OS X 10.6 aims to optimise the operating system rather than add new features.
Even so, there are a few improvements we'd really like to see in Snow Leopard…
1. Improved Finder
Finder is the most criticised part of OS X, and with a Cocoa rewrite, we'd like to see it improved sooner rather than later. Check out the popular Mac application Quicksilver at www.blacktree.com to see just how much better it could be…
2. Touchscreen compatibility
Will touchscreen monitors and laptops take off? Judging by Windows 7 Microsoft obviously thinks so, and if Redmond's new operating system creates the demand for the hardware, we hope Snow Leopard can share this functionality.
3. More flexible trackpad gestures
So much more could be done with gestures. For example, it's been suggested that drawing an 'S' shape could save your current document or project. Better still, why not let the user record their own trackpad gestures?
4. Better IrDA support
There are still people out there with, say, a PDA or a smartphone featuring IrDA connectivity but no Bluetooth. There are dozens of IrDA USB dongles available for Windows, but nothing for the Mac. Can't we have OS X recognise them?
5. WiMAX out of the box
WiMAX is an important emerging wireless technology. By the time Snow Leopard is released, we hope it will be standard in MacBooks, and backed by an OS that gets the most out of it.
6. Blu-ray support
Now the format war has been won, it's time to incorporate Blu-ray support into Mac OS. Blu-ray discs are stupidly expensive now, but so were blank DVDs when they first appeared. Apple should stay ahead of the game on this one.
7. USB 3.0
The first commercial USB 3.0 products could arrive as early as 2009. As we're promised ten times the current bit-rate and full backwards-compatibility with USB 1.1 and 2.0, is there any reason why it shouldn't be supported in Snow Leopard?
8. FireWire support
With the FireWire port dropped from the latest MacBooks, could Apple be phasing it out? It seems unlikely as this would stop anyone with FireWire peripherals from upgrading. But you could've said that about a FireWire-less MacBook too…
9. Word count for TextEdit
TextEdit is getting an auto-correct function with Snow Leopard. How about a real-time word count too? OS X's builtin text editor would then reach the standard where professional journalists and copywriters, among others, simply wouldn't need any other word processor.
10. A fair price
As Snow Leopard's improvements are almost solely architectural, we hope this is reflected in the price. It should certainly be substantially cheaper than a regular release of OS X, and maybe even a free upgrade for Leopard users.
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First published in MacFormat, Issue 204
Now read 7 things to get excited about at Macworld Expo
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Your comments (5) Click to add a new comment
petrkomarov
August 6th
5. to zoffdino
I ve been testing Snow Leopard already for 3 months and the lack of WiMax is really bad))) I am writing that from Moscow and here is a huge WiMax network working around. I connect my PC to internet via wimax usb dongle and then connect Mac to PC to use internet that is not convenient. So Snow Leopard need WiMax support........
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lowell
January 12th
4. @webraider
the reviewer isn't a mac user; i think he thinks finder is spotlight.
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tremolux66
January 9th
3. "With the FireWire port dropped from the latest MacBooks, could Apple be phasing it out?"
Huh?
I don't know about the rest of the world, but the recent US MacBook Pro 15-inch models (late 2008) have a Firewire 800 port on them -- I'm using one to write this comment. The brand new 17-inch model has one as well (at least the Apple Store says it does).
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webraider
January 9th
2. Please don't make the finder like QuickSilver.. it looks to much like something Microsoft would do.
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zoffdino
January 7th
1. I wonder if the author of this article understand the difference between software and hardware.
USB 3.0, WiMax & Blu-ray requires new hardware AND software to function. until Apple releases a computer with USB 3.0, WiMax chip or Blu-ray, these features are useless to the vast majority of Mac users. And when they do need to implement those features, a software update will suffice.
FireWire support? Granted, it's not present on the latest MacBook revision but lots of professionals are using it. Make no sense for Apple to disable the feature.
Cheaper/free pricing? Because these updates are under the hood don't mean that they are easy or cheap to make. Instead of shipping more features (like the bloatware that's called Windows), why can't you pay to make better use of your computer resources? The graphic card in my MacBook Pro is idle 80% of the time when I'm not running Adobe CS3.
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