Surely Speech activation must be coming to 10.4.

Also Speech Recognition seems one of those functions typically to benefit from 64bit computing.

Updating of the file system with database features is much anticipated. I hope you can relate it to web resources as well.

i agree that there will probably be no new iApp but eventually it’s logical for apple to offer a two way Safari iApp that doesn’t mention blogging but is actually a blog app

iBlog just doesn’t hit that “insanely great due to Steve Jobs is a fanatic about usability” sweet spot

For the same reason (without considering Microsoft) I wouldn’t expect an Apple developed OpenOffice to be launched. Though TextEdit is likely to updated again (last time it got MS Word import/export) as the Cocoa Text APIs are again being expanded.

VNC/Windowing features would be great.

I expect the industry standard messaging and calendaring will come from other orgs eg Lotus and Novell. I can’t believe Apple could have created a whole message/calendar platform in the last 12 mths given they support industry standard protocols like LDAP or AD.

And I definitely don’t won’t Tog back, or the Cmd+N keyboard combo changed (I definitely open new windows more often than creating new folders), and don’t believe junior programmers are responsible for the Aqua interface.

I expect to see file system changes to support the new file identification technology already introduced in 10.3. That is, tech replacing type/creators and file extensions. I’d guess that changes to the HFS+ file system will add support for metadata like this, that as a result file system responsiveness will be improved, and that Apple will introduce some whizz bang UI features for the Finder and other apps like FCP, iPhoto, etc that can benefit from the new file metadata. This will be the first steps to adding features to outdo Longhorn.

To answer your question, I can’ t think of once in the past 24 months of running OS X that I have wanted a new Finder Window. I don’t need a WINDOW, I need a particular folder open, so I open it directly from my dock using the hierarchical folder lists or directly from an icon. However I create new folders all the time. So logically from my perspective, Command-N for new folder makes a lot of sense. Of course, I can change it on my computer but I have watched every one of my clients, (particularly design clients who are always creating new project folders) run into this problem repeatedly. Perhaps in your own usage, you find the opposite in which case, I suppose the current keyboard commands make sense.

My broader point is that there are still UI changes that would make a lot of sense. In fact, it would be great if Apple would bring back Tognazzini (the interface guru) to do a top to bottom reassessment of the interface to consolidate and standardize the interface elements once again. The entire twenty year body of work was abandoned (thanks Steve) and the junior programmers are committing all sorts of stupid errors in every one of the iApps. Examples of this would be using pop-up lists to change windows (a la Print Center) when a pop-up list should be used to list possible solutions for a single choice. There is an overall lack of consistency and tested UI methodology that is currently running rampant in the junior programmers at Apple that I hope will be addressed at some time in the future. It does not appear to be a big priority at the moment however, so I’m doubtful that it will happen.

And that aside, the whole OS is so stable, that I don’t really even care that much myself!