Apple seeks engineer for 'revolutionary' new Mac OS X feature - Page 4

That certainly makes sense as a big part of Apple's base is iPads and iPhones now.

While I wouldn't like storing my personal or financial documents on the cloud, I wouldn't mind leaving my iTunes purchases there. It is certainly media files that create backup headaches, due to their size.

Nice work putting two and two together here, and the name definitely makes sense but Im not sure if its different enough from Snow Leopard and Leopard, too many leopards. I would be THRILLED if true cloud computing was built into 10.7.
Oh and nice photoshop graphic lol

I'd probably say that by the time 10.7 comes out it'll be:

1) Kernel is now 64bit with the 32bit Intel Core based computers possibly killed off.
2) Further refinement, building on the technology further to expand features, heavier integration of grand central.
3) Merging of optimisations and power saving features from iOS.
4) Webkit2 based browser which will provide rock solid stability and security in a world moving more and more to web based applications.
5) Totally moving over to LLVM (plus updated libstdc++ and more) as the default compiler and XCode 4.0 shipped as well.

We'll probably see more work on multi-touch, don't expect to see touch screens - there is a right place to use it and a wrong place. Desktops are entirely a wrong place to use it web as iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch are the right places to use it.

Remember folks Apple has a habit of screaming revolution, magic and massive change when in reality the changes are evolutionary not revolutionary.

May it something have to do with cloud computing?

Sounds like a job for Tim Berners-Lee.

The reason some of us use OS X is because it's UNIX underneath. UNIX has been stable for decades, and it's internal APIs (POSIX and others) have also been stable, which means your initial investment into learning it pays dividends for the rest of your life.

If Apple chose to ditch the UNIX subsystem, some of us would ditch OS X like a dirt bag. This is why I don't think Apple will do this (they are not stupid and they know how important this is). As a consequence any renaming of OS X to OS XI is just silly. OS X is a brand really and not a version of the OS. Re-branding the name of the OS is fine, and personally I don't care what they call it, I care about technologies underneath.

As for 3D desktops and touch interfaces, that's just stupid. Who wants to sit in front of the screen with their arm extended to grease up that shiny mirror in front of them. How long do you think you could hold your arm extended like that to browse your web page?

You guys really have no idea about software development and internal structure of OS X (it's not a secret. Most of it is open source anyway).

iOS and iPhone OS before it ARE stripped down versions of OS X. So you are saying Apple will take stripped down version of desktop OS X, grow it into full version of desktop OS to replace OS X instead of simply evolving OS X? Really smart.

Yes, the ultimate, *thin client*...

+1

This was actually the promise many years ago from the company that we recently have come to hate: Adobe. It is "plug-ins", which were eventually added, and the talk of *"module-based software", which was supposed to come, but became "Suite Software" instead i.e. the monolithic beast(s) we suffer through today.

The idea is rather simple, and I personally still don't understand why it hasn't been properly implemented. For example: an info or inspector pane for text (font, color, spacing, etc.) should only need to be coded ONCE, and then given access to through hooks, from within whatever task you're doing (whether photo, layout, text, tables - type of work). Need rulers or a filter, it's "hooked" when needed, etc. The "Base" software would be say $100,-, and then additional features and functions, say $0,99/each, and would be available from multiple vendors. Naturally, new tested versions would automatically be synced, because these "mini-feature-apps" would be in the cloud, and be DLed and compiled when or if needed.

Strip the software down to the basics, and let particular functions be added as "work-flow" specific apps. Hmmm.... kinda like iOS. Nobody needs to re-create the "keyboard" just to make it available within their app.

BTW: Look at some of the neat stuff the lowly iPad can already do, apart from iWork for iPad as an example:

30 Essential iPad Apps for Designers and Creatives - AppStorm

Five great iPad apps for iPhone photographers - Macworld

The only reason I see why the "module style" software never came to be, was that the individual corporations (Adobe, MS) decided that they would lose too much creative and monetary control over "their" software. The couldn't (and still don't!) see past their next quarterly market-share/revenue report.

Conceded, they can't recoup lost software revenue by creating devices like Apple can. Only avenue left was to buy up their competition or anything looking like it, to satiate the ever-present elephant in the room called: "growth at any cost".

In today's world, it is rarely if ever acceptable (by W-Street at least) to become smaller to get bigger, unless your forced into that situation by impending bankruptcy (see GM). Too sad.

*NOTE: Actually, Adobe is testing the waters with this "module" type of approach, by hooking in Flash to Photoshop Extensions (see Kuler, PainterWheel, additional Live Services, etc.), as well as Air. However, they are struggling dearly with Flash, and still haven't given in to the fact that they will almost without a doubt have to recode that piece of their puzzle from scratch... or just scratch it, and go HTML5. We'll see soon enough if they are up to the task with re-working Flash for Mobile platforms. If it is a Hog-&-a-Dog or causes headaches on Android Froyo and 10.1, it's pretty much dead.

Yep - this is something that I think has real relevence to the state of computing as-is.

People now have multiple home computers, plus multiple mobile devices and we then some data and services provided online. We need some kind of seamless way to treat our collective data and software as a single personal network, which we access via different devices according to what we're doing and where - not where the bits and bytes are.

Well, actually a consequence of dumb-luck I would guess re: "OS X" as brand name, considering for the "old guys" around here, it's pronounced "OS Ten" and not "ex".

But I'll go with that "ex" too, because as luck has it, OSX and iOS are both great image-branding moves by Apple. I also think that in one form or another, OS X will be with us for a very, very long time to come.

MS will someday reach 10: "Windows Decennium Desktop Live Cloud Ultimate - Surface Version for Home Professional "... which is well... not so good.

But hey!... they will be "on track" to convert those leftover neophyte Win XP users... finally! Did I mention that this will be in 2020. They're actually proud of their progress, considering 7 was introduced only 10 years earlier... and "Decennium" is just so "cool". That'll show them Apple Fanbois!

Ballmer will be quoted as saying they should have scrapped "7" for the "Decennium" moniker earlier since he thought of that (but couldn't spell it and he couldn't find it on Bing... remember that innovative tech?!), and they would still be at 95% marketshare rather than 23-1/3 as of yesterday's report. F*** rounding errors! Didn't and still doesn't work! Dances a madman's jig at the thought of reaching 23-2/4... uh... 23.5... uh... up or down with that... uh. Nurse settles him back in his chair, one of only a few left that he hasn't broken at the Sanatorium doing the "Developer Dance" for the "yungins".

PS: Sorry got carried away...it's FRIII-DAY!

Lets get on to the real question of the day. Which cat?!

TRIM support would be nice. Or BluRay.

Where can I download the source for OS X?

Yes, I agree. Getting ONE camera in the middle of the screen is where I last heard Apple was headed.

However, is everyone out there so damn good looking all the time that they want their image blasted out into cyberspace all the time? Maybe I just wasn't blessed with the face of the gods that you all seem to have, but eventually, once the novelty wears off, don't you think Face Time and Video Conferencing is going to fade a bit in popularity?

You don't have to shave, comb hair (if you've got any) or brush teeth.


Sincerely,


Narcissus

App store for OS X 10.7

/thread

Maybe the 'revolutionary' feature will be a consistent user interface.

http://www.apple.com/opensource/

I trust you understand what a very, very small subset of OS X is available there.

Meh.

It's just going to be something related to the highly overrated "cloud" integration.

It will be a privacy nightmare as everything you do will be mirrored on a server and

you can just think of it as a touch-enabled, mobile me with social networking features, including built in camera usage during chats, allowing for OS level data sharing and file sharing on the spot. you can share emails, contacts lists, graphics files, word docuements, a view of your installed apps, etc. etc. integrated into the OS as a standard component, no separate service.

Nothing revolutionary. just an amalgam of a bunch of fads, wrapped up into one OS with HTTP features on all the time.

Of course, it will look cool and be cool and your privacy will go out the window.

No one said it had to be a large amount of code

Actually, you might be onto something, because what if you could remotely access stuff from wherever, using your 3G iPad to do it? And you could do all this without paying for MobileMe, having access to media files, documents, etc. And you could even configure it so that it would 'share' those external hard drives hosted by your Airport Extreme and convert them to the right files for your iPad on the fly. It would be way slicker than your average media hosting solution and it would work everywhere, because it would work over HTTP Sort of like Front Row, except over the Internet and it would work on whatever computer or iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch and have access to access documents besides simply media on whatever drive you wanted.

He probably should have linked to Darwin which is free open source GNU licensed OS. A lot of similarities to OS X as they share a common lineage, BSD. The underlying kernel and libraries are virtually the same as all other flavors of Unix. The OS X user interface is the main distinguishing difference of OS X. That part isn't open source.

how would you like to be one of the apostles for the second coming?
do you want to work on a project that will literally reset the calendar to the year 1?
can you program world peace?

apple is working on programming the answer to life, the universe and everything - the unified theory, and it's going to have brightly colored, rounded jolly-rancher style buttons. it will be available through iTunes and would like to use your current location. are you a revolutionary programmer who can revolutionize the revolutionary incremental update to our software?
.apply now.

No, you visit the URL to get the latest version. When they make an update, you don't have to think about downloading a package release, it just adjusts the code as needed. Say that there's a bug in one very small part of the app, visiting the URL will get the update without thinking about it.

The system would cache the compiled binary or encrypted source so online access is not needed. It also execute locally and edits/stores content locally. Chrome OS uses the cloud and I agree with you that's not a good solution. This would be the next iteration of webapps.

All apps are compiled from code. Some code is easier than others. Code like C/C++/Objective-C are harder and slower to develop with than PHP/Python/PHP/Javascript but they don't really need to be because they can all do pretty much the same things.

Websites use the latter languages because they have rapid application development and testing times, the former are used for native apps due to performance and code security. If you had something to give you both then you end up with webapps that can be distributed from a URL that run locally, compile and run as fast as any website loads but that execute as fast as a native app.

Code security is essential for proprietary products but that's why it needs to be protected at the OS level. Apple can feed it straight into the core of the OS as encrypted code and compile it on-the-fly. This also dynamically optimizes code for every single platform the best way it can.


Yes, exactly because if they feed the code from a URL in an encrypted form then it's way harder to take that encrypted code and recompile it on another platform. They'd have to actually rip out the compiled binaries from their locations and reinsert them or hack the OS and gain access to the codebase somehow. It could be disastrous if the source code leaked onto the web in some ways but y'know, people are stealing binaries all the time so I don't think it would be that big of a deal and visiting the URL by accident would detect the modification and wipe it out.

It makes the OS more streamlined too. Right now, they bundle all sorts of apps on the OS like iWork with as many GBs of templates. Same with iPhoto. Instead, they can just have URL links in the dock. If you actually use a template, click on the template and it downloads. No need to waste space for stuff you never use like with the printer drivers.

Instead of having 40 templates you don't like and bundle all 1GB of them, have an online selection of 400 and just download the one you pick. It's only going to be 5MB or so each.

Not to mention, you can setup your work machine like your home machine by emailing yourself a set of URLs and just visit them at work with your access details. It will install all the apps you need.


Yeah, it's funny how it took an about turn. The big app developers are now realizing that the codebases are unwieldy and struggle to add anything interesting in their products to justify the upgrades and anything they do add, it's the little core additions. Like content-aware modifications in CS5. That is one of the most useful things I've ever seen and yet it's one little algorithm in a codebase with millions of lines of code.

Apple likes innovation and modular components are the best way to deliver them because a developer who wants to make an algorithm like the content-aware code doesn't have to concern himself with how to make the CS5 app to run it. That's someone else's problem. This is one flaw to the modular approach - it's relying on other people to pick up rest of the pieces and drive it in a direction you are happy with. With monolithic apps, one company has absolute control.

The good thing about modularity is that it opens up the development industry to anyone and everyone to make a profit. It needs this new language though so it all works together.

ummm... What part of OS X an engineer can drink away?

A lot of people have said this but I just can't see it. Out of all the big players Apple has produced less web apps than anyone. They've built safari to support them but thats where it ends.

Apples business is based around building consumer products that will last up to 3 years to then be replaced. The newer revenue streams are all about selling through a closed environment where they control everything with the Mac turning into the devices that keeps everything in sync. Making a major update that someone how makes web apps even better just doesn't make sense.

What I could see though is at some point Apple doing a U-Turn on HTML5 and saying it's just not moving fast enough then making iOS a browser plug in. They could then make an out of browser experience so iOS apps could run on Windows. Kind of in a similar way that Silverlight runs out of browser on Windows/Mac and is also powering Windows Phone 7.

My idea is pretty much the same thing, some sort of revolutionary, awesome "cloud" os. I would love it to be called MAC CLOUD 9 , because that just sounds coool lol. But everything is moving to the cloud, and that would be cool.

http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/16/mac-o...t-alpha-build/

-or-

http://windows8themes.org/pics/Windo...creenshot2.jpg

A new OS built with HTML5 from the ground up!

Well ... That would be Jolicloud:

http://www.jolicloud.com/blog/

"A Simpler, Customizable Launcher Entirely Built in HTML5"

The whole adverts in the OS thing... Oh no... I hope not! I think there is enough advertising in the world, We dont need it anywhere else.

I hope it is stuff to do with Multitouch to be honest, lIke Multitouch iMacs and Displays on Desktop. We don't need anymore ads!

In case you don't know how to use Google, here it is

http://www.opensource.apple.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_...ting_system%29

Entire OS X kernel is open source as are all UNIX tools.

Tight network integration starting to cross the boundary into cloud computing. The computer is the social network.

Right. All the stuff that was open source when NeXT begin using it remains so. But to be clear, there's a bit more to OS X than a relative handful of FOSS components. So while it's true that the small subset of FOSS components in OS X remains FOSS, most of the code base is simply not FOSS.

Actually, that's not true. The only thing that is not open source are GUI layer on top of the kernel, and applications that come with the OS including finder and essential services. iLife apps of course are not open source either.

Kernel itself XNU is open source (Mach/BSD) and all the UNIX tools (well over 1000), the file systems including HFS+, all pro development tools including XCode etc are open source.

That's a lot more than Microsoft, where nothing is open source. Not the Windows NT kernel, not NTFS, not a single application included with the OS, not a single development tool.

OpenGL and graphics drivers that are up to par?

Seriously, (not that I wouldn't want that in 10.7) though I think they'll be doing a lot of GUI changes. I think you'll see the desktop/finder and spaces redesigned to work more like iOS.

All of this speculation just makes me chuckle.

Is it really that much of a stretch to think that they might just be asking for someone with their own fantastic, amazing and revolutionary idea to come work with the Mac OSX 10.5.7 team?

They are not revealing what the new feature is, for obvious reasons, so why can't they be setting the stage for new ideas, period. Ideas that are 100% NIH, which is often how great ideas become great products.

Just a thought....