iApps Suggestion: More Complete Integration

Apple has an array of data types that should be linkable to themselves and all other types of data sets. The following types should be implemented first:

• Address Book contacts
• Finder files
• Finder folders
• iCal calendars
• iCal calendar entries
• iCal to-dos
• iChat chat logs
• iPhoto albums
• iPhoto photos
• iPhoto rolls
• iTunes songs
• iTunes playlists
• Mail emails
• Mail folders
• Safari bookmarks

Naturally, this is hardly an all-inclusive list, but it does cover the major data types from Apple's most popular products.

Some of this has already been implemented, if only in small portions. For instance, you can add attendees to iCal events. You can create relational connections between Address Book contacts. You can dig up email addresses in Mail from Address Book.

Yet this is only scraping the surface; the potential uses of these are various and highly customizable. Some examples...

1. Let's say you have a business meeting. You make an iCal calendar entry. In the meeting, you have a Word document which you will be using that you connect the iCal calendar entry too. There are also several relevant URLs which you have bookmarked in Safari that you link to the iCal calendar entry. You add the attendees to the iCal calendar entry. From Mail, you create an email and drag it to the iCal calendar entry. It automatically adds all the attendee's emails, adds the meeting information contained in the iCal calendar entry, lists the reference URLs for the meeting, and attaches the Word document.
2. Let's say you have a project. You store the documents in a Finder folder. You link that folder to every Address Book contact working on the project. You also link it to any relevant iCal calendar entries. From this folder, you have easy access to all the Mails sent to these people, with these files attached, or sent from these iCal calendar entries.
3. Let's say you have a party. You invite a bunch of people and add them to an iCal calendar entry. You link a playlist to the iCal calendar entry, which you can start right from iCal or have iCal start it automatically at the right time. During the party you want your computer to be displaying an iPhoto slide show, which you link to from the iCal calendar entry, which can also be started manually or automatically from within iCal.

Of course the question about this is how. Well, it looks as if Apple is about to take a big step forward in this with Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4. The Spotlight search, with results divided according to separate data types, is exactly the kind of thing you need. All that would be needed now is to implement this into each interface.

I think a drawer would be a useful way to go about this. In iCal or Mail, just have a separate "Links" drawer open on the other side. In Address Book, add a drawer. The drawer would contain all the direct links of the immediately active data unit, but indirect links would be easily accessible through nested pull down menus. So let's say your in Mail and you drop the pull-down menu of a contact in an email. From there, you can access all the links that would be accessible from his card in Address Book. Thus if there's an event or photo that's not directly linked to the card, you can select it from the nested pull-down menu and have it opened by the appropriate program.

Naturally there would have to be some reasonable limits on how many things are displayed in pull-down menus. If you linked to my daughter, for instance, you'd be inundated by pics of her. Each data item could have it's own limits, with quick access to "Show all photos" or whatever in the list.