Leopard to Be Three-Dimensional

Because the parent company Apple refuses to offer a certain date concerning the release of the upcoming Mac OSX Leopard, the speculations are continuously spreading on the Internet, announcing new features or functions included in the product. Take the example of the recently released rumor that sustained Apple is preparing to delay Leopard until October 2007 because they are looking to integrate Boot Camp into the system. Boot Camp is an application that allows Mac users to install and run Windows XP.

Today, a new rumor was started by Iljitsch van Beijnum from ars technica who sustained the upcoming Apple Mac OSX version will be three-dimensional. His idea? Some form of resolution independence as he said. "We've already seen the iPhone seamlessly zoom in, zoom out, and flip icons, windows, and screens. Think about what a real computer could do here. Cover flow and multi-party iChat video show a glimpse of what a 3D accelerated user interface could look like, with light sources, reflections, and more," van Beijnum sustained in the article.

Although the idea is quite interesting and amazing it can be quite difficult for Apple to integrate such functions. Why? Because Mac is attractive as long as it remains an eye-candy operating system. Some of the users may be disappointed or disturbed by the effect so I really believe Apple doesn't need this type of function to test the market.

In fact, Mac OSX is already somehow three-dimensional. Think at the dashboard or at the effects displayed every time you minimize or close a window. They are all based on OpenGL functions that are animating the window and offering 180 degrees rotation. I admit these are not "real" 3D effects because they aren't true vectors as long as they're based on static bitmaps displayed as slideshow. So, it seems like we must wait and see…