It ’s been two weeks since Steve Jobs and a trio of other Apple executive took to the level at the Worldwide Developers Conference to preview the next adaptation of OS X. Now thatMacworldhas had a chance to examine each of the feature slated for Leopard , I thought I might add together my own two cents on what Apple has revealed about OS X 10.5 . After all , OS X has fundamentally been both my hobbyhorse and my task for the last five age ; I ’m as interested as the next individual to see where this O is headed .
To me , the individual most interesting affair about the entire Leopard intro was actually one that receive very footling time in the presentation — a unmarried slide displaying the words Top Secret . At the keynote , Jobs told attendee that we were n’t really going to see everything new in Leopard , as Apple wanted to keep Microsoft ’s photocopier offline for a while longer . To me , this was a very telling slide — everything else we were about to see was n’t really the good stuff about Leopard . It was merely the clobber that Apple matte it could share without giving a competitory advantage to Microsoft .
Instead , I think the truly divulge Leopard display will issue forth at January 2007 ’s Macworld Expo . By that time , ( theoretically ) Vista will either be shipping or very close to transportation , and Apple will probably experience easy reveal the Top privy items we were n’t allowed to see two week ago . I ’m not sure what those features might be , but they must be good if they ’re firm than the 10 areas that Apple opted to give away .
Note that it ’s also completely possible that was nothing more than “ marketing spin , ” design to get people like myself speculating what out of sight jewel we may have yet to see , with the reality being that there are no tiptop - mystical hidden features . Only fourth dimension will order …
As for the feature film that were discussed in item , there are five that I think are going to be existent winners once OS X 10.5 ship next spring — and by “ winner , ” I stand for compelling features and applications that will help drive the OS X user experience to yet another level . Those winner are :
•Time Machine : With more and more of our lives being put in on hard driving force ( think photos , pic , euphony , etc . ) , it ’s critical to have a good championship . Yet very few mass take the effort to on a regular basis back up their systems . Time Machine looks like it could convert all that . With a very intuitive and ground - breaking 3 - five hundred interface , and automatic ground operation , Time Machine should make it brain - drained simple for anyone to have a constantly - update and easily accessible reliever . Yes , you ’ll need to clothe in another toilsome private road to keep the Time Machine backups … but how much are those digital - only pictures of your newborn child deserving ?
There are some questions to be suffice relative to repel space usage with Time Machine — I posed a few of them in my write - up on the backup feature — but I applaud Apple for claim the opening to make accompaniment a key chemical element of the operating system . I feel somewhat sorry for the vendor who targeted consumer with backup resolution , as their market just capture a mountain tougher . But Apple seems to have really done this one rightfulness .
•Core vitality : This is a developer - level technology , but it ’s one that might just essentially change how we interact with our software package in the future . For the Core Animation demo , Apple explicate how the party used the engineering to commute a 4,000 - line concealment - saver from OS X 10.4 into a 400 - rail line Core Animation project — and one with more features than the 10.4 adaptation . Company executives also revealed that Time Machine ’s user interface is based on Core Animation . As developers try out with Core Animation , I really believe we ’ll start seeing some groundbreaking new apps that take substance abuser fundamental interaction in entirely novel and useful focal point .
•Mail : The incorporation of notes and to - do ’s in Mail is a great move . Like Steve Jobs , and probably many of you , I expend an inordinate amount of time in OS X ’s built - in ring mail client . I also spend a lot of clip flip out between Mail and iCal , add events , to - do ’s , and note to myself in the shape of event . take in that built - into Mail will be a bang-up clock time rescuer .
Even well , though , is the fact that the to - do feature is a system - all-embracing server , accessible to any developer . This should intend the emersion of unexampled apps that will also be able to tie their activity into the to - do waiter . Having just one to - do organisation that can be used by any diligence is a brilliant move , assuming developers take vantage of the chance .
•Dashboard : For developers , Dashcode will make it much easier for them to write Dashboard widgets . But that ’s not what ’s most exciting about Dashboard in 10.5 . That distinction belongs to Web Clip , which is actually a feature in Safari . Press the internet Clip release , and Dashboard open up , showing the expose web page in a widget . Scroll the page and size the widget to show what you desire to see , and blammo , you ’ve created your own personalized thingmabob . Scott Forestall make five widgets in about five moment ; it ’s really as uncomplicated as pull - and - drop . I think present users the ability to create their own useful entanglement - display widgets is a very calculative move ; it increases Dashboard ’s psyche deal with the users , and commit all of us a reason to apply Dashboard — even those like myself , who were antecedently not immense fans of the feature film .
•iChat : iChat has matured nicely over the years , and Leopard front to continue the drift . Tabbed chat are a smashing addition , as anyone who has usedChaxto lend the feature to iChat in 10.4 can bear witness . On my auto , it ’s not strange for me to have 10 or so iChats open at once ; having them all grouped in one window get it much easy to manage the mass of conversations . Sharing slideshows and keynote presentation is also a nifty thought , as is the ability to record your video chats .
I ca n’t , however , say the same for animate buddy icons — I can only hope there ’s a preference to disable this “ sweetening . ”
astonishingly , the cool new iChat feature was n’t even covered in the keynote . It is , however , explained on Apple’sLeopard iChat Thomas Nelson Page . That feature is iChat Screen Sharing , which will allow for two citizenry to see one another ’s screen door , staring with audio , via an iChat . For someone like myself who does a lot of tech financial backing for the relative , this will be a huge timesaver . rather of typing up instructions with screenshots , we ’ll just be able to start a screen share-out chat , and I can then do what needs to be done while excuse what I ’m doing and why .
crucial but not obviously cool stuff
While the obvious achiever on my list all have very seeable public face , there are other elements of Leopard that are just as important , but much less visible . While many users may not take advantage of the keep abreast features every day , they serve well an of import persona in making osmium X 10.5 a solid upgrade from 10.4 .
•64 - bit applications : In 10.4 , Unix applications can be pen to take reward of 64 bit processor ( the G5s and the Modern Mac Pros ) . In 10.5 , 64 - second keep has been extend up to the existent GUI level — all the frameworks now defend 64 - scrap computer code . For those in fields who push huge ( over 4 GB ) information files into C.P.U. - intensive operations ( remember astronomical and scientific data point ) , this is very important . For most of the quietus of us , we wo n’t see much , if any , change in our distinctive consumer applications .
•Deliver the complete package : essentially , this was Steve ’s direction of saying that Apple will finish those thing they ’ve sort of periodically set forth before , and include them all with Leopard . Specifically , Boot Camp , Front Row , and Photo Booth will all be bundled with Leopard and will work with a wide range of Macs ( and cameras , in the case of Photo Booth ) . It&38217;s nice that people wo n’t have to resort to finding hacks to utilize Front run-in or Photo Booth . From a moderately cynical perspective , though , holding out Photo Booth as an motivator to advance to Leopard seems a bit weak — but no such argumentation for the other two applications , manifestly .
Universal Access : Leopard will go even further with accessibility . While this mainly benefits those with special indigence , there are some drip - down event for the rest of us . The demonstration of the new schoolbook - to - speech spokesperson , compare it to those of both Tiger and Vista , was jaw - dropping . The new voice sounds incredibly rude — you may even get wind brusk “ external respiration in ” dissonance just after a period or punctuation bell ringer , much as you would when listening to a real speaker . I was stunned by how secure the new voice sounds . It even sounded bang-up when sped up to near A-one - human speeds , which is important for citizenry who have to listen to every single Word of God that appear on their concealment .
The jury ’s still out
Until I get hands on time with Leopard , I ’m uncertain as to how well done these final two feature are — it ’s just too grueling to draw any conclusion base on the keynote and information on Apple ’s Leopard entanglement page .
•Spaces : Spacesis Apple ’s execution of practical desktops . As my colleague Dan Frakes explicate in his space trailer , a practical desktop is just what it sounds like — a desktop that does n’t really be , but one you’re able to use as though it were actual . It ’s a way of life of organizing multiple open software , such that you put store like applications together , and only touch off the desktop they reside on when you require to use it . There are a few oxygen X apps that enforce practical desktops today — Desktop ManagerandVirtualDesktop Proto name just two .
Traditionally , virtual desktop apps have appeal in the main to the “ geekier ” users of OS X , and I ’m not sure that ’s go to change much with the coming of Spaces . While Apple has done a good occupation of making practical desktops as well-fixed to use as possible , there ’s still a bit of setup and learning curve to go through . For those who do like using them , however , the inclusion of a fully plump for solvent is a big plus — especially as the Dock is amply Spaces - cognizant , which makes it somewhat easier to handle applications between Spaces .
•Spotlight : Ah yes , my previous friend Spotlight . Some of the changes described sounded quite useful — the ability to search other Macs and OS X servers on the internet , and the addition of pre - populated recent items . Quick Look , which offers a preview of photos , contacts , snapshots , etc . , without opening the parent app sound especially useful .
But the one Spotlight feature that I ’m personally most interested in is the “ rich syntax ” for Spotlight . Unfortunately , beyond describing reinforcement for booleans , there was n’t any other entropy supply about this feature during the tonic . TheSpotlight Web pageexplains that you’re able to now use AND , OR , and NOT in your search requests to aid narrow your search results , as well as add specific file attributes , such as author , case or keyword . That all sounds great . However , what ’s not clear is whether you’re able to also use divagation to control the order of search , nor whether these modern searches are available in both a Finder search and a Spotlight window lookup . I really trust Apple has extended Spotlight ’s lookup syntax anywhere we can habituate the limelight locomotive , but again , we ’ll have to wait until we ’re much closer to a shipping product in rescript to resolve that dubiousness .
Conclusion
Overall , I thought the WWDC trailer of Leopard was a self-colored carrying into action for Apple . alas , it seems we ’ll have to all wait a while longer to see what Leopard ’s really going to be about — when the Top Secret sloping trough is replaced by a serial publication of slides that really show us what Apple ’s been up to with 10.5 . ( Or not , if it was all marketing twirl . )
Aug 21 10:20 a.m. edit : Corrected surgical incision on entanglement clip to reflect right presenter and routine of widgets .
