Deep down in their guts, iOS and OS X are basically the same beast, distinguished largely by their user interface shells… so could tomorrow’s reveal of OS X 10.7, “Lion,” make OS X’s UI more like iOS than ever before? An unconfirmed report says yes.
According to the report, the upcoming update to Lion will be heavily based on iOS in many of its trappings. It’ll still be Aqua, but “the iOS influence is [more] visible in the new OS user interface.”
“Apple took some elements from iOS and applied them to OS X, trying to blend everything nicely,” they say. The big change is that Mac OS X 10.7 will allegedly abandon the current Aqua scroll bars for iOS more minimal look and scrolling behavior: additionally, the scroll bars may adopt a “rubber band” elastic scrolling method as found in the iOS devices, and OS X may gain a native “pull to refresh” feature.
QuickLook’s also rumored to get an overhaul. Gone is the black: the QuickLook UI in 10.7 will be white and include support for popovers in the Spotlight menu.
MacStories, where this report originates, is an unverified source, and some of their claims — like a native pull to refresh feature — seem pretty dicey. That said, Apple is an iOS company now: OS X is their second tier product. I’d be amazed if OS X didn’t become more iOS-like over time, starting with the next major iteration of the operating system.
