A SLAB FOR THE FUTURE
Now that iPhone and iPad have their place and purpose positioned for the foreseeable future, how about touch for all Apple computers?
That's right, a proper touch Mac OS, with all the power and flexibility of a Mac, and a completely touch interface. Take an iMac, lay it flat on the table, give me a full sized screen keyboard, and I think we're about there.
Same for the MacBook. Now that iPad has changed what we think of as a book, for all time—and for that matter, what we think of as a computer—can we finally admit, that clumsy 1990s fold out computer design never really worked on planes, trains and any-mobiles? Let's have more of an iPad style book… and computer. A smaller, lighter iMac as described above, if you wish. A plank of aluminium and glass various sizes is ideal. That aluminium strip along the bottom makes a great wrist rest… I'm just saying. If you insist, you can still have a bluetooth keyboard, just like iPad does, right now.
EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE
There seems to be resistance in the collective mind to all Apple products being an increasingly larger set of slabs. I just don't get it. The features and capabilities of iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac, MacMini and MacPro are not defined by outward design. They're set by size and function. Much as I'd like the power and flexibility of a MacPro in iPhone, it's not going to happen.
The line up doesn't need to change at all. In the truly portable arena, iOS is sufficient for the 5-10 inch size range, comments about improving iOS aside. 11-13 inch can still have Air-like models with subset of computer features for size and weight considerations, but still a full Mac OS, including files systems, multiple overlapping windows, and so on. 13-17 inches, might allow for full Mac power and function. 21-27 inches allows more grunt, graphics, RAM, storage, connectivity. Likewise for MacMini and MacPro - more of everything, space providing.
External design is not the issue here. While there's room for innovation, it's pretty well under control. The real key is how to develop a genuinely revolutionary touch interface for Mac.
GROPING IN THE DARK
OS X Lion's tentative steps into the touch interface are a start, provided we're prepared to learn from people's experiences. Full screen apps are meaningless if not plain annoying on a large screen. Their single focus, one action at a time is useful in so few cases.
Take Mail as an example for most real-work tasks. Having multiple emails open, being able to move/copy/or even just refer between them is fundamental to all but the simplest task.
If you have limited memory/graphics/CPU in the case of iPhone/iPad and iOS, single focus/task might be a compromise we have to accept, but not when such resources are not scarce. I love the 3 column view afforded by Lion Mail, but I never run it full screen, not even on an 11" MacBook Air. It just doesn't suit my workflow.
On the other hand, swiping left and right to move between spaces and move forward and backward in Safari is immediately useful and worth the Lion upgrade alone.
On the other hand, swiping left and right to move between spaces and move forward and backward in Safari is immediately useful and worth the Lion upgrade alone.
Full screen applications may work for simple tasks on a screen the size of a phone. They have no place in a larger screen environment and seem like a misstep in the hope of getting developers and the rest of us thinking about a paradigm for interacting using only touch, no mouse. We're a long way from figuring this out, but a simple touch paradigm is needed, after some rocky negotiations, presumably.
FILES AND SANDBOXES
Those that argue against a file system in iOS, must be in denial of the popularity of apps that mimic the graphical file system (as much as iOS allows).
Put that action symbol in Mac OS and you'll have something less useful than the worst web app. Drag and drop needs to work in a touch interface and somebody had better work out how to do it.
Sandboxing data goes completely against the point of a computer as a means of accomplishing complex tasks. It's cumbersome for simple tasks! Hopefully sense will prevail and a better solution to what is essentially a security problem will be found. Sandboxing data is the equivalent of disconnecting a computer from a network and declaring the problem solved. Just dumb.
