Apple Patent App Shows 3D Desktop

December 11th, 2008 at 11:12 AM - News by Jeff Gamet

A recent patent filing from Apple Inc may offer a glimpse into the company's future plans for Mac OS X, including a three-dimensional Desktop. The revamped interface design could allow for stacked items and offer ways to essentially grab objects that are covered by other icons, and to group objects closer to you or farther back in a virtual 3D workspace.

While some of the interface descriptions look more like today's Desktop, but with virtual walls that extend out to create what looks like the inside of a box, others show more radical interface changes -- including moving the traditional menu bar to a stack, or allowing it to act as a floating element.

Considering Apple's plans to release Mac OS X 10.6 early in 2009, don't expect to see any of these potential interface changes soon. Assuming any of these elements make it past the drawing board, we won't likely see them in action for at least a couple of years.

[Thanks to AppleInsider for the heads up.]