2020 is the Twentieth Anniversary of Mac OS X What does the future hold ?

[trs96]

Of course looks are subjective and i'm sure that many will like the new look but for now I'll be happy to keep running Catalina.

My theory about the visual overhaul (I have no insider info on this) is that Apple is working on making every OS on every device they make AR friendly. It's easy to see from the hundreds of patents filed that they are getting very close to the public release of Apple Glass. AR glasses that they expect you'll be using in conjunction with your phone, tablet, laptop and desktop Mac. They won't work without one of these other products as a companion. This may be why they are unifying the look of iOS and macOS. Once the AS Silicon transition of all Macs is complete in 2 years (or earlier) they'll be releasing their next BIG Thing, Apple Glass. They're looking for that new Halo product equal to the first iPhone which launched 13 years ago and changed everything.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

New Icon Design in macOS Big Sur​

Apple decided to make all the Big Sur icons have a chiclet shaped "rounded square" design, just like those in iOS and iPad OS. Looks to me like they want to make it more touch friendly. So there's a good possibility a new AS Macbook will be touch capable.

View attachment 478692​

I really liked the old Mail icon. Now we've got this very generic and boring new one in Big Sur. Not sure who makes these decisions at Apple but they surely are going in the wrong direction with macOS 11. Seems that they are going more for the generic look that you get in Windows 10. Why Apple, why would you do that ?

View attachment 478694​

MS Mail app. At least Apple rounded off the corners of the square. Adding the drop shadow really does nothing for the Apple Mail icon though.

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In the early days of my transition to hackintosh (2012) you could easily change your icons to whatever you wanted. Apps like CandyBar made it incredibly easy to do this. https://panic.com/blog/candybar-mountain-lion-and-beyond/

Apple took away these options many years ago and it doesn't look like that will ever be possible again. Whomever created the new Launchpad icon should be fired immediately. They put 9 colored chiclets inside of a larger grey colored chiclet. The old version was laughable too. Never liked it at all. At least we still have the option to remove these from the Dock instead of having to see them constantly.

View attachment 478696

Yes, I bought CandyBar too. The icons that were produced for it were stunning pieces of design in a lot of cases. It was sad to see it get scuppered. I still have my libraries somewhere.

 

[jaymonkey]

My theory about the visual overhaul (I have no insider info on this) is that Apple is working on making every OS on every device they make AR friendly.

@trs96,

Thats a good theory, although i'm not sure what use AR would be with a desktop system ?

AR makes sense with mobile devices where you are Augmenting Reality by overlying digital video on what you see through the lenses but I can't think of a single use of AR whilst looking at a desktop system screen(s).

Maybe the Apple Glasses are also going to to have a VR mode ? and they can make the lenses electronically non-transparent like that fancy glass that can be installed in rich peoples houses (or have some simple clip-on covers) ?

Cheers
Jay

 

[trs96]

i'm not sure what use AR would be with a desktop system ?

Possibly CAD applications. They will also be pushing VR gaming which you'll likely need a desktop Mac for. So instead of the bulky and cumbersome Oculus Rift kind of experience you wear your light and comfortable Apple Glasses and happily game for hours a day with no fatigue. Believe me, there are teens and twenty something people today that have 6-8 hour gaming sessions on a regular basis. Especially now since the whole pandemic quarantine has been happening.
They'll probably sell some add on to the glasses to make them into more of a completely immersive VR experience.

 

[jaymonkey]

@trs96,

If Apple Glass ends up looking anything like the renders in your post above then it's unlikely it will be able to do full VR, you need at leat 1080P per eye to compete with the the other VR systems from Oculus, Valve .. etc. and such capability would either need to be tethered via a cable in order to achieve adequate power and a high FPS or require a bulky, high bandwidth digital radio system powered by a battery pack on a belt.

I think the initial release of Apple Glass will be more like an updated Google Glass experience for Apple's mobile devices and my bet is that they will only work with devices that have the U1 BT chip.

If Apple are serious about VR then I think that will be a separate product that is tethered to a Mac via a cable or use a custom high bandwidth wireless system and battery pack, I guess we'll see soon.

Cheers
Jay

 

[trs96]

I think the initial release of Apple Glass will be more like an updated Google Glass experience for Apple's mobile devices and my bet is that they will only work with devices that have the U1 BT chip.

I've heard that they'll be using some newer short range wifi tech (80211.ay) in these. Seems that Apple's goal is to have their customers immersed in their eco system every waking moment. They may even eventually make the glasses 5G connected so that no matter where you are you'll be looking at some form of their GUI all day long. Kind of a scary thought when you see how some of those new Big Suer icons look. For those that don't know "Suer" is how you pronounce Sur in Spanish.

 

[jaymonkey]

@trs96,

Thanks for the video link on Apple Glass .... interesting and pretty much confirms my suspicions of what Apple Glass will be, at least for the first generation. I did not realise that so much of the Apple Glass design had leaked !

Tim and Craig must be livid at Jon Prosser and thinking about how they can shut him down ?

I have to admit that Apple Glass is not something that I have any desire or need to personally use, but for all those folks that seem to have their faces permanently buried in their iPhones i can see the attraction.

Cheers
Jay

 

[trs96]

This is what the "Mac" will be in possibly 7-8 years from today. You won't need the iMac or MacBook Pro at all to use the OS. Probably not even a keyboard and mouse as depicted by Jon Rettinger below. More likely your finger will be the pointing device. The Apple Glass AR glasses are what will make this possible. This why Apple is pushing services so much right now. They won't have the lucrative hardware business of selling millions 2-3000 dollar iMacs and MBPs or even 1000 dollar iPhones forever. The AR glasses are only supposed to retail for $499 but think how much easier it would be to lose or damage those than a 27" iMac that only sits on the desk all day long.

You can skip forward through the excessively long Clean my Mac commercial in this video.