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The primary focus here (understandably) is "we make your laptop look / work like your iPad". Versions, AirDrop, etc are tacked on at the end and given much les

by dstorrs 16y ago

The primary focus here (understandably) is "we make your laptop look / work like your iPad". Versions, AirDrop, etc are tacked on at the end and given much less focus. The problem with making my laptop work like an iPad is that the laptop is a general purpose computer and the iPad is not.[1] The genius of the iPad was that it was a specialized device built for a single purpose: consuming media anywhere, anytime. It has long battery life, sunlight-visible screen, and does not require mouse or keyboard. It is very good at its purpose -- you can use it as a book reader or movie viewer while riding a bus, sitting in a park, etc -- and it sucks for anything else (e.g. anything that requires typing more than a few characters). My laptop, on the other hand, was designed to be an all-up computer that could be used anywhere that there was a flat surface, but mostly indoors. I can use it at home, at the coffee shop, etc. It's also fine for consuming media as long as I'm not in direct sunlight or away from power for more than a few hours. So. What exactly am I gaining by adding these iPad features? Sure, I bet they're handy and I'll probably learn to use them. But I can't help but think that a bunch of guys as talented as Apple could have produced something really impressive in the time they took adding these iPad features. [1] No pedantry, please.

__david__ 16y ago
Well, I think the ipad style of app is intriguing--they differ from a current desktop app in a few significant ways: 1. There's no notion of save. 2. There's no notion of quit. 3. There's no notion of filesystem. Those are all interesting tweaks. Having the app save things automatically and always present you with the most up-to-date version of your document is kind of cool actually. But, you say, "I don't want it to save my document sometimes--what if I want to experiment and then throw away the changes?" I think that is where the new "versions" feature fits in. It seems designed to give people exactly that. I suspect that ⌘S will change from "Save" to "Snapshot". Having the app suspend itself, save its state and unload at the appropriate time is interesting too. It gives the app a sense of persistence that doesn't exist in most desktop apps currently. I've already subconsciously switched to this style of thinking. I like my Firefox set up to restore the windows from last time. I do a similar thing with my Emacs so that all my buffers get saved and restored (emacs-desktop). I think I'd have a hard time letting go of my filesystem. I don't see anything in Lion that seems to indicate they are moving that way. But I kind of understand it. It'll probably start moving that direction eventually. But who knows.
achompas 16y ago
These iPad features are Apple's latest attempts at simplifying the general-purpose computing experience. So: >The Mac App Store is a central app clearinghouse. >Launchpad gives users a better way to look through apps (no more Applications folder or bloated dock). >True full-screen apps have been missing from OS X for years, and these remove clutter. >Mission Control is the full-screen version of the iOS multitasking bar. More user-friendly than Apple-Tab. >Resume & Auto-Save reproduce that "persistent app" feeling from iOS.
alphakappa 16y ago
What are you gaining? The ability to resume working where you left off (so you can reboot your computer after updates and not worry about having to shut down everything). The ability to use your computer full-screen and switch to other apps also in full screen. Better management of memory and processes so that you don't have to care about Ctrl+Qing applications. These are pretty good lessons they've learned from the iPad user experience. There's no reason why a laptop shouldn't learn from the experiences of other platforms.
jsz0 16y ago
When Jobs unveiled Lion he said their goal was to bring some of the best aspects of iOS back to OSX. Which feature(s) do you think make the Mac less of a general purpose computer? I don't see much of a trade off here.

by dstorrs 16y ago

__david__ 16y ago

Well, I think the ipad style of app is intriguing--they differ from a current desktop app in a few significant ways: 1. There's no notion of save. 2. There's no notion of quit. 3. There's no notion of filesystem. Those are all interesting tweaks. Having the app save things automatically and always present you with the most up-to-date version of your document is kind of cool actually. But, you say, "I don't want it to save my document sometimes--what if I want to experiment and then throw away the changes?" I think that is where the new "versions" feature fits in. It seems designed to give people exactly that. I suspect that ⌘S will change from "Save" to "Snapshot". Having the app suspend itself, save its state and unload at the appropriate time is interesting too. It gives the app a sense of persistence that doesn't exist in most desktop apps currently. I've already subconsciously switched to this style of thinking. I like my Firefox set up to restore the windows from last time. I do a similar thing with my Emacs so that all my buffers get saved and restored (emacs-desktop). I think I'd have a hard time letting go of my filesystem. I don't see anything in Lion that seems to indicate they are moving that way. But I kind of understand it. It'll probably start moving that direction eventually. But who knows.

achompas 16y ago

These iPad features are Apple's latest attempts at simplifying the general-purpose computing experience. So: >The Mac App Store is a central app clearinghouse. >Launchpad gives users a better way to look through apps (no more Applications folder or bloated dock). >True full-screen apps have been missing from OS X for years, and these remove clutter. >Mission Control is the full-screen version of the iOS multitasking bar. More user-friendly than Apple-Tab. >Resume & Auto-Save reproduce that "persistent app" feeling from iOS.

alphakappa 16y ago

What are you gaining? The ability to resume working where you left off (so you can reboot your computer after updates and not worry about having to shut down everything). The ability to use your computer full-screen and switch to other apps also in full screen. Better management of memory and processes so that you don't have to care about Ctrl+Qing applications. These are pretty good lessons they've learned from the iPad user experience. There's no reason why a laptop shouldn't learn from the experiences of other platforms.

jsz0 16y ago

When Jobs unveiled Lion he said their goal was to bring some of the best aspects of iOS back to OSX. Which feature(s) do you think make the Mac less of a general purpose computer? I don't see much of a trade off here.