OS XI: what we'd like to see

At the same time, Apple drastically changed the save system on the Mac. Instead of the default Save command and Save As…, you now have Save and Duplicate. Some people like this new workflow, but old habits die hard and after much grumbling, Apple has relented: Mountain Lion reintroduces Save As… to OS X but the option only appears in your File menu if you hit the å key.

We think most people won't know this and it should become the default view.

Sound controls

Sound controls

Apple only provides a limited amount of control over sound in OS X. You can control input and output devices, and there's a global volume control, along with volume level settings in sound-oriented apps like GarageBand and iTunes.

But apps are increasingly noisy, especially web browsers, and there's no easy way to silence them. We'd love to see something like Prosoft's SoundBunny (prosofteng.com/products/soundbunny.php) built directly into OS X, providing the means to adjust the volume of any open application, and, preferably, individual browser pages.

This would clearly be more complicated than the standard controls, but Apple is not averse to providing more advanced controls 'under the hood'.

WindowShade

WIndow Shade

WindowShade started out as a third-party utility, became an add-on to Mac OS 7.5 and was later merged into Mac OS 8's Appearance Manager. It was a handy tool for peeking at whatever was behind a window.

A quick double-click on any window's WindowShade widget would collapse it to just the title bar. The WindowShade concept bit the dust in OS X, presumably because windows could be minimised to the Dock, and newer versions of the operating system provide Exposé and Mission Control for quickly viewing open windows and moving between them.

For a while, you could at least install Unsanity's WindowShade X 'haxie', but even that's not an option if you've upgraded to OS X Lion or the new Mountain Lion.