Apple Patent App Shows 3D Desktop

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Jeff Gamet

11:12 AM, Dec. 11th ET, 2008

Articles by Author Jeff Gamet on Twitter Contact Author Bio

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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.]

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2 Observer Comments

iJack

said on December 12th, 2008 at 12:56 AM (Edited: 09/26/2011 1:30 PM):

It looks like Stacks, but laid out on the dock, and scrolled through like scrolling back through Time Machine. I would say that could be a most interesting addition.

36Mm Microfilming said on February 19th, 2009 at 6:19 AM (Edited: 02/19/2009 3:18 PM):

Hope this will be interesting for Desktop.

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