Mountain Lion is currently in its developer preview Here we talk about various features that we'd like to see in Mountain Lion and why they would be useful.
Mountain Lion is currently in its developer preview and developers are getting a look at what will and will not be in the new operating system. Today, we are going to talk about features that we’d like to see in Mountain Lion and why they would be useful.
1. Siri
She’s just so handy that we want to have her everywhere. After all, who does not love the idea of having an assistant with access to all of the power of their Mac. On an iPhone Siri can do everything from a serious search to helping your find a vacant lot to store a dead body in.
2. Built in Social Media Command Center
Most of us have too much to do in a day to waste all of it checking the millions of social networking sites that we all seem to end up subscribed to. If we could get an app that would take RSS feeds for all of our status updates and tweets and put them in one feed it would simple things up for a lot of us. On the bright side you can tweet from the dashboard, but that in my mind, is simply not enough.
3. Selective iCloud with Tagging
Any item on your app should be able to be tagged as “not share to cloud” or as ” share to cloud” so that you can share as you see fit, instead of an all or nothing for your photos or documents.
4. Immediate Back Compatibility
When the current OS came out having software compatibility was a big problem, especially for more expensive software. Having immediate compatibility may be a pipe dream, but its one worth having.
5. No Notifications Center
If you have an iPhone you know how annoying all of your apps constantly notifying you of things can be. The last place you want to find it is on your desktop as well. They should drop this feature for Mountain Lion since it is the opposite of productivity.
6. Voice Tagging Your Notes
The Notes app lets you make handy reminders and store data. Being able to voice tag them, and then pull them up by talking to your microphone would be a very handy feature. Being able to say “Chocolate Fountain” or “Space Shuttle Launch Times” and have it come up would be a great feature.
7. A Stripped Down Version
If you have the size and speed to run all of the features Mountain Lion would be great. If you want to run it, without the bells and whistles you know that you won’t use the it is well worth considering the option to delete a feature. After all, if you don’t use Twitter you don’t need the Air Sharing feature.
8. Less Concern About China
Mountain Lion is bringing new features to China, but I have to wonder why they should bother right now. This OS is being based on the iPad, and marketed heavily under that premise, but Apple may not be able to use the word iPad in that nation. A current pending suit over the trademark of the iPad name could complicate things seriously.
9. Gatekeeper All Beefed Up
The new Gatekeeper feature will give you the ability to run apps safely, but if you really want control why not try giving users complete control over all downloads, notifications and other incoming data. A one-time setup would not be too inconvenient for end users.
10. Simplify App Signatures for Developers
After Mountain Lion is release Gatekeeper will require all apps to be signed to run. That process has been a little bit complicated in the past and streamlining it for the initial release, or permanently, would be a good idea. Yes, that could be impossible with #9, but its a fantasy list.
Of course, these are only a few ideas. If you have a feature you’re dying to see chime in with a comment and see how many other people agree with you.
