Apple's OS X's ninth edition will be rolling out soon, so what should we expect from the upcoming operating system? We surely expect that OS X 10.9 will be more like iOS.
Too be frank, I don't think Apple has set the bar too high after Steve's death. They still make great products, but the Cupertino wizards desperately need to do something revolutionary, again.
The idea seems to be pretty simple — bring the desktop and the smartphone user experience closer; as close as possible. The reasons, simply, is consistency. With Apple's rivals trying pretty hard to do so, Apple, too, isn't far behind.
The future of OS X
The previous year saw the Mountain Lion OS X update — Lion's successor. Mountain Lion simply further implemented Lion's idea to bring the desktop and the mobile closer.
Firstly, the Launchpad is the iOS-style application menu (pretty much the same). It hides the desktop, blurs the background and shows all apps available in a grid from, just like iOS. Next up, Mountain Lion bring the Notification Center to the desktop. Just as you have on a phone, notifications appear on top and a simple 3-finger swipe from right on the trackpad brings the Notification Center out, which looks pretty much the same as that in iOS. Facebook and Twitter integrated followed, joining the Vimeo and Flickr on the OS X platform. The ability to post a status update or tweet a photo on Twitter directly, just like you would on your phone, brings the desktop computing experience closer to the mobile. Game Center is another app which was available on iOS, and Mountain Lion brings that to the OS X too. Dictation is now available for many apps, including the Office suite. Obviously, the biggest update to the OS X was the iCloud, which automatically sinks all your contacts, documents, mails, etc. between your devices — the Mac, iPhone, or the iPad.
We will probably not see any major changes in the look of the operating system, although there will be some tweaks. Here are some apps and features that we can expect from OS X 10.9.
Maps
Some sources are pretty sure that the Maps app will arrive on the desktop platform. There are a few possibilities:
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A dedicated Maps app in OS X which can be downloaded from the Mac App Store and will allow third parts apps (such as Google Maps) as well.
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A browser-based Maps service much like Google or Bing Maps, which will save data to the iCloud.
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A pre-installed Maps app which will only support Apple Maps.
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Third-parties will make their mapping apps available on the Mac App Store.
However, the only thing Apple needs to do with Maps is sort out the mess they've made. The current problematic stuff cannot continue. Thus, we can expect important announcements in the first quarter of this month.
Siri
Why not? Dictation and Speech was already a part of OS X Mountain Lion, and it would be only logical to Siri to follow, since it is an expansion of what already is there. It will excite many Mac users around the globe, but it's won't be much of good for Indian users since Siri isn't too comfortable with the Indian accent yet.
It won't be too fun shouting at your laptop to get it to undo things to didn't tell it to do at the first place.
OS X Lynx?
The next update to OS X will be called Lynx, said AppleScoop, the popular Apple news blog. We've already had Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion, so it would continue Apple's catty theme.
"This source claimed that he saw some internal papers that seem to be finalizing the name of the operating system," the report said, "although the same source couldn't say when Apple would be finalizing its name and announcing it to the public."
However, I think the company won't name their update Lynx. It's not that the name is not awesome enough, but it would be too complicated since there are already a few well-known products in the IT industry named Lynx. There's the Lynx web browser, then there's the Atari Lynx, and finally, there's LynxOS, another desktop operating system. Thus, it's possible that Apple will find itself at the receiving end of another lawsuit for using this name.
Taking that into consideration, it is highly unlikely that Apple will go with this name.
What do you think the name of the next OS X update would be? Tell me in the comments.
