The recent Apple patent for “scrollable menus and toolbars” indicates that Apple will continue to add similar features to iOS and Mac OS X. As I’ve said before, I think eventually there will only be one operating system, Apple OS, in computer and mobile versions.
The patent in question also shows further evolution of the Mac OS X Finder with the replacement of hierarchical computer menus by a scrollable window, in which functions would be more clearly displayed and navigated by gestures. Those gestures on a Mac would be made on a laptop trackpad, Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
At last week’s MacTech Conference, Mac guru pundit Andy Ihnatko said Mac OS X Lion shows a move toward non-hierarchical menu structures and “uni-tasking.” (“Multitasking is 95% a lie,” he said.)
With the scrollable menus and toolbars patent, you’ll be offered a menu that includes several selectable menu items assigned a particular order for scrolling through a selection window based on user input. In other words, as well put by Jonny Evans in his “Apple Holic” column (http://blogs.computerworld.com/17310/patent_says_apples_lion_boasts_scrollable_menus), “user convenience becomes ever more important, and navigation of an application’s features becomes ever more transparent.”
That’s certainly the Apple way.
— Dennis Sellers