I’ll bet the big selling point on this idea is the possibility of having amazing graphical displays each time you sync. This is one of the strengths of the Mac and the upcoming Mac OS Leopard. There was a Coke commercial a few months ago that I’m reminded of when I think of Portal’s sync animations (found it again on YouTube). Fun, frivolous, but really fun!
So far, only two possible animation profiles have been mentioned: Wormholes, and Tornado:
Wormholes: A semitransparent “tube” or “tunnel” passing underneath the desktops of both Macs, with file icons being sucked in one end and reappearing on the other (like the Genie minimizing effect used for the Dock, but with more of a fullscreen warping/flexing effect).
Tornado: File icons fly in from the edges of the screen, converge in a little tornado on top of the Portal window. Then the tornado starts to move off screen, shaking up the dock, and all the desktop icons. At the same time, Portal on the receiving Mac should duplicate the tornado coming in from the side of its screen. Then the tornado dies off and all the files get tossed gently around on the desktop (fading to nothing at the end).
But these are only two ideas, and they hardly even scratch the surface of what Portal might be capable of. The animations don’t even have to make a lot of sense (watch the Coke ad), as long as the basic premise is maintained: files are being synces. Wormholes are cool, but a mini-parade is more than just that. Portal should be the first sync app that’s not only easy to use, exceptionally powerful, but also capable of bringing a smile the user’s face. I’m really interested to hear what the rest of you think. So, how would you add a little “wow factor” to Portal?
