Things I want to see changed in Snow Leopard

[dejo]

No, it's just already there without the user having to go and do it.

Exactly!

 

[sOwL]

Maximize/Zoom button

Either change the way this button behaves or give it an Apple styled super functionality. Right now it zooms Safari, Finder, toggles between actual size and previous size in Quicktime, makes iTunes into a silly miniplayer, maximizes Mail, iCal, iPhoto, Aperture, Firefox, and majority of third party programs... It's a toss up to whatever the next program is going to do with the zoom button.

I think the zoom button works perfectly well. I was really surprised when i first used it, being used fromt he windows one. Realising that screens now are really big, you dont always use fullscreen for everything. Yes, it can be annoying that its function isn't really universal, as it reacts differently on many applications... but do you really want every application to react the same? I mean, i want to be able to maximize my browser to full screen, but maximizing a finder window to fullscreen would be rather useless... so what it does is to actually get it as big as it needs to be for you to see all of the content. Anyway, thats subjective, and i don't really use the zoom/close/minimize, i got every window at the size i want and i never change it, or if i do, i wont use the zoom button

Make the dock take up all of the bottom area

Mhm, no, i wouldn't like that. I can't see what's wrong with having it as an option though

Try this on your mac, drag the bottom right corner of any safari (or any iWork programs) window, and try to resize it behind the dock. You'll see that you can't. There is an invisible wall blocking it, which is good. Now try it with the Finder, you'll find that it will hit the dock, but as soon as you drag it past the dock, it will fall off behind it. This happens to way too many programs (iTunes especially) and I find it mind numbingly dumb UX design on Apple's part.

Yes, this for me is very, VERY frustrating. Some people want it one way, some want it the other way. Yet again, there should be an option, but lets face it, people that do want the barrier not to exist are the ones that have the right to complain more, because we can always manually resize our window

Better spacial optimization for Expose

If you have 4 windows of the same size (ie maximized) and you expose, it doesn't make a 2x2 grid, it makes a 1 x 4 grid. Now have 10 windows maximized, it makes a 1x10 grid that gets incredibly small to see anything. Now have 20 windows and it really becomes meaningless, you have a huge screen with a thin line of windows across the middle.

Can you post a screenshot? For me, expose works kinda like being random, more like placing the windows depending on where they were on the screen before u exposed them

Better spaces implementation

I can't see whats on other spaces at a glance, that's something I could do in Linux and Unix. An easy fix for that is make mini-thumbnails in place of the white boxes that show up when you switch spaces. Also, instigate a lag time before an App has the ability to distract you from your space. Often times when I launch Adium, it brings me to space 2, to which I switch back to space 1 to keep reading my stuff, only to be switched to space 2 a split second later.

Agreed on the last part, but that also has to do with the app your opening i think.. Also, have u tried pressing F8? You can see all of the spaces and their content

Get rid of the pill

The pill was useful for a few reasons. People didn't have large monitors and OS X didn't have the file manager like Finder yet. If Safari 4 is any indication, Apple is already moving away from this seemingly pointless UI button. Either get rid of it, or replace it with a much more useful UI widget. Although they can leave it alone, it's not a huge issue.

NOOOO I love that feature! It gives you the option of having a program showing less bloated, but toggle more options whenever you need them. Does it bother you so much by just being there?

Option to maximize on double click of title

The need for minimizing windows has gone away with the improvement of screen real estate and expose. I can understand why you would minimize a window before the advent of Expose, but with it, there is really no point. You can quickly expose in and out to see all your windows. They should add another function for double clicking the title bar - either full screen the app (ie iWorks style) or zoom the app.

Dont know, i dont minimize windows.. cmd+h ftw!

Replace the iTunes miniplayer

With the multitude of third party apps that are vastly superior to the miniplayer, Apple should think of doing something about it. Also, while their at it, formalize the Zoom button because I keep pressing it on iTunes to maximize the player (yes, a full screen iTunes is a lot more useful) and I get the stupid mini player.

fair point here

Quicktime, DVD Player, every scrubber and full screen scrubber needs to be much longer (width of screen or width of window)

I'm watching Lord of the Rings and it gives me a 200px long scrubber to move through a 3.5 hour movie? I move it by one pixel and it's nearly 5 minutes later... Make it the total width of your screen like iDVD does.

......YES DAMN IT!...or just use vlc player which is.. well, superior

Make the Apple menu more useful

Simply said. Currently it's in charge of Dock, Preferences and shutdown/log out things. The one menu item that needs to go is the "Apple Software" item. It's simply a stupid link to Apple.com/Downloads and doesn't serve anything useful. The fact that Apple has neglected to see this over the past few years is kinda taunting. It's like Microsoft adding a bunch of "download MSN Messenger" web links to their OS.

It doesnt really bother me, i could definitelly live without it, but i dont mind, really

That's all I can think of right now. Pretty much every annoyance I have with OS X to date. Safe to say I have a lot more for Windows...

Really? theres only one annoying thing in windoze... windoze itself

.

 

[ercanbas]

I mean the invisible barrier they have for apps like Safari and iWork suite. Apps like finder fall off the invisible barrier as soon as you mouse moves past the dock. Try it with your own Mac. Resize Safari while you drag your mouse and it'll abide to some invisible barrier (keeping the app above the dock) and try the same with Finder, it'll fall behind the dock.

I wouldn't mind if they made the dock stretch to full width. Of course, they'll have to do something to the graphics. Maybe something like this?


This actually solves the moving Dock issue. The trash can will always be on the far right and Finder always on the far left, never moving around.

Wankey,

Out of curiosity, how did you get the month and day on the top right? I cannot seem to figure it out. Thanks!

 

[wankey]

I use iStat Menus... yes that adds another point:

Make the pathetic top menubar calendar useful so I don't have to use third party software like iStat:

http://www.islayer.com/apps/

 

[wankey]

No, it's just already there without the user having to go and do it.

um, really no difference. That's not even a worthwhile fix. It's literally a developer dragging the App folder to the Dock. And then saving it as an install option.

 

[dejo]

um, really no difference. That's not even a worthwhile fix.

Yes, there is a difference. Many users don't even know this is possible and when told about it, love it. And you may not think it's worthwhile but I don't find many of your suggestions worthwhile either.

 

[jaw04005]

Just one thing: a simple "Permissions ON/Off" switch in System Preferences for simple people like me that don't have administrators nor staff nor unknown people using my Mac.

WHAT?!?

Turning off file and/or user permissions is not how BSD (or any other Unix or Linux) works, and would be a security nightmare. All Mac OS X files run at different permission levels (root, wheel, user, etc). It's not simply "user" and "administrator."

Even Windows has multiple permission levels beginning with Windows NT.

 

[Trinity]

they can leave them if necessary, I would be satisfied if I don't see them anymore and they don't bother me.

 

[Phil A.]

Get rid of the pill

The pill was useful for a few reasons. People didn't have large monitors and OS X didn't have the file manager like Finder yet. If Safari 4 is any indication, Apple is already moving away from this seemingly pointless UI button. Either get rid of it, or replace it with a much more useful UI widget. Although they can leave it alone, it's not a huge issue.

I agree with a lot of your suggestions, but I absolutely love the pill - it's great for quickly getting rid of UI clutter so you can focus on the task at hand

 

[wankey]

Yes, there is a difference. Many users don't even know this is possible and when told about it, love it. And you may not think it's worthwhile but I don't find many of your suggestions worthwhile either.

Many users don't know how to drag folders onto the Dock? That's a bigger interaction problem than anything. Either that or many users are stupid. Apple really needs to define what the Dock does. I mean to the right is just a huge mess of minimized windows, stacks...

 

[GuillaumeB]

I want single click to open files

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Doesnt Snow Leopard incorporate tabs in the finder? If its implemented like it is in Safari 4 then there wont be a place for the pill.

Just an observation.

 

[MartiNZ]

I still find there are reasons to minimise windows, but I never maximise anything. I really like the iTunes miniplayer and hate how much room the big view takes up.

I agree the zoom widget is a bit unintuitive, and it seems that the pill may be departing by design for some apps, a la Safari 4. If tabs do come to Finder I hope that the hideous tabs-on-top design is optional -everywhere- and not just through Terminal/.plist editing. The Exposé issues are a bit stupid; that stuff seems to have been ignored as displays have got bigger - a shame given it was such a cool feature in Panther. The new Apple keyboards have an F-key dedicated to 'show all windows' but leave no space for 'show desktop', which actually tends to be more useful these days.

At the top of my list is improving open/save dialogs, especially giving a sort by kind option and just basically Finder-like customisation options!