Apple's iCal to get 'Year' view, Mail to get iTunes-like interface in Mac OS X Lion
Apple's forthcoming operating system update, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, will bring new features and new looks to longstanding applications on the Mac, including the mail and calendar software.
Craig Federighi, vice president of engineering for Mac OS X at Apple, offered a quick demo of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on stage to members of the press, including features like Mission Control and Launch Pad. In addition, some of the more subtle design tweaks found in the current build of Lion could be glimpsed.
Apple emphasized that the upcoming operating system upgrade will bring iOS features "Back to the Mac," creating a more unified experience between products running Mac OS X and iOS.
The new iCal application in Lion, shown in an early form Wednesday, has a new feature which appears as if it will let users to view their upcoming events in a "Year" view. The version of iPad Apple ships for iPad also offers a fourth view (in addition to Day, Week, and Month) called "List" view.
In general, the new iCal app in Lion sports a look and feel similar to the calendar application found on the iPad. Controls for flipping through days, weeks and months have also been relocated down and to the right, with buttons on each side of the "Today" button, aligned on the right side across from the date.
Changes to make Mac OS X more like the iOS mobile operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad are a central theme with the upcoming release of 10.7 Lion. In addition to more subtle tweaks and design changes, Apple is also bringing major features such as multi-touch gestures, the App Store, Home screens, full-screen applications, and auto-save and auto-resume.
The updated Mail.app in Lion previewed Wednesday takes some design elements found in the recently released iTunes 10. Most noticeably, Lion's Mail.app has greyed out icons and a more toned-down color scheme, like the latest release of the company's digital media software.
Unlike iTunes 10, Lion's Mail.app does not have the uniquely positioned red close, yellow minimize and green zoom buttons laid out in a stacked vertical fashion. For now, the buttons appear next to each other horizontally, in the top left corner, as they are in previous releases of Mac OS X, and the vertical buttons remain unique to iTunes 10.
In addition to losing their colors, buttons for functions like composing a new message or replying have been made more square and less round, and are now aligned to the left.
For more, see AppleInsider's First Look: Apple's new Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
Craig Federighi, vice president of engineering for Mac OS X at Apple, offered a quick demo of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on stage to members of the press, including features like Mission Control and Launch Pad. In addition, some of the more subtle design tweaks found in the current build of Lion could be glimpsed.
Apple emphasized that the upcoming operating system upgrade will bring iOS features "Back to the Mac," creating a more unified experience between products running Mac OS X and iOS.
The new iCal application in Lion, shown in an early form Wednesday, has a new feature which appears as if it will let users to view their upcoming events in a "Year" view. The version of iPad Apple ships for iPad also offers a fourth view (in addition to Day, Week, and Month) called "List" view.
In general, the new iCal app in Lion sports a look and feel similar to the calendar application found on the iPad. Controls for flipping through days, weeks and months have also been relocated down and to the right, with buttons on each side of the "Today" button, aligned on the right side across from the date.
Changes to make Mac OS X more like the iOS mobile operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad are a central theme with the upcoming release of 10.7 Lion. In addition to more subtle tweaks and design changes, Apple is also bringing major features such as multi-touch gestures, the App Store, Home screens, full-screen applications, and auto-save and auto-resume.
The updated Mail.app in Lion previewed Wednesday takes some design elements found in the recently released iTunes 10. Most noticeably, Lion's Mail.app has greyed out icons and a more toned-down color scheme, like the latest release of the company's digital media software.
Unlike iTunes 10, Lion's Mail.app does not have the uniquely positioned red close, yellow minimize and green zoom buttons laid out in a stacked vertical fashion. For now, the buttons appear next to each other horizontally, in the top left corner, as they are in previous releases of Mac OS X, and the vertical buttons remain unique to iTunes 10.
In addition to losing their colors, buttons for functions like composing a new message or replying have been made more square and less round, and are now aligned to the left.
For more, see AppleInsider's First Look: Apple's new Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
Comments
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In these pictures running applications are no longer shown with a blue dot under their icons in the dock. Is this just a bad photoshop or is this a sign that something is going to change?
Seems very bland and characterless to me.
The only question is if iTunes 10's vertical traffic lights will prevail systemwide on Lion.
So what about the pictures Apple posted on its Mac OS X Lion page on Apple.com?
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In these pictures running applications are no longer shown with a blue dot under their icons in the dock. Is this just a bad photoshop or is this a sign that something is going to change?
1) Welcome to the forum.
2) I, at the very least, appreciate your linking to large images.
3) I think you are on to something. Finder always had the dot to denote that it?s always running, but if Apple is moving to an ?Instant On? philosophy where apps auto-resume from their saved state and constantly auto-saved there is less of a reason to show those dots, at least from the standpoint of the typical user. Add in the fact that, at least on my MBP with an SSD, that pretty much every app already opened up nearly instantly, it seems that there is less and less reason to have the dot.
how about a one button approach for moving itunes libraries from one mac to another mac. no matter what, the current approach might be okay for some users but for other novices it's convoluted beyond words. and if anything can't be simplified, then easy simple words, in english, should be provided.
Well if yr transferring data from old mac to new mac, this is done for you with migration assistant. If you want to move the library, drag it to it's new home and hold down alt when starting up itunes and point it at the new home. Doesn't get a lot simpler than that....
Regardless of whether or not you feel these are positive changes, at least Apple is making an effort (yet again) to have a consistent look and feel with each revision of Mac OS X. They came very close in Leopard and Snow Leopard, so perhaps Lion is finally the revision where everything looks alike, which always seems to be common request with each new Mac OS X version.
The only question is if iTunes 10's vertical traffic lights will prevail systemwide on Lion.
But there also an argument that can be make about making things TOO consistent. Funtionality, widgets, etc should be standardized. But if every window looked like iTunes, especially with the remove of color from all the icons, it makes it more difficult to quickly visually identify a window, even if just a corner or edge of the window is visibible from behind other windows.
I just hope there is more than just window dressing in the updated apps. Especially iCal, which is one of the least usable calendars I've used in recent memory.
Why has Apple taken years to adopt any sort of modernized vertical layout in the mail app? The old-style top and bottom windows for viewing are not functional with todays wide-screen displays. They updated the interface on the MobileMe mail which is great... I sure hope the mail app has something similar in Lion, but it doesn't look like it.
It's early days - far too soon to talk about what isn't being done, we simply don't know. I for one don't like the multi column layout in mail, had widemail installed for a while but prefer my three panels.
Looks like new Mail app has lost some colour - just like iTunes...
Yeah. Apple has been moving to bitmaps (in application toolbars) for awhile so they can theme the icons. On the iPhone a blue gradient theme is applied. On the Mac it is generally a grey beveled look. By doing this, Apple can change the look of third party applications anytime they want to. It would be nice to see more color introduced (like is happening on the iPad). Although not as large of a market for Apple anymore, graphic designers prefer the "bland" look because too many colors effect the way you perceive colors in a document or photo you are editing.
The new 'dock' also shows any open apps. They dock cannot be adjusted, in any way.
*Man this getting old thing sucks. First it was reading glasses and then afternoon naps, pretty soon I may have to Google Geritol to figure out what the hell that is.
I should have a private calendar, a shaired calander and a family calendar. The family calendar should be both of our shaired calendars.
Please do not tell me to spend $100 a year to do this in a cloud.
Something must be done about multi calendars on a home network. Ai have an iMac, my wife behind 2 feet behind me has an iMac. She has the calendars on her iMac. Why should I have to move to her computer to check a date? she should have a private calendar, a shaired calendar and a family calendar.
I should have a private calendar, a shaired calander and a family calendar. The family calendar should be both of our shaired calendars.
Please do not tell me to spend $100 a year to do this in a cloud.
Those are the kind of things Apple should be concentrating on. Useful stuff actually makes for good demo too.
Oh my, I'm don't like the direction they're taking Mail in.
Seems very bland and characterless to me.
Apple has been moving away from a garish interface to something more utilitarian to allow the user to focus on content. This is a transition that has been happening with each iteration of OS X. Go back and look at the original release of OS X with the toolbar with big colorful icons and very pronounced pin-striping, translucent background everywhere else in the interface.
I actually prefer the more streamlined interface.
Something must be done about multi calendars on a home network. Ai have an iMac, my wife behind 2 feet behind me has an iMac. She has the calendars on her iMac. Why should I have to move to her computer to check a date? she should have a private calendar, a shaired calendar and a family calendar.
I should have a private calendar, a shaired calander and a family calendar. The family calendar should be both of our shaired calendars.
Please do not tell me to spend $100 a year to do this in a cloud.
"Think Google"
So what about the pictures Apple posted on its Mac OS X Lion page on Apple.com?
pic 1
pic 2
In these pictures running applications are no longer shown with a blue dot under their icons in the dock. Is this just a bad photoshop or is this a sign that something is going to change?
1) Welcome to the forum.
2) I, at the very least, appreciate your linking to large images.
3) I think you are on to something. Finder always had the dot to denote that it’s always running, but if Apple is moving to an “Instant On” philosophy where apps auto-resume from their saved state and constantly auto-saved there is less of a reason to show those dots, at least from the standpoint of the typical user. Add in the fact that, at least on my MBP with an SSD, that pretty much every app already opened up nearly instantly, it seems that there is less and less reason to have the dot.
Mmmm... I like that!
Take it a step (or two) further:
On the iPhone and the iPad with iOS 4.2 the "task" dock quickly fills with every app you've ever run -- kinda' a push-down stack (or a history file) with no dups. A few tasks are suspended, but most have been purged from RAM.
Now if apps are written properly, and the OS is sufficiently robust, to not only save state, but to resume state -- every app that has been run, at least once, can quickly go back to where it left off-- with granularity down to the repositioning of the cursor in a text field during text entry (when the app was suspended).
An app would never (again) need to go through startup/initialization -- just resume state.
Think of Photoshop or FCP available in a second or two -- exactly where you left off.
Given that, effective multitasking could be realized with only a few apps (say the last 2 or 3 used) actually running -- any others could resume state with acceptable delay (especially from SSD storage).
I could envision some dedicated silicon to do intelligent app save/resume with maximum efficiency.
This could improve perceived performance while, at the same time, significantly reducing the "processing power" (CPU, GPU, RAM) of the hardware.
So, maybe, the definitions of a "proper OS", a "proper computer", running "proper apps" to be rethought to incorporate "proper save/resume".
The king is Dead! God Save the Queen!
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Something must be done about multi calendars on a home network. Ai have an iMac, my wife behind 2 feet behind me has an iMac. She has the calendars on her iMac. Why should I have to move to her computer to check a date? she should have a private calendar, a shaired calendar and a family calendar.
I should have a private calendar, a shaired calander and a family calendar. The family calendar should be both of our shaired calendars.
Please do not tell me to spend $100 a year to do this in a cloud.
There's a third party product that lets you share your calendars on a local network.
http://www.busymac.com/