• App Store was a Lion Feature but will be available four-five months before Lion is released
• Lion is a move away from the Finder
• Lion is a move away from the Dock
• Lion will make files, not apps, cloud-centric
Reschke writes, “Steve said he only had a limited amount of time to share with us some key features. What I think that really meant is he wasn’t quite ready to reveal the massive change (and improvements) Lion will bring to our computing lives. Lion will be the next giant step away from computing as we have known it for the past 25 years.”
Full article, with explanations of the four bullet points above, here.
Maybe I will re-invent myself as a cloud liaison.
Instead of an IT guy, (deep echoing voice) IN THE FUTURE, VIRTUAL CORPORATIONS WILL HIRE CLOUD LIAISONS! These will be people who are proficient with numerous mobile platform devices, cloud services, and who act as a company cloud librarian and curator.
Now is not the time to invest in a DVD mastering company.
I’ll trust the cloud when CIA and NSA are …
If Lion is tied to the cloud with no opt out I will be keeping Snow Leopard.
@theloniusMac
“Obviously you’re doing something special with your computer that you constantly need half a terabyte of storage.”
Yes, this is true. I’m thinking of using a MBP as a laptop studio doubling as a live performance instrument, which requires a DAW, soft synths, samples, and then don’t forget the actual DAW project files themselves. Agreed, if all you do is the equivalent of Microsoft Office or iWork, then maybe you don’t need loads of storage, because those apps and documents are relatively small. For those people, probably the MacBook Air is sufficient. But for audio and video professionals, we would most certainly need access to large local storage, and we’d hate to see access to that local storage die just because the majority of users can get away with cloud computing.
No Finder? No problem, as long as Terminal is still available.
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Want to see your desktop files?
cd ~/Desktop; ls
@Gilbay
Cloud-centric files = Dropbox
I am so happy with DropBox!! free App
If the ipad is any indication, Apple likely wants to abolish the terminal on the mac too…
I think the “cloud” solution that will be used will be similar to what iDisk uses when you are signed up on a computer and have “sync iDisk locally” enabled, anything I put in my iDisk from anywhere I can go to my home and it’ll be synced and sitting there ready to grab, having been downloaded to my computer in it’s scheduled sync time. Same thing happens in the other direction as well, on my computer I can drop something into my iDisk folder, head to some other place, and by the time I get there my local iDisk folder has synced with the online folder and the file is now online available to download anywhere.
That would make me sad.
Joe wrote:
“If the ipad is any indication, Apple likely wants to abolish the terminal on the mac too…”
That’s only to prevent jailbreaking, unlocking, etc. Since Macs have Boot Camp and allow the installation of any OS or application, I highly doubt that Terminal will be removed for that purpose. Additionally, the Mac App Store, unlike with the iOS’ App Store, will not be the only way to get Mac applications. It will just happen to be a really convenient way to get Mac applications.
I wish people would stop with this really naff new-age technobabble. There is no cloud – you’re simply storing and retrieving stuff from file servers. The client server model finally makes it’s way into the consumer market. Replete with fluffy new label to appeal directly to technohipsters – welcome to the lame ass “cloud”.
Billion dollar server farm….
@theloniousMac
I’ll say it again.
“Anybody that thinks that Apple intends that you have to download a file everytime you want to use it is dumber than a doorknob.
And anybody really feels that working EXCLUSIVELY in a cloud is the way of the future is even dumber.”
And if any company knows better, it is Apple. Living on a fault line and building one of the largest server farms in a state that is not impervious to hurricanes, just doesn’t guarantee that any cloud is and will be there when you want it.
Maybe someday, we will never ever suffer another Katrina, a San Francisco earthquake, a Chicago fire, a world war or a 911. Hell, I would be happy if I could trust all the IT guys that worked for or with me to guarantee that I will have access to all my data 24/7.
And you do realize that at the very end of the chain is your ISP. Since when was the last time you would have placed all your faith in them? If you want to see you life stop in mid-stream, forget to mail in the monthly payment.
I build programs using external servers. All my data is redundantly backed up three-fold, i.e., with tape, CD/DVD and hard drives, as well as using MobileMe, Dropbox and a couple of other off-site servers. But never without the latest interation on the machine(s) in front of me.
@elarue:
I can see them keeping the 500GB (or higher) HDD’s in the macbook pro, but ALSO adding a blade SSD (32-64GB) which would be used almost exclusively for the operating system and apps so they would open quickly and the mac could sleep/wake instantly. THe hard drive could be spun down when you werent accessing things like your photo library or iTunes media.
I dont see a huge problem in a design like that.
@MDmac
Then go buy 100 TB backup drives if it will make you feel any better. I am not sure where, but I will bet the did not buy NC shoreline property.
SJ and Apple rarely err.
@Dinjin201
Nor do I. That would be something I could get behind.
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I think this speculation is wrong. Lion is the last major release of Mac OS X. It will introduce some new ideas, and the Mac App Store will be revolutionary, but as a user interface, it will not be radically different from Leopard and Snow Leopard.
The major release AFTER Lion, which will no longer be Mac OS “ten” and will no longer have a big cat name, will be the more significant change in user interface. It will be similar to going from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, but maybe more different. I think the menu bar will go away. (But we are NOT going to be waving our arms around all day to do multi-touch on a large Mac touch screen.)
On thing I expect with whatever comes after Lion is complete resolution independence. By that, I mean the pixels will get so small that “native resolution” and incremental resolution settings (such as 1920×1200) become irrelevant. To the user, it will look equally sharp. So there will be some control interface that allows the user to smoothly adjust how large all GUI elements and content appear on the screen, to the same degree that you can adjust the size of the Dock today. (Pixels are already getting a bit too small for the current Mac OS X, especially when using the new MacBook Air.)
‘That would be something I could get behind.’
Is that Barney Frank there?
@Monger
‘The first Mac on which I install Lion will be my mane computer.’
Bullcrap….I think you are Lion…
@ Buster
C’mon. Don’t get catty.
@RLB
SJ and Apple rarely err.
You are talking to a guy that has personally bought over 60 Macs since January 1984.
Buy a 100 TB backup drive. Are you nuts. Hell, I advise all my students, clients and colleagues to never buy 200 GB laptop. In fact, stay lean. Keep only what you really need to have access to. Back up daily. I have seen too many instances where people kept there whole life on the computer. No backups in any form.
All I am saying is that cloud computing as some seem to describe does not mean that you work on you files off-site. But like MobileMe, I will one of the first to use whatever Apple has in store with their new server farm.
However, whether or not I am up on my boat or traveling in China, everything I need will be on my laptop. And everytime I have clear access to ‘my’ cloud service, everything on my computer will be synced with incremental back ups and files downloaded as required.
Anybody that has used Dropbox and understand this concept. You have local files, they are simply alos kept on the cloud.
@ thelonius Mac
The doctors just chose 32 gb dsk memory for their iPads not even 64.
From a recent article britjournal of medicine
@ken1w
Agreed, Lion will be the last version of OS X. (And I mean that in a good way). OS 11 will be from the ground up build.
There will be no abandoning of anything!
Lion will just offer alternative ways of doing things for those who wish to do so.
Writing anything else is just a way to attract attention. (and clicks)
@MDmaits
it’s called redundant raid