I wish I was excited by the demo of Launchpad, a feature that displays all installed applications as an overlay on the desktop similar to the iOS home screen, but I wasn't. The idea is to have all applications (presumably from the Mac App Store as well as other sources) available with one click -- and perhaps some swiping to see more app screens if they can't all fit onscreen at once. (You can get a similar effect by dragging your Mac's Applications folder into the Dock as I've done on each of my Macs.)
The concept isn't a bad one, but it's too easy to go from a good idea to a bad experience with it.
Any longtime Mac user might remember that Apple has tried this concept a few times over the years, first in managed workgroup and multi-user products such as At Ease and Mac Manager, and as an option in classic MacOS releases. In some cases, the MacOS Finder was completely replaced by a button-style view of installed or allowed applications. In others, a button view was introduced as an alternative. Perhaps the most commonly known and best-designed implementation was the Launcher. It should be telling that none of these solutions exists today.
Launchpad does seem an improvement over past attempts at streamlining and access restriction. (I imagine Apple will integrate it with parental controls and client management via Mac OS X Server and/or third-party Active Directory solutions.) But it could be just as confusing to some users as having to locate applications in the Applications folder and its subfolders.
I'm particularly put off by the idea of iOS-style folders in Launchpad. This seems to increase the potential for confusion and onscreen clutter, particularly if more traditional ways of launching applications remain: drilling down through folders, opening a specific document, keeping applications in the Dock and using Stacks in the Dock to browse through your Applications folder or other folders -- not to mention applications stored on removable media such as external hard drives, DVDs and network shares. Adding to all of those options, Launchpad with its various screens of apps and iOS-style folders seems to make application management more complex by the sheer number of choices rather than simplifying the process.
另一方面,它还允许个人用户to work in whatever environment they feel most comfortable. I think the key here is going to be how Apple ultimately delivers Launchpad as part of the OS. It should still be clear, at least to power users, where the applications are stored in the file system. Apple needs to give users complete preference in how they work with applications, regardless of whether they're installed from the Mac App Store, downloaded from another source, bundled with Lion or, in the case of users who upgrade to Lion, already exist on the computer from a prior version of OS X.
Mission Control
当我第一次看到的结合特性(世博会sé, Dashboard, Spaces and full-screen apps) that Apple pulled together to create Mission Control, I was afraid that it could work out very badly. Having had a glimpse at the result, I think Apple did a pretty good, though not perfect, job.
I absolutely love the idea of swiping to move between screens (or Spaces); it's an effective solution for both full-screen apps and traditional windowed applications. I like that Exposé is incorporated, letting you see previews of individual windows and Spaces and switch among them quickly. I can see this combination working brilliantly.
I also like that it's a completely natural carry-over from iOS. Unlike with Launchpad, I think Apple nailed this marriage of features from Mac OS X and iOS, making a really useful new form of navigation.
The one thing that I don't get is making Dashboard a separate screen instead of having it appear on top of the current screen. To me, one of the big advantages of Dashboard is that I don't have to leave what I'm doing to check the weather, verify someone's phone number, control iTunes, make short notes to myself or do some quick adding/subtracting using the calculator. (And that's just a few of the built-in widgets; there are plenty of useful third-party ones as well.) I hope the fact that it was displayed in its own screen was just part of the demo -- or that Apple will change it back to its traditional mode before next summer.
The bottom line on Lion
Longtime Mac users (and even some new Mac users or Windows users thinking about making the switch) may be wary of some of the interface changes in Lion. A hesitation about them at this point is a perfectly valid. Apple clearly has some great ideas, but it will come down to how they're implemented to determine if they'll be reasons to celebrate or vilify Mac OS X Lion. And that's something we won't be able to judge for a while yet.
iLife '11: Evolutionary, not revolutionary
The release of iLife '11 has been anticipated for months now. While many expected to see iDVD (the suite's DVD layout and burning tool) bundled into iMovie or removed completely, the iDVD icon was still in multiple slides during the presentation and doesn't look to be going anywhere.
Yesterday's presentation focused on just three iLife apps: iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band, all of which had notable updates. With the exception of iMovie, most of these updates seemed evolutionary, made in response to customer feedback and feature requests.
IPhoto offers additional options for printed photo books and cards (including a new pressed or embossed card option). The new book creation interface offers some nice tweaks such as live previews of different book styles with your selected photos and auto-grouping of pictures taken around the same time or on the same day. Other welcome additions are full-screen mode, the new projects view (reminiscent of the library view in the iBooks app for the iPad and iPhone) and the new albums view, which borrows from the Photos app on the iPad.
Some tweaks to slideshows allow for unique viewing options such as a slideshow based on real-time map data for geocoded photos. Slideshows also now include features such as animated backgrounds and 3D visual effects.
Probably the biggest iPhoto update is significantly better integration with social networking -- namely Flickr and Facebook. Users can now see their photo albums from both sites, even if the photos in them haven't been loaded into their iPhoto library. More importantly, when sharing photos with these sites, users can see comments and likes from other users of each service in an expanded Info panel.
Garage Band's update focuses on cleaning up recorded music with a feature called Groove Matching; if, say, the guitar and bass tracks are out of sync with the drums, you can auto-adjust the tracks to match the drum's rhythm. Another feature called Flex Time makes it easy to adjust the timing of individual sections of recordings (either elongating or compressing specific notes or sounds).
The Learn to Play feature that offers virtual piano and guitar lessons got additional lessons in specific forms including blues and rock guitar and classical piano. More useful is a new How Did I Play? feature that highlights your note or timing errors and tracks progress over successive practice sessions.
Of the three iLife apps demoed, iMovie offers the big-money update. The ability to adjust audio within a clip or project (including raising or lowering sounds and fading between clips or segments) has been reinstated -- a big feature request since Apple removed it when it redesigned iMovie from the ground up for iLife '08. The new version also lets users easily add effects such as instant replay or flash and hold (which displays a quick flash and then a still version of the previous frame).
On a similar front, Apple introduced the ability to create movie trailers for projects. This feature includes a variety of themes and soundtracks recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at the iconic Abbey Road studios. The feature uses predesigned storyboards and effects to get users started and makes use of a new People Finder feature that can identify individuals or groups as well as action-style and close-up shots. It looks like a really fun feature, and the ease of it may encourage people to jump in and use iMovie more.
Apple also updated the ways you can share movies from iMovie, adding Facebook, Vimeo and even CNN's iReport Web site as options alongside YouTube and Apple's MobileMe. No mention was made of further integration with the iMovie app for the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch (another big feature request from users of those devices).
额外的主题和模板,包括新闻d sports themes, have also been added to iMovie. All in all, iMovie makes its remarkably easy to compile and share a very polished and professional-looking project in a short amount of time.
ILife '11 is bundled with new Macs for free; it's $49 to upgrade from earlier versions of iLife.
Conclusions
Between yesterday's event and Monday's earnings call, Apple has certainly managed to stay in the news this week. While iLife might be an evolutionary update and the jury is still out on many Lion features, the company's emphasis on the Mac, the preview of Lion and the new MacBook Air show that Apple remains committed to its vision of an innovative future -- and it has the cash, talent and marketing savvy to make that vision a reality. Whether you love that vision or hate it (or fall somewhere in between), it's clear that Apple still has what it takes to captivate its large and, by all appearances, increasingly loyal audience.
Ryan Faas is a freelance writer and technology consultant specializing in Mac and multiplatform network issues. He has been a Computerworld columnist since 2003 and is a frequent contributor to Peachpit.com. Faas is also the author of iPhone for Work (Apress 2009). You can find out more about him at www.ryanfaas.com and follow him on Twitter (@ryanfaas).
This story, "Apple's Lion: A marriage of iOS and OS X" was originally published byComputerworld .