Surround-sound for GUI sound effects
A change in the latest MacOS Leopard build: “3D audio cues to indicate locations of items on the screen in the VoiceOver screen reader“.
What an awesome idea! With enormous screens, it would make more and more sense for the plinky beepy noises in the user interface to locate themselves using the system’s surround sound. If you receive a new chat message, it makes sense for the new-message sound to come from the little chat window forgotten in the corner of the screen.
It’d be interesting to consider what it should sound like when minimised applications make a sound (does it ‘come from’ the minimised app tray/dock? Does it sound muffled?), or applications sitting on other virtual desktops (distant and echoey? ‘Through a wall’?).