The eighth major release of OS X, Lion, arrived only a year after its predecessor, and the same was true with Mountain Lion. The expectation was therefore that we would see a preview build of OS X 10.9 in February or March and then a shipping date of July 2013.
However, pundit John Gruber claimed iOS 7 is "running behind" and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on that project.
On that basis, it's reasonable to expect the revision of Apple's desktop OS to be previewed at WWDC 2013 over the coming days.
Whenever that final release arrives (and whatever it's called — after all, there aren't many cats left for Apple to use), we're looking forward to its new features and changes, and hope they'll include at least some of the following…
1. iBooks and Newsstand for OS X
OS X Mountain Lion was largely about bringing relevant features from iOS to the Mac, but Apple should go further. It's bizarre that both of Apple's major iOS apps for reading are not available on the Mac.
With OS X 10.9, Apple should release both iBooks and Newsstand for OS X, enabling you to read your favourite books and magazines on any Apple device, rather than restricting them to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
2. Siri for OS X
Although Siri's not quite the revolutionary feature that was once promised, it nonetheless continues to improve. It's now finally useful outside of the USA, and once you've trained it to your voice, Siri can be used to rapidly speed up many tasks.
OS X already has plenty of built-in accessibility clout, and a number of different playback voices, and so it seems like a no-brainer to integrate Siri into the system.
3. Maps for OS X
When it first arrived on iOS, Apple Maps was rightly slammed, not least for its boneheaded assumptions when it came to directions. But the service continues to improve and is great for turn-by-turn.
On the Mac, it would be less useful, but we'd nonetheless like to see it, not least for researching and planning routes and journeys that could subsequently (along with favourite places) seamlessly sync to your iOS devices via iCloud.
4. A more usable Contacts app
People bang on about skeuomorphism in OS X, and also confuse it with texture-oriented graphic design, which isn't really the same thing. In many cases, these approaches also happen to be a matter of taste (Calendar's leather, for example), but in Contacts, Apple's created a usability disaster.
Half-way house between digital book and app, Contacts is just a mess. We hope whatever Jonathan Ive brings to the OS X 10.9 party in terms of human interface leadership, it includes a firm emphasis on usability and not merely a hankering for minimalism. (More attention to detail regarding bugs would also be nice — Game Center remains an ugly, unusable, broken mess on OS X and needs some serious help.)
5. An enhanced Finder
Finder remains a straightforward way to get at your files, and recent updates have improved inline previews. However, we'd still like to see changes. For power users, the addition of tabs would be great to cut down on clutter; and for everyone, an emphasis on speed and performance would be welcome.
Spotlight could also do with a kick up the bottom speed-wise, which would improve Finder window searches, the standalone Spotlight menu and any app it's integrated into (such as Mail).
6. A broken-up iTunes
On iOS, iTunes is just a shop. Individual apps take care of other things: Music and Videos for media playback, App Store for buying apps, Podcasts for playing podcasts, and so on.
The mess that is iTunes for OS X could benefit from a similar approach, although with the app also having to exist for Windows, we doubt this is a wish on our list that Apple will ever fulfil.
7. Better window management
Window management on Mac OS and OS X has always been weak and Windows zoomed past with Aero Snap and related features. Third-party utilities exist on OS X for managing windows, but Apple appears hostile towards them.
Really, it should enable you to more easily and rapidly place windows side-by-side and in other common layouts, rather than making you move/drag/move/drag like it's 1984.
8. Improved iCloud document management
Apple's iCloud still seems very much like a work-in-progress, with the company feeling its way regarding what the system can do. In terms of document management, it's great for people working on their own and who produce relatively few files.
For anyone else, it's problematic at best - OS X 10.9 really needs to improve filing, sharing and collaboration regarding this aspect of iCloud.
9. Interface improvements
It's possible to argue all day about the direction in which Apple's interface should head, but two major widespread problems are apparent that really need fixing. First, Apple's infatuation with desaturation needs to end - people use colour to navigate and spot things, and that's now a problem in some apps (notably Finder and iPhoto sidebars).
Secondly, the company must address scalability. What works on an iPad and just about works on a MacBook Air frequently looks ridiculous on an iMac, such as full-screen apps with acres of space, sickness-inducing animated transitions, and the Fisher-Price-style Launchpad.
10. More cross-device intelligence
Our final wish is that Apple's operating systems would be a little more intelligent when it comes to cross-device purchases. In some cases, Apple gets it right: buy a song and you can (optionally) have it sent to all your Apple kit; buy an app on your iPhone and it'll download in iTunes and be sent to your iPad.
Great. But why can't we browse the Mac App Store (which, after all, is simply a web browser wrapper) on an iPad, buy an app and have it waiting on a Mac the next time we use it? It's almost like Apple doesn't really want us using a Mac any more, once we're comfy with an iPad…
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