Open the door.
Design the doorway.

Dear John and Craig,

A Mac can be beautiful when it is idle. I believe it can also be useful, personal, and inspiring—while remaining every bit as secure.

My connection with Apple began as a teenager. I bagged groceries, saved my own money, and bought an Apple IIc as my first computer. That machine opened an entirely new world to me and began a relationship with technology that ultimately became my career.

I am an infrastructure engineer by trade. My professional experience and appreciation for Apple design came together in System Observatory, an app I am developing to transform idle Mac displays into a thoughtfully designed, multi-display window into the computer itself.

System Observatory is planned for release through the Mac App Store in Fall 2026. It embraces the qualities I have always admired in Apple products: thoughtful design, intuitive interaction, attention to detail, and technology that is both useful and enjoyable to explore.

System Observatory brings much of my vision to life, but one important piece remains beyond the reach of independent developers. Without a modern way to integrate with macOS’s screen saver and Lock Screen architecture, the app cannot participate fully in the security protections Apple has built around that experience.

That limitation revealed a much larger opportunity.

I am writing to ask Apple to explore a modern screen saver extension architecture during the macOS 28 development cycle: a public, secure framework through which independent developers could create new experiences while operating entirely within Apple’s security, privacy, performance, and energy boundaries.

This is not a request to return to unrestricted legacy plug-ins. It is an opportunity to reinvent the category using everything Apple has learned about extensions, sandboxing, entitlements, code signing, notarization, and trusted App Store distribution.

Apple could require every screen saver extension to run out of process within a restrictive sandbox and receive only the capabilities a user explicitly approves. Apple—not the extension—would retain complete control over locking the Mac, requesting authentication, and returning the user to the desktop. Developers would contribute the experience; Apple would preserve the security boundary.

In other words, Apple could open the door while still designing the doorway.

This model could strengthen the Mac’s security by giving developers a safe, documented alternative to aging plug-ins, unusual workarounds, or applications that imitate screen saver behavior without receiving the same system protections.

The creative possibilities are enormous.

For individual users, screen savers could provide time awareness, accessibility features, reminders, and useful local information without sending personal data to a server. In professional environments, they could serve studios, laboratories, operations centers, and multi-display workstations. Each display could have a distinct purpose while remaining part of one coordinated experience.

For Apple, this could create a new category for Mac developers and a trusted distribution opportunity for the Mac App Store. Apple’s own screen savers could remain the standard for beauty and polish, while a carefully governed extension point gives independent developers room to create specialized experiences Apple may never choose to build itself.

Third-party screen savers were once a wonderfully inventive part of Mac culture. After Dark proved that a deceptively simple category could inspire memorable products, creative developers, and genuine affection from Mac users. Apple now has an opportunity to reinvent that spirit for an era of Apple silicon, sandboxing, privacy, and modern multi-display computing.

System Observatory demonstrates one direction this could take. It presents system activity, hardware characteristics, time, memory, and other local information through a visual experience designed to feel at home on the Mac. Different displays can perform different roles while still feeling like parts of one coherent whole.

The app is not intended to imitate or diminish Apple’s screen savers. It demonstrates what becomes possible when an independent developer is allowed to think differently about the same moment: the Mac is still running, its displays are available, and its user has stepped away.

Apple’s modern extension, sandboxing, and distribution technologies make this an especially promising time to explore the idea. A secure screen saver extension framework would allow System Observatory—and other thoughtfully designed apps—to realize their complete visions without compromising the privacy, safety, or elegance Mac users expect.

I invite you to review System Observatory as it progresses toward its planned Fall 2026 release and consider the opportunity firsthand. If you believe the idea has merit, I would welcome the chance to demonstrate the working application to the macOS team and discuss how its code and design could serve as a proof of concept as Apple plans the macOS 28 development cycle.

Apple has already made the idle Mac beautiful. With the right framework, Apple can make it a new canvas for secure, thoughtful, and distinctly Mac-like innovation. I hope you will ask the macOS platform team to explore that possibility—and I would be genuinely excited to help.

Thank you for considering it.

With enthusiasm and appreciation,