Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney offers a quick overview of Mission Control and Launchpad in OS X Lion.
“When it was first previewed by Apple last year, critics said Mission Control was a mess, but I think it’s pretty good. It works really well. It’s much clearer than Expose, and I can see it becoming a central part of my workflow,” Kahney reports. “Launchpad, on the other hand, won’t be. Launchpad is like the Home screen on the iPad. Icons for all your apps are displayed in a grid. But it suffers from the same problem as the iPad — it’s hard to find the app you’re looking for among the clutter.”
Full article, which includes expository video of both features, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarah” for the heads up.]
I think both will offer good ways to use a mac.
Launchpad should be great for those who currently use a Stack to get to their applications folder, and especially for those brought to the Mac through the iPad Halo Effect. For a power user like myself, Spotlight is my app launcher, since I can do it without using a mouse (used to use Quicksilver, but Spotlight is good enough for my needs now).
It will also be good for people in the business world who are used to leaving all their stuff on the Windows desktop and then get switched to a Mac, like my girlfriend.
And I use a launcher, too, so I doubt I will need it (although I read that Launchbar, DropBox and Evernote don’t function correctly yet, which are three of my main apps).
I user DropBox daily. But it is only the first beta so I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.
MDN: when is the iPad app for MDN gonna be fixed? I keep getting “being retooled” message.
Once you get used to using Spotlight to launch apps, I can’t imagine why you’d use anything else. I resisted for the longest time, because I’m a mouse guy more than a keyboard guy, but as the number of apps increased on my Mac, I found typing a surprisingly small number of characters quicker than finding an icon with the mouse.
To launch Safari, for example, I type “Control-Space SAF Enter”. I don’t even look at the search results. Takes me less than a second.
But if I’m understanding things right, what this reviewer doesn’t get is that Launchpad isn’t really for OS X power users. The idea is to use some of the momentum built up around the iPad and channel it into the Mac platform. The hope is that Launchpad will appeal to iPad users who would like a full-function computer that works like their tablet.
——RM
Me too.
I like free websites, therefore I won’t install an adblocker. I do, however, individually block the most in-your-face, atrocious ads.
I also regularly go into a quiet room and read. There’s nothing better.
Is here any good reason why I can’t see a list of my 400 apps on my iPad?
No…. I should fumble thru 9 screens 3 times before i surrender and use the search, oh I forgot I need to also open up 12 folders, ok search but what was the damn app called again?
….. …. … @&$&@;:&
There are apps that list your apps.
What I want is for search to allow me to see where the app is. Maybe tap to launch, hold to provide options including showing the location, or if it launches the app, it should show the icon actually being launched, thus revealing its location.
I’ll like launchpad. I tend to d/l a lot of games and apps on recommendations, but it takes a while to get around to trying them out. iPad style folders are good for that sort of thing.
For familiar apps, there’s spotlight.
Apple, keep OS X simple, safe, and swift… I don’t like the idea of adding all of these ‘features’ to OS X. Bloatware comes to mind…
“it’s hard to find the app you’re looking for among the clutter”
What about the alphabetical order? You know, A, B, C.
Another 2 eye candy features I don’t see myself using. I’m glad Apple is thinking about such things, but I’m not impressed.
A problem I would like Apple to address is cleaning up the difference between iTunes, Apple TV and Front Row Tagging of video files. One can tag a file a TV show (from EyeTV for example) and have it show in iTunes and Apple TV as a TV show, only to have it show up under movies in Front Row.
I use a MacPro/LED Cinema combo with EyeTV as my TV media center in my bedroom and frequently use Front Row and an Apple Remote to control it to watch Video Podcasts, iTunes TV & Movies, Ripped DVDs that I own and EyeTV recordings. This tagging thing has been going on for a long time, has been written up on the net and is STILL a problem.
The worst thing about LaunchPad is that you can’t remove it from the dock…(!)
You can control-click LaunchPad for the option
“Remove from Dock”. Poof.
What a refreshingly honest and somewhat self deprecating post. Thank you