One of the finest features of any Mac laptop or desktop is the amazing Space and Expose functionality - it allows you to increase your productivity substantially by allowing you to effortlessly switch between windows and tab with a swipe of your finger. Well it looks like this amazing feature is finally going to jump ship to Apple's post PC devices - the iPad
A patent filing from Apple has revealed what looks like plans to bring OS X Spaces to the iPad. Though a patent is certainly quite clearly in it’s early design phase, and may well be some way off, this tidbit of information certainly sparked our interest this morning. It’s just another example of Apple trying to merge its different ecosystems into one - meaning a sublime level continuity between all of their products.
PC users are probably scratching their heads wondering what the hell were going on about - well hidden withing the system preferences of any OSX machine there is a catergory called 'Expose & Spaces'. Expose is always enabled, but dig a little deeper and you can enable spaces it essentially allows you to have multiple desktop - accessed from a simple button command of your choice.
When you regularly have a million and one programs open at any give time, Expose is a life saver. And we could see it being a must for future iOS updates – and the patent quite clearly shows that Apple are certainly toying with the idea.
Spaces takes productivity to the next level. Once enabled and set up, it allows you to create a series of virtual desktops. The content on your desktop remains the same (icons), but you can distribute your open programs across the various screens (Spaces) as you please.
Originally submitted in the third quarter of 2009, "Device, method, and graphic user interface for manipulating workspace views", describes methods of solving cumbersome and inefficient moving of one or more windows between workspaces. The description and the image that accompanies the patent filing are right on the money -- friends, we could be looking at Spaces for the iPad very soon.