Apples Next OS Going Animated?

Though not a feature that’s been talked about much in the past, Wired has taken it upon themselves to delve further into the technology known as Core Animation. It’s an integrated part of Leopard which allows developers to add flashy, animated interfaces.

Take for example Disco, a piece of software for burning CD/DVDs. While it burns, the application smokes out the top in a realistic fashion. Blowing into the microphone would make the smoke react as if it were real. While a feature like this sounds great, to me it’s just something “fun”, not a feature you’d want to be using all the time. However, Core Animation doesn’t end there. It’s up to the developer to utilize it in a unique and interesting way.

The WWDC beings on Monday, so chances are we will find out a lot more about this new technology then. Will it vastly change our computing experience? Hard to say, but it appears to be shaping up nicely so far.

Shipley predicts that Core Animation will kick-start a new era of interface experimentation, and may lead to an entirely new visual language for designing desktop interfaces. The traditional desktop may become a multilayered three-dimensional environment where windows flip around or zoom in and out. Double-clicks and keystrokes could give way to mouse gestures and other forms of complex user input.

Source: Wired