14 DAY TRIAL // Stephen Gilbert, the co-founder of Brilvan Inc. and an avid Mac user, decided to file a complaint with Apple’s newly-appointed VP of Mac Software Engineering after discovering that fullscreen Mac apps aren’t usable on multiple displays.
Explaining to Apple’s Craig Federighi that said issue basically makes his $1,000/€763 Thunderbolt display irrelevant, Gilbert says there are a lot of pro-level users who find it necessary to be able to run fullscreen apps on multiple displays.
Unfortunately, a bug (or, more likely, several bugs) in OS X prevent them from doing so. He asks Apple’s new VP of Mac Software Engineering whether or not he plans on doing something about it.
His email specifically states, "I’m emailing about fullscreen app support on multiple displays in OS X. Me and many other professionals would love to be able to run full screen apps on multiple displays. OS X sucks for this. So many people have been asking for a long time, and Apple hasn’t listened."
"I just spent $1000 on a Thunderbolt display, and fullscreen mode serves absolutely no purpose for me becaue I can only use one app at a time, no matter how many displays I have. Is this going to be an update added in the future. I’m really disappointed."
As expected, Federighi’s response was a terse one, but he reassured Gilbert that Apple is well aware of this problem. While he could not specify a timeframe for when this fix might arrive, Federighi suggested that his team of software engineers is on the case.
"I understand your concern around using full screen apps in multi-monitor configurations," Federighi replied. "I can’t comment about our future product plans, but please do know that we are absolutely aware of our customers’ passion on this topic!"
In other words, Apple is not quite fully commited to resolving this problem ASAP.
We noted in a recent Personal Thoughts entry that Apple's hands are currently tied with several issues on the iOS front, as well as the company's multi-product launches in the September-October timeframe.
A potential OS X 10.8.3 might be in the works internally, but Apple's sea of testers is yet to receive the first beta.