Apple seeks engineer for 'revolutionary' new Mac OS X feature - Page 2

Maybe they're going to put back in the option of defining custom label colors in the FInder. Revolutionary.

This could be a great foundation for the new Macbook Air: imagine an ultra slim computer with no computer inside.

My thoughts:
The key piece to the job posting has to be the focus on the internet. With everything going mobile, Apple's increased focus on location-based services, and their recent acquisition of that company that was creating a "personal assistant" piece of software, I think that Apple will incorporate that personal assistant software as a core foundation in OS X. Sort of like location services on steroids. You could be in a city on a business trip and every type of service near you could be displayed - bars, restaurants, shops, movie times, etc. BUT, by putting this technology as a deep hook in the OS, it will enable developers to create even more incredibly powerful apps with greater ease. I think their purpose in all of this will be for third-party software development and not necessarily a true OS feature.

I don't think this is right at all.

For starters it makes no sense at all to integrate iOS into Mac OS-X. It's like advocating that all Windows Vista needed was to integrated into a DOS environment. Touch-screen desktop computing makes little sense to begin with, and the fact that you can't pick up your desktop and roll it around to activate the compass, gyroscope or tilt sensors makes the whole thing ridiculous.

Secondly, they don't need to hire some new genius just to do that. It would be fairly straightforward to do the coding, just like running Classic used to be.

Third, the mention of HTML and web technologies makes it sound far more likely this has something to do with the server farm apple is almost finished building. While the common wisdom was that this farm would be used for iTunes streaming, it could also be that they will use it instead to do that "portable home folder" idea that's been floating around for a while.

maybe we will finally get the virtual assistant from the knowledge navigator. well i can hope...

Never happen.

OS-XI will never happen either. iOS *is* (or will become), OS-XI except they won't call it that because iOS sounds a heck of a lot better.

In other words, by the time that iOS is capable enough to run on a desktop, it will already supplant the desktop. There will be no dual modes, and probably no widgety layer either.

I know everyone is excited and terribly pleased about iOS (and so they should be), but that doesn't mean it's headed for the desktop.

Or they know the bloggers are following their job postings and they are using it to get free press. Apple is pretty well known for all the free airtime they get with the press because of the way they manage their product development and roll-out.

Well stated! ** Let's see what ol' Rob "Quotes R Us" Enderle has to say as the Final Word on this.

I don't know why people keep saying this. It's fairly obvious that the time between 10.5 and 10.6 was shorter than average, and that the interval between 10.6 and 10.7 is likely to be much longer than average.

10.7 will most likely arrive in the late 2011 time frame or perhaps even later. They have more than a year to go before release and almost a year before the very earliest GM would be given out. More than enough time if you ask me, and easy to delay it even further if they can't do it on time.

Sorry if others have said some of these:

1) A CD/DVD drive that DOESN'T suck
2) North Carolina cloud center integration...finally.
3) 3-dimensional stuff
4) Seamless IPad linkage. Kind of like those tablets in "Avatar" when they swipe screens to eachother
5) FaceTime works with iChat
6) Mac turns on and off like the IPad and IPhone
7) 4G LTE support (IT'S COMING!!!) or at least 3G integration in desktops
8) Batteries in all desktops and iMacs for ability to move the units for a short time without losing power for any work you have open
9) iOS integration, like everyone said
10) Android integration

How can't you see it guys? It's the App Store for Mac.

You enter, look for Photoshop, 1-click and you receive the license text, after you accept it, it downloads and installs automatically. You want to uninstall? The software is going to be just like in iOS, one icon, press option over the icon and a delete button appears at top left corner, click and gone.

Apple will keep control of the App Store and you can say goodbye to viruses forever. It's the future.

BUT, and this is a big but, if you want any other software outside the App Store... well you'll have to JailBreak your Mac. NOT! Maybe in this case they will not be so strict, because it is a different OS and different scenario.

But, I really think it could be App Store for Mac.

LoL very funny

My guess is we will see the user exposed "file system" and therefore, "files" start to disappear. There is a better way to manage files on a computer and that is to not have the user manage them at all. It's coming.

I have to constantly move stuff on to backups just to keep a little room on my 1TB drive.
I can't imagine the bandwidth I'd use doing cloud back ups. Seriously, we're talking about 5 to 15 GB per DAY! I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

My ISP gives me 100 GB per month.

I also have no desire to put much of my stuff in the cloud.

i prefer to keep it here, encrypted, fire-walled and unnoticeable.

Sounds amazingly vague.

There are many server technologies/features that could be listed for Apple to add to the Server version (e.g. built-in virtualization and a core installation without the GUI). Apple should takes some notes from Windows 7 as their are some neat features of that OS that have no equivalent in Mac OSX (e.g. Problem Steps Recorder http://www.istartedsomething.com/200...-miracle-tool/). And the snap-to feature which I like.

Revolutionary ...My guest is you will be able to use the Mac in whatever position you like.360 degrees one full Revolution

I'm basically suggesting they move Time Machine to the cloud so the user doesn't need to backup/sync their data explicitly through some other means.

As to those that suggest this would take an "insane amount" of bandwidth, I disagree strongly.

Most Macs have the same bits on them and Apple provided those bits in the first place (like the OS and many of its apps). Apple only has to sync to the cloud the data that is changing (and if support is implemented deep in the OS, only the actual bytes on disk that change would need to be uploaded and then only in background at timed intervals).

Apple could easily check to see if it already has a copy of the file in the cloud somewhere (possibly being used by others). Files used by multiple users would only have to exist once in the cloud saving tons of disk space in the cloud.

I see your point, but almost all of my internal drive is taken up with photo's music, video and work product. In my case a least, it would be an insane amount of bandwidth. I already exclude 90% of my files from my TC back up.

The iPad was "magical," so that was already taken!

I don't believe that you actually change 5GBs per day (except for local cache files that don't need to be backed up).

Remember that many files are in common with a number of users like the iBooks app stored in iTunes on the Mac and Apple provided those files in the first place (so wouldn't have to actually transfer any bits to the cloud for you since they already have a copy in the cloud).

I doubt I change more than a few megabytes a day. Remember that only the changed bytes in the file would need to be uploaded, not the whole file.

...would be a Finder that supports merging folders, instead of just replacing the folders. It's unthinkable that a modern OS would create a situation where a user can copy an empty folder on top of one with thousands of files and with the click of a button delete the entire folder and its contents, irretrievably. And never once ask if you want to merge the contents.

Oh, BTW, I'm growing weary of the ridiculous levels of hype Apple is throwing out there. Magical and revolutionary.

Great. That's gonna make web development hard.

If the music was purchased from iTunes, there would be no need to upload those files since Apple already has a copy. Photos and Videos would need to be uploaded (once, unless changed), but I think Apple wants all MobileMe users to be uploading/sharing these files through the cloud any way.

I can see some high data creators not being able to use the cloud, but 99% of the rest of us only have modest needs. Apple could charge a higher monthly fee for high bandwidth users.

Anyway, it just makes sense to me that Apple would want to manage all data for its users in a cloud (e.g., as an enhancement to MobileMe). The benefits of being able to access your data from any cloud connected computer is just very compelling and keeps it all in one secure place.

In my naivete (since I know very little about such stuff), I could fantasize about a Mac OS XI system where (if this makes sense) where a hypervisor would run in ring ) adjacent to the K64 (XNU) kernel. The C++ expertise could be for many things, maybe even the API I/O Kit.

The Bill and Ballmer Show would be relieved to know that any Windows app could then be run seamlessly on the new Apple system.

Bye bye MonkeyBoy!.

I'll concede that about half of the data i add each day comes from iTunes, and it would be great to have that available any time, any where from the cloud.

But the rest of my stuff is mostly photos and videos (I'm not a pro, just like to take pictures and videos). A good number of the videos are tv shows from "sources other than iTunes".

I wouldn't have enough time to upload it all to the mobile me gallery.

Surely the often mentioned Clouded Leopard would be a more appropriate name if the focus was on cloud computing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouded_Leopard

To me, the listing sounded more like what Google aims to do with Chrome OS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMrzw7JFzA

Chrome saves all data content to the web though - I don't think users will like that idea. If the philosophy they have can be embedded into a standard OS with local data and backups then it should work quite well.

You wouldn't have to run the whole OS remotely and get data back via streaming, you'd just get an app from a URL that compiles on-the-fly to your hardware architecture. Google are working on the Go language to try and get C++ execution speed without the long compile times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKnDgT73v8s

"carriage-return compile times" - or similarly, visit a URL compile times. Basically like Python/Ruby/PHP/Javascript etc but with a much faster runtime. x86 and ARM support. 10-20% slower than C is what they say although a number of benchmarks show it to be much lower due to inefficient libraries used with it.

The App Store with all its 225,000 apps show that developers want to create small specialized apps to do specific things with fast turnaround times, not monolithic apps like desktop apps that take ages to build, support and get right.

With small app components, you can build your own workflows with the best tools for each job. Get a good text editor for code, get an FTP component for syncing, get a lightweight image editor for slicing images, get a browser for testing. Compare it to monolithic Dreamweaver and you get some good bits and some bad bits but you have to live with the bad bits and see improvements very rarely.

The software world needs a new language - Objective-C isn't it because it still has slow compile times. Languages like Python and Javascript are just too slow to run.

Imagine if there was a Final Cut program written in Go. You visit a URL, http://www.apple.com/Final_Cut. It asks for your account details. It then downloads encrypted source code into the OS for compilation (even massive amounts of code you'd see in major apps like millions of lines of code will fit into a download under 50MB - it's just the media files that use up a lot). It would load icons and NIB files but just the essentials. The encrypted part is so that someone doesn't just steal the source code.

Then Final Cut just runs and you use it like an app with local content. If you need an update, you can visit the URL to get a new copy of the code. Obviously this can't pave the way to truly cross-platform apps as OS developers like Apple will build core libraries that are proprietary but the bulk of apps can work. As Jobs said in the last press-conf, they see that Google are doing good things and they don't like them being attacked by the media.

This concept completely shakes up the way developers write apps and users use them and buy them and I think it's something that needs to be done. Let the monolithic app developers have their vendor lock-in now and enjoy it but when people get the chance to publish code from a URL and have it execute securely, things will start to change dramatically.

High expectations never really work out with Apple though so a more realistic guess would be just a system-wide web notification system that gives a blocking dialog for every update. The sad thing these days is they've overused the hyperboles so they don't really mean anything any more. I don't want to hear about innovation or revolution, I just want to see it and use it. They over-hype one product using these slogans, under-deliver and then go off promoting again.

So what we've learned from this is....

1. Apple is working on Mac OS X 10.7! I'm shocked!
2. It will have a new feature, and they will call that feature "revolutionary"! How unlike Apple!
3. They're hiring people... just like they almost always are.

Magical... just magical.

You could always employ a little imagination and envisage a monitor that laid flat on your desk. Like every book and piece of paper you used at high school. It's a good job some people are able to think outside the box, or there would never be any progress...

try using dropbox sometime, there is no conscious upload, your shared folder contents automatically sync - and it's seamless and very fast. This would be nothing new.

Mac OS App Store perhaps? A cloud OS? A convergence of iOS and Mac OS? ZFS implementation?

I can't wait to see what it is.

Plastics.

Sounds exciting...I can't believe how excited I got over the magic track pad and now this!

Looking fwd to the new MBA...bout to sell my 3Gs for $200 and order the iPhone 4! My sister ordered the Magic Track Pad for my B-day!

Today...I'm very happy! Thanks Stevo!

There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Shh! 'nuff said, that's a deal.

I almost misunderstood you. Custom label colors? Really You can change the names to whatever you want but because you can't pick the color you are going to complain?


I am imagining it and it sounds awful. Not only do I have to wait for FCP to load but now I have to wait for it to download first? and I have to have the internet wherever I go? what if I'm in the field? what a waste. Also I want to say to anyone that wants to back up to the cloud to stop and think about most of us who work with large data sets of audio, video and photo and I'm sure a slew of other applications. The cloud might work for itunes, but it won't work for allot of personal/ professional data. Personally I modify allot more than 50MB's/ day. Maybe once we all get 100MB fiber optic, but then what about bandwidth caps?


This is why you created an account? Idiot.

I'm just glad that I'm a fanboi.

You guys are showing your age. The Graduate right?

Douche

I'm 27.

My mistake....and very good!