What would you like to see in the next macOS release?

[southerndoc]

No sure if someone else has replied, but you can do this, although I'm not sure about the "unless specified otherwise" part of this.

Open your home folder (command shift H)

Press command J to "Show View Options"

Make your adjustments to reflect your preferences.
Click "Use as Defaults"

I've tried that, but the settings don't carry over to all folders.

 

[sahni130]

I’d like to see the Mac OS naming convention change to Star Wars characters:

For example: Mac OS Skywalker 16.2 or Vader 19.0.1

Could you imagine discussions with users saying things like ‘does Yoda work with my HP Printer?’

It’d be amazing.

Just, please, dear God.... give me Mac OS Jar Jar Binks ( who was a Sith Lord, idc what anyone says).

But being serious, just bug fixes and housekeeping. And an all new Mail app.

 

[ZachNathan]

It was more convenient before:

UGH this was literally the best design EVER. So elegant and SO useful. RIP early 2010s iTunes.

 

[orionquest]

UGH this was literally the best design EVER. So elegant and SO useful. RIP early 2010s iTunes.

Meh iTunes was never elegant, the UI was clunky. But yet is was better then the separate apps we have now and more functional for sure.

Apple gives Apple takes away. Story old as time...😅

 

[fisherking]

as usual, another macrumors thread that asks the all-important question: "why can't everything be the way i want it to be"...

 

[Juuro]

Meh iTunes was never elegant, the UI was clunky. But yet is was better then the separate apps we have now and more functional for sure.

Hm, before we had the Music, Podcasts and Books apps everybody said that iTunes was too bloated and Apple should split it up in several dedicated apps. Now we have them and now there are people who want it all back together in one app. 🙃

I think the UI of the Music and Podcasts apps is not great but not so bad as it seems when reading through these forums. Apple is already working on a native Music app without web views. That will help with speed and therefore UX. If they now fix the UX a little bit those are pretty good apps. The question is just if they will bother.

 

[svenmany]

as usual, another macrumors thread that asks the all-important question: "why can't everything be the way i want it to be"...

It seems like you're not enjoying this thread. Your comments tend to critique the thread rather than contribute to it.

We're just tossing around interesting ideas and sharing wishes for the future of MacOS. Do you have anything to add along those lines?

 

[fisherking]

It seems like you're not enjoying this thread. Your comments tend to critique the thread rather than contribute to it.

We're just tossing around interesting ideas and sharing wishes for the future of MacOS. Do you have anything to add along those lines?

there's a lot of "this was better when i thought it was better" and "why can't it be like it was in 2010" (or, pick a year, any year). still, i enjoy reading thru the thread, and equally enjoy expressing my point-of-view.

whatever issues i have with mac OS at any given point, i know that a thread on a forum will not change an OS that was built over the past year, and starts beta soonish. maybe we should discuss 'what do you want to see in mac OS 14'... then send the link to THAT thread to apple (seriously)

 

[Andrew73875]

I think the UI of the Music and Podcasts apps is not great but not so bad as it seems when reading through these forums.

I think UI is actually the biggest issue. Currently, it's faster to search and play a song on Spotify than on Apple Music.

Apple is already working on a native Music app without web views. That will help with speed and therefore UX. If they now fix the UX a little bit those are pretty good apps. The question is just if they will bother.

Completely agree. They have lossless music, people who started their iTunes libraries since the iPod times, all the iPhone users. All they need to do is to make Music App look great, user friendly and bug free.

People want to see their music library with the gorgeous cover art, press play and enjoy the music. "That's it. It's so simple"

That's what made the very first iPod so successful. It was easy to find your songs and play them. Especially in comparison with other players that existed back then.

 

[Juuro]

I think UI is actually the biggest issue. Currently, it's faster to search and play a song on Spotify than on Apple Music.



Completely agree. They have lossless music, people who started their iTunes libraries since the iPod times, all the iPhone users. All they need to do is to make Music App look great, user friendly and bug free.

People want to see their music library with the gorgeous cover art, press play and enjoy the music. "That's it. It's so simple"

That's what made the very first iPod so successful. It was easy to find your songs and play them. Especially in comparison with other players that existed back then.

Let's hope they overhaul the whole apps and not only replace the web view with native views.

 

[Andrew73875]

Meh iTunes was never elegant, the UI was clunky.

I wouldn't say so. It provided a lot of flexibility. For example, it allowed to browse your music in 4 different ways.


List:

Grid:

Cover Flow:

Search:

 

[orionquest]

I wouldn't say so. It provided a lot of flexibility. For example, it allowed to browse your music in 4 different ways.


List:

Grid:

Cover Flow:

Search:

Thanks for sharing. To be honest I don't or didn't spend a lot of time in iTunes over a long time

I mostly used it for iPhone management (downloading app, coping files) and for podcasts.
So my usage came in someplace between Mavericks and 10.11, and now Mojave.

Anyhow I just find using those 2 options very clunky, switching over to your device doesn't seem elegant more shoehorned into iTunes. And Podcast management just seemed like another layered interface/view much different then other views.

 

[MBAir2010]

I also liked when they released these introduction videos for new macOS versions. These videos explain the direction they are going and give an overview of new features.

We [mountain lion users] cant use any feature in that video anymore, which is a shame!
perhaps apple should let us decide what is safe for Us.

 

[Andrew73875]

And Podcast management just seemed like another layered interface/view much different then other views.

The old view allowed to view podcasts in different ways, just like the songs. So, more flexibility.

The current design to be honest, raises a lot of questions. There's only one fixed view. There's no way to view all podcasts as a list. In general, it's very unintuitive.

Aside from UI improvements, it would be also helpful to introduce "played recently" tab. Sometimes people listen to podcasts, but don't subscribe. In this case, there's no trace left, no history.

 

[Wolf1701]

The old view allowed to view podcasts in different ways, just like the songs. So, more flexibility.

The current design to be honest, raises a lot of questions. There's only one fixed view. There's no way to view all podcasts as a list. In general, it's very unintuitive.

funny thing is that iTunes/Music, Safari and so on are simple App. How Apple has been able to trick us into thinking that a new version of these requires a whole new OS is amazing.

 

[fisherking]

funny thing is that iTunes/Music, Safari and so on are simple App. How Apple has been able to trick us into thinking that a new version of these requires a whole new OS is amazing.

wait... what has apple tricked us into believing? as opposed to, say, updated apps that are built-in to the release of new OSes?

this thread is the funnest, funniest thread on macrumors at the moment.

 

[orionquest]

funny thing is that iTunes/Music, Safari and so on are simple App. How Apple has been able to trick us into thinking that a new version of these requires a whole new OS is amazing.

I'm still on Mojave, and I am good. Until I see something worth updating to.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

• Option to turn window title bars on, so I can actually grab windows easily and not think about how (Looking at you Safari, Finder)
• Stickies.app backed up to iCloud

 

[Andrew73875]

Option to turn window title bars on, so I can actually grab windows easily and not think about how (Looking at you Safari, Finder)

This would be great.

By the way it was addressed in aqua interface keynote (time stamped)

 

[TechnoLawyer]

1. Debugging. A ton of it. Hardcore effort here. More important than anything else.
2. Window management. Apple, try Rectangle. Incorporate that exact functionality. Since I don't want a dev to be put on the street by Apple, buy Rectangle from the dev and incorporate it.
3. Charging profiles. Incorporate something like the functionality of AlDente. Come up with a "used it mostly plugged in" profile that cycles the charge between 40% and 60% or so all day to maximize battery life, together with a setting for "charge to full" when you know you'll actually be taking it out on the road. Buy it from the dev, incorporate the best of it.
4. Make it so I can use it with an external monitor in clamshell mode on battery. Absolutely ridiculous that I cannot do this without the janky workaround Amphetamine provides.
5. Sound boosting. Check out the functionality of Boom 2. Buy it from the dev, incorporate the best of it. So helpful for things like video calls, podcasts, etc. Especially when streaming to bluetooth earbuds. Want me to agree to some disclaimer before you let me boost, that's cool, I will.
6. Go use Windows 11 and look how it handles different workspaces. Windows 11 stole the ****ing dock from you, you can steal this. Do it exactly like Windows does. K, thanks.
7. Improve iOS app compatibility.
8. Mousewheel smooth scrolling. Make mouse wheel scrolling smooth like touchpad scrolling.

 

[Traverse]

While boring, what I'd like most is a "no new features" year with a deep dive on bugs and performance improvements since I look to my Mac to be "home base" and want near perfect reliability.

macOS is a pretty mature system, but if I could force a few changes they'd be (ignoring bugs):

• Expand on Shortcuts' integration with the system and Apple-apps. I want even more automation and there are some actions on iOS for Apple's own apps (like Numbers) that aren't available on macOS.
• Add some transparency to iCloud. Far too often things get "stuck" whether it's iCloud Drive, Music, Photos, or even notes. In addition to working on the backend, I really wish they'd give users a bit more control with more descriptive and actionable error messages and also an override for "Sync Now" to force a sync and get things running again. The old answer of "sign out and back in" to iCloud is really disruptive given how integrated it is in macOS.
• Refined Notification Center and widgets. I don't know exactly what this looks like (if it's widgets on the left side of the desktop or a return of dashboard) but I feel like the current iteration of Notification Center and notifications in general is kind of half-baked. Maybe integrate with Launchpad to get people to actually use it (ha!)
• The ability to set Light Mode and Dark Mode on a timer and not just Sunset and Sunrise without Shortcuts.
• The ability to set two wallpapers (for light and dark) rather than making your own .heic dynamic wallpapers.
• Dedicated Password Manager/Secure Notes app rather than continuing to expand the Settings area.
• Ability to move Apple Music playlists into folder in the Music App
• More control over table formats in Notes.
• Ability to link individual Notes to other Notes (internal links)
• Home widgets in Notification Center or in Control Center.
• Improved search in all apps. Sometimes it's spot on, other times it just fails to find what I know is there.
• More built-in windowing control. Currently you can move apps into a split full-screen view, but I like Moom's ability to set custom size and placement presents for more control over your workspaces.

 

[Traverse]

Overhauled Music app, so it is less like an awkward internet browser. Better search functions, so that after browsing the Store I don't have to click "back" fifty times to be able to search my own library.

I left most of my Music.app complaints off of my list because I feel like they're more in the realm of bugs, but the Music app is probably my 2nd or 3rd most used app because it's always running, always underlying what I'm doing, and I'm just passionate about my music library.

• I have a large library of my own purchased music that I use alongside streaming and sometimes those songs just get stuck and I have to reset over and over to get them to upload.
• Albums randomly split, artwork changes, etc.
• Stop making me close the freaking "See what the people are listening to" every third day, I don't care I really don't care and have made specific action dismissing it, so why to you keep bothering me?
• The application still doesn't make great use of space. Full screen on a 5K display why do albums not wrap? Instead I get massive columns of white on each side while Albums stay in a narrow view. This also applies to the view within Albums. I have some albums with over 100 songs and you used to get a two-column view "inside" the album if you had enough space. Now it's just one list with lots of unused white space everywhere and a lot more scrolling.
• I wish I had more control over  Music playlists. I can't put them in folders.
• The app flashes a lot, lags when scrolling even on an M1 Max, and search often just failed and leaves me with a blank screen and I have to quit the app.
• Searching, when it works, is really odd and requires constant back button presses. It feels very "Safari View Controller" ish.

 

[Heindijs]

funny thing is that iTunes/Music, Safari and so on are simple App. How Apple has been able to trick us into thinking that a new version of these requires a whole new OS is amazing.

But that's not even the case at all? Most versions of macOS received major updates for built in apps like those. Mac OS Snow Leopard still received iTunes 11 which was bundled with Mavericks for example. And Lion received iTunes 12! Same deal with Safari. Catalina got the Safari 15 update.

 

[Wolf1701]

But that's not even the case at all? Most versions of macOS received major updates for built in apps like those. Mac OS Snow Leopard still received iTunes 11 which was bundled with Mavericks for example. And Lion received iTunes 12! Same deal with Safari. Catalina got the Safari 15 update.

And still here we are, discussing some app updates/wishes in a thread "

What would you like to see in the next macOS release?" ​

 

[Juuro]

And still here we are, discussing some app updates/wishes in a thread "

What would you like to see in the next macOS release?" ​

Yeah, that's because Apple tends to reveal updates for its major apps alongside its OS. But that doesn't mean you can't get those updates with older versions of macOS. Last year for example Safari 15 was released on September 20 for Catalina and Big Sur while Monterey was released at October 25.