OS X and iOS - Waiting for a Change

The last months were marked for Apple by serious changes in the manual, no leaks (as it was throughout 2012; the decision to use Retina on iPad mini looks too obvious to be considered a rumor), OS X 10.9 increasingly appears in the logs , and carefully the companies following the site noticed new promising vacancies. Let's try on the basis of all this to assume what can wait for us in the new generation of operating systems from Apple.

During the past month, several vacancies appeared on the Apple site that allow us to make certain assumptions about the future of its operating systems right now.

In early January, the company began searching for a developer who will deal with new APIs and frameworks for iOS 7. His responsibilities include creating and testing them, as well as an interesting point - creating web services related to new functions. Not so long ago, another job appeared on the Apple site: the company was looking for a specialist who could “refresh” Siri - this person will have to add new dialogs and update existing ones. In addition to creating amusing answers to questions about the meaning of life, most likely there should be new scenarios of interaction with Siri when solving popular household problems.
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Appointment of Craig Federation for the divisions of iOS and OS X no less seriously affect the development of platforms, however, developers react differently to such innovations - many consider the beginning transfer of functions and design principles from iOS to OS X not as the most successful solution (advances to this have begun in Lion, and Gate Keeper, the Center for Notifications and Reminders, and such principles as the “sandbox for applications” appeared in Mountain Lion. The app store held even more analogies between the platforms. At the same time, in an interview, Tim Cook has already noticed that Apple does not set as its goal the creation of a single platform (as you know, Mircosoft adheres to the opposite solution). As for transferring useful functions from a mobile platform to a desktop one, this idea was actively supported by Steve Jobs, he devoted enough time to her on Back to the Mac in 2010.

I should say a few words about another job - the company is looking for a person who will be engaged in updating iLife. And in the description of the post we are not talking about cosmetic changes, but about full-scale processing of photo, iMovie and GarageBand, which have long become familiar.



At the end of October last year, Scott Forstall left his post as senior president of the iOS development department. Judging by press reports , this was due to his refusal to subscribe to the company's letter with apologies for the operation of the Map application in iOS 6.

For fifteen years he was the inspirer of a huge number of important ideas at Apple, he worked with Jobs from the time of the Next project, was responsible for the Aqua interface in Mac OS, on his own initiative, Mac OS was taken as the basis of iOS. In his interfaces, Forstall often liked to resort to the use of ske-morphism (the application of elements characteristic of real physical objects in the application interface is chrome, leather, etc.). But the most important advocate of skeuomorphism was Steve Jobs.



This approach was not liked by everyone, in particular, by Jonathan Ive. He regularly advocated the exclusion of the application of skevomorphism to the application interface. The main criticism comes from the fact that a direct transfer of the accepted principles of using familiar devices like calendars brings some inconveniences along with familiarity - for example, calendar applications are criticized for displaying the past weeks (by analogy with their three-dimensional counterparts), and the past weeks are rarely interest you when you open the calendar. The vacated space could be used for something else.

Now the design of applications will be given to Quince. Ive is a supporter of elegant minimalism and an opponent of skeuomorphism. In his work, he gives great attention to the smallest details, and in combination with the appearance of the device as a whole. Most likely, it is worth waiting for the fact that the application interface will change in the direction of such harmony, and in future generations of Apple's operating systems, skevomorphism will sink into oblivion .

And, of course, we all look forward to the WWDC, where we will certainly see something unexpected - this time, the changes are not just inevitable, they are necessary.