJob&RID=58106&CurrentPage=4

Are you looking to help create something totally new? Something that has never been done before and will truly amaze everyone? Are you excited by the prospect that what you helped create would be used every day by millions of Apple customers? Then come and work on with the Mac OS X software engineering team to help build a new and revolutionary feature for Mac OS X.

An exceptional candidate will also have up close and personal experience with the HTTP protocol as well as other protocols layered atop it, have participated in or lead the architecture of large web scale system

Something is cooking…

It's good to have some exciting rumors about the Mac for once. I know Apple's focus is mainly with iOS right now, but the Mac platform is still important, both financially and strategically for the company.