“Announcing [Mac OS X 10.7] Lion at the Autumn 2010 keynote, Steve Jobs said the new OS would bring features developed for iOS back to the Mac,” Ian Osborne reports for TechRadar UK. “‘We started with Mac OS X, repurposed it for the iPhone and used it in the iPad as well,’ he explained. ‘Now we’re bringing some of its ideas back to the Mac.'”
“And this philosophy runs through the heart of Lion,” Osborne reports. “A new feature that’s obviously inspired by iOS is Launchpad, an application launcher that works just like the iOS homescreen.”
Osborne reports, “The way OS X saves your work has undergone a revision, with two new features added for Lion. Instead of pressing Command+S every couple of minutes, saving is automatic in OS X 10.7.
Much more in the full article here.
Wait, isn’t that what Microsoft just announced they were doing with Windows 8? Bringing windows phone features to the desktop? 🙂
Those quotes are from (as the article says) “the autumn 2010 keynote.” They aren’t new and certainly aren’t a copied idea from Microsoft.
Oh, I know. Just trying to draw attention to the incredible innovations taking place in Redmond. I’m sure sometime soon after Monday we’ll be seeing even more.
But it’s going to take the Redmond copiers at least another year to get the features into Win 8.
Unfortunately for them, the Redmond copiers are trying to bring 25 years of Windows cruft with them.
The article mentions the change in the direction of scrolling. It’s an improvement.
In any current operating system, the scrollbar and the text move in opposite directions. Since the mouse wheel was originally a shortcut for the scrollbar, scrolling matched the movement of the scrollbar. Scroll up: the scrollbar moves up but the text moves down. Scroll down: the scrollbar moves down but the text moves up.
In Lion, the scrollbars are deemphasized, because most people don’t use them much any more. It no longer makes sense to scroll down to make the text go up. Hence, the default in Lion is that the direction of the scrolling matches the movement of the text.
It’s not hard to get used to this. There is a free program somewhere with the ingenious name of Reverse Scrolling that can help you prepare for Lion.
The article also got part of it wrong, saying they hoped the final build will have an option to reverse the behavior, while the developer previews have had this option all along.
I hope very few people use that option. Imagine all the non-geeks who have Macs at home demanding Macs in the workplace because Windows’ scrolling is upside down!
you mean “Scroll Reverser” ?
Yes.
i think it is because of the difference in what you think you are scrolling – a human factors issue. when moving the scroll bars you are moving the window through which you see the text. therefore you scroll down to see the text. it isn’t that the text is moving it is that the window over the text is virtually moving to show the stationary text. this works ok with scroll bars and a mouse. when you are more directly scrolling either with your fingers on the screen or on a pad at the bottom of your laptop you are “moving the text or whatever you are viewing and leaving the window in the same place. this same issue comes up with joysticks and other ways of interacting in 3D with a game. what makes sense for a joystick (for some people) for changing your view up or down doesn’t make sense when directly interacting with the screen or even using arrow keys. in this case you are either changing your view angle and leaving the view alone or changing what is being viewed and leaving your view angle constant.
When I introduced my grandma to a computer for the first time she naturally clicked the up arrow on the scroll bar assuming that would make the page content move up.
The position of the indicator on the scroll bar shows where you are in the document (e.g., top, middle, bottom). By dragging that indicator, your are telling the software where you want to be in the document. The arrows (up or down) at the end of the scroll bar work as you stated (move up or down in the document.
With touch input, you are “grabbing” the document and moving it, so you pull the text up to see text on subsequent pages, or pull the page over to flip to the next page.
I don’t have any problems switching from mouse to touch input. It just seems natural. Don’t mess with it.
I hadn’t consciously noted that! What do you know. Looking forward to that because I am about to order a new iMac with Track Pad instead of mouse.
BTW, anyone know how imminent Lion is due for release after Monday’s introduction? Do you think it would be immediate, or a couple of weeks away, or later? If I order an iMac in the next couple of days, am I likely to get a voucher for free upgrade to Lion?
You got it entirely wrong.
The fact that the text moves up when scrolling down is only a consequence of the fact that the user wants to move her POINT OF ATTENTION down.
Therefore, I expect the scrolling not to reverse on the (magic) mouse, while on the (seperate or not) trackpad it makes sense that the users “grabs” the text and drags it to where the user wants to uncover more text.
Some years ago, I realized that you only copy something that is better and more valuable than what you already have. No one bothers to make counterfeit Monopoly money. Therefore, if Microsoft is copying Apple, they are tacitly endorsing Apple’s innovation and quality.
I might as well cut to the chase and buy Apple, since it comes with Microsoft’s seal of approval.
back when i was a kid and we allowed for “credit” in our 8 player monopoly games so that they didn’t end we had to make counterfeit monopoly money including higher denominations because we allowed for unlimited houses and hotels and unlimited houses and hotels on a single property. this made the game last all day – at least until our parents came home from work anyway.
Ha,ha, we did the same. Games would last all weekend, million dollar bills flying!.
@”what Mac users have to look forward to at WWDC”
In lion? Not much
@MAChiavelli: as a tester of the invitation seed, I can only say I genuinely disagree. Lion is a significant improvement in the OS (though I have no doubt many will not like it), fun and easy to use, fast, and elegant.
And no Rosetta. 🙁
Correct. And no Front Row. Quite a few significant deletions and shifts.
@cogitoergomac: You are describing MAC OS X in general. It already was easy to use fast and elegant. With lion there is hardly anything being improved. I already have launchpad on my Mac. The full screen apps will probably look like crap on my 27 inch Mac. The only thing to look forward to is the Mac app store and mission control. And I already have one of those two.
Launchpad reminds me a lot of button view from Mac OS 8.5-9. A much improved version, but an old idea made new again.
Agreed.
The launchpad feature has been available through various apps, the first that I know of being Launcher in OS9. I think it takes the world time to catch up
I want the scroll bar buttons back I have a gesture for apple and it is not nice.