Inside Apple's new MobileMe web and iOS apps - Page 2

Couldn't have said it better myself.

A good point, but you don't have iCal or your iDevice Calendar app?

I think MacOSX will continue to evolve and like everything else look more like iTunes, BUT I don't think they are going to converge the two products. Steve doesn't want to turn all Windows users into Mac users anymore. He wants to turn Windows users into iOS users. He should/will keep OSX powerful and securely tied to the laptop and desktop, while the whole new ecosystem of iOS develops - the first really post-operating system ecology. iOS is so walled off and controlled now, because in 10 years it will be invisible .... no start menu's, no booting ... nothing to get between you and just watching, listening or doing. Even the apps will be in the background - it will be function only and the os will have the form that follows that function. Just think of editing video from the iPhone camera!! We know it as iMovie for the iPhone, but people from the windows world who use it won't know or care about the name or history or tech of the app, they will just be trained to push a button and voila, they can edit a movie.

This is the beginning of the world beyond the os and eventually beyond the app for 80% of what people do an they won't notice the os anymore than they notice the os of their TV. The other 20% will need the Mac for work, science, education, etc. and so the two os's do not need to merge - the MacOS just has to give up some of the simple stuff.

No.

Pressing "Start" to turn off your computer is something Apple would 'never' do. Apparently Apple has figured the vast majority of people on me.com only use the Mail app and decided it's better to have a clean toolbar than to only require one click to switch to a not-often-used web-app. I agree with their choice, even if I see the need for me.com to be very limited in terms of the vast majority of Mobile me users.

I also don't think that Apple would make you press "start" to turn of a computer, but both are rather ambiguous buttons that don't necessarily tell a newbie what they do. I don't think of a "cloud" when I think of finding something files or applications on the internet. My mom wouldn't know what the "cloud" means.

I like the HUD gray UI that comes up (I assume), but it isn't like the menu bar was cluttered with too many icons. I like the other simplifications, but I if I'm going to me.com, I am usually going to be in a hurry to find an email or document or iPhone that I misplaced and I don't need those three functions to be hidden in any way.

Perhaps the future of the Mac is a convertible laptops from Apple?

Convertibles are terrible, but so were tablets. Perhaps a cool new MacBook might also be a sort-of iPad when flipped over. I dunno, it's up to Steve where they take that I suppose.

10.7 Lion might just be a drastic OS level UI cleanup. Taking all the confusing areas of the OS and simplifying them, and making things like installing apps iOS kind of simple.

Agreed. They could add text under the icon to clarify the whole thing. Like the way they change the logout button, which used to have no text.

I particularly like that part..

Yes, and I like the arrows!

I know the cloud icon is on the desktop image of iDisk and I know that Apple wants to become the definition of cloud computing for the rest of us, as I believe the iOS will enable, but it just needs to be a little more clear. I would like to have a button with all of my "cloud" files 'a la DropBox, and a button with all of my "cloud" apps and a button for all of my "cloud" devices (iPhones/iPodT's/iPads) 'a la the iTunes left side bar. Three buttons, that way I can manage the three main reasons to work on line:

1. storing, synching and retrieving files remotely (the most important and most frequent),
2. running an app away from my own laptop (very infrequent now, but potentially big in the future)
3. managing or finding an iDevice (hopefully never).

Then the little trashcan and download/upload icons can change contextually as the actions for files or apps or devices change.

The Mail app as you said is probably the most important and frequently used of the "cloud" apps, and in some respects to me is more about accessing files (emails) than it is about actually running an app. That is why I preferred the older model of buttons for functions, not buttons for apps. It seems that is what Apple is doing to iWorks on the iPad - you don't have to think about apps or file systems, you just press a button and bang you are doing something and who cares where is gets stored or whether it is a desktop app or a widget or a web-app or javalet or whatever. No one had to think about an operating system with original scroll wheel iPod, it just worked; you didn't have to think of songs as files in folders and with metadata, you just clicked on titles and artists and made playlists; you didn't have to wonder if it would all fall apart in the next upgrade or whether a virus would destroy it all, it just worked.

I am assuming that the iOS and MobileMe will merge to a seemless place where Windows and Macs are largely irrelevant. Then the battle for prosumers and professionals (most of the people on this forum) between Windows and Macs can be fought without worrying about whether my mom can navigate the Finder or not.

Which free alternative do you recommend most highly?

The UX is Apple's highest priority, so say some.

Nice mockup, as usual.

What if when you put the mouse of the icon it opened up to show you all the apps in an overlay that expanded from that corner so you still only have to click once to switch apps, albeit with a little more mouse movement?


PS: I was "playing" with Photosop CS5 today trying to turn the new Mac Mini into an Apple Home Server with 5x3.5" HDD slots standing up and the ports and power to one side. Similar to a Drobo but using the new Mini footprint. I failed miserably, to say the least. I fear graphic design is a skill I never even become competent in, even in the most rudimentary sense.

On as relative basis, as a percent of revenue, I think that the Mac will fade over the next several years.

I think on a relative basis it will move up and down over the next several years. iDevices and iApps are ascending now, but I think the Mac will grow once business and enterprise start opening up to Apple even more. Even phones and tablets will plateau at some point and computers will still be necessary.

In the past what begins as a computer application, eventually turns into a commodity device - see music organizing and photo editing - but there will always be a need for business and creatives to work and collaborate at levels of speed, security level and proprietariness (?) that will require desktops and laptops. The point is why tie your email, photos and music to a desktop or laptop?

The phone went from an analog, location-fixed device to a digital, mobile device without the intermediate step of the full featured computer. Mailing letters did need that intermediate step, but it shouldn't be anchored there.