In the runnel - up to Monday ’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote display , a group ofMacworldeditors sat down and produced a lean of the features they hoped to see in Mac OS X 10.5 , code - named Leopard . Now that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has yield us a fond peep behind the drape , it ’s time to assess our regard against what Apple will deliver in Spring 2007 when Leopard is countersink to pounce .
1. Improvements to Spotlight
We ’ve made no closed book of our frustration with Tiger ’s Spotlight search feature . Not least among those frustration is Spotlight ’s inability to do complex search . Leopard ’s adaptation of Spotlight changes that , allowing you to conduct Boolean lookup using And , Or , and Not atmospheric condition . In addition you will be able to look for using specific file attribute — by author , type , or keyword . However , Jobs bring up nothing about improving Spotlight so that it easy find out files by a specific claim — Aunt Betty ’s Pasta Recipe , for example — as the Mac OS ’s Find characteristic once did .
2. Built-in launcher
talk of Spotlight , Apple seem to have deal our next asking for a build - in catapult . In a feature that is likely similar to the most basic capabilities of nonsubjective Development’sLaunchBar , in Spotlight you will be able to enter the first few characters of an practical app ’s name , have it appear as the top bang , and launch it by pressing the Mac ’s Return cay . No word from Apple if , as with LaunchBar , Spotlight will cross your habit and understand that when you type
3. Finder fixes
job and the other Apple EXEC who demonstrate some of Leopard ’s new features flashed to the Finder from time to time in fiat to access text file and undetermined program . In those abbreviated glimpses there was no hint that the Finder ’s coming into court will be radically alter . The Dock , Sidebar , and Smart Folders stay on . As for Rob Griffith ’s requests — a sortable tower - eyeshot window , well customizable contextual menus , selectable colors for column prospect window backgrounds , some mode to surf the Spotlight metadata directly in the Finder , and more powerful Smart folders — we’ll have to wait and see .
4 and 5. Windows compatibility and integration…or virtualization
Apple has unfreeze Boot Camp , a genus Beta release that lets an Intel - based Mac carry Windows XP . As well as Boot Camp works , its major failing is that you have to bring up your Mac into one operating organization or the other — there ’s no shared space where the two program can coexist .
In Leopard , I ’d hoped to see Apple extend greater integration between the Mac atomic number 76 and Windows running on an Intel Mac — allowing user to quickly shift between each operating system or , at the very least , make a space where you’re able to store detail that can be accessed by both operating systems . Rob Griffiths hop that Mac OS X 10.5 would allow you create virtual CPUs , single where you could run any flavor of Windows as well as Linux much as you’re able to with Parallel’sParallels Desktop for Mac .
From all indication , Boot Camp will continue to turn in a way that requires you to boot your Mac into one operating system when you need to run Windows , and another when you want to use the Mac OS . Thankfully for those seeking concurrent operating system of rules , Parallels is here to stay and VMware , a big name in virtualization , has denote its intention to support the Mac in a approaching release ( Microsoft , however , has leave the biz , announcing that it will not develop a unexampled version of its Virtual personal computer . )
6. Virtual desktops
Leopard’sSpacesfeature grants our wish . With Spaces you could create multiple work environments — one for a podcast , another for a Web page you ’re creating , one more for the many open Page in your Web internet browser , and yet one more for iPhoto redaction , for example — and easily move between them with a keyboard shortcut or the click of your black eye .
7. Make a true media center
If Steve Jobs had ended his computer address with a “ one more thing ” and reveal a true media nitty-gritty Mac , our compliments may have been concede — but he did n’t and it was n’t . While he did say that Front wrangle would be update , he did n’t specifically spell out how . Until he does , we ’ll continue to get along with our boob tube , TiVo , and adjunct Ab gear .
8. File and account security
FileVault , OS X ’s robotlike encoding applied science , was once the variety of marquee feature that made the cutting for a Jobs tonic . Not this time . No word on FileVault ’s circumstances .
9. Restore more
I asked for a characteristic similar to Window ’s System Restore — a agency to “ rewind ” your Mac to a state and date when it was happy . And , by mucilage , Apple gets darn close with Time Machine , a backup / restore feature that appropriate you to turn up and go back files from your Mac ’s past . Scott Forestall , Apple ’s frailty Chief Executive of platform experience , attest how you could apply Time Machine to turn up and fix a file that ’s been move from a peculiar booklet . Using Time Machine you may not only restore that filing cabinet , but previously saved versions as well . Apple’sOS X Leopard Sneak Peek pagetells us that you’re able to restore single filing cabinet , chemical group of files , whole folders , and even your entire system with a individual pawl .
Unlike Windows ’ System Restore , Time Machine requires an extra hard effort for store and restore your back up data .
10. Smart locations
We ’re still in the dark about whether Leopard will put up an OS 9 - like Location Manager that automatically changes sure system preferences — nonpayment printing machine , postal service waiter , and internet preferences , for example — based on where you are . A later look inside Leopard ’s System Preferences may allow an answer .
11. Smart users
Our skilful surmisal is that if Leopard offered the selection to easily transport your personal information and favorite coating from one Mac to another via a USB keydrive or iPod , Jobs would have outcry about it to the heavens . He did n’t , so we ’re not holding our breather .
12. Improve VoiceOver
This is one that unquestionably falls into the Plus column . Not only has Apple grant our wishing that VoiceOver become easier to use ( you will be able to configure VoiceOver ’s preferences so it provides more or less item in its descriptions of target on your Mac ’s sieve ) but , as we ’d hop-skip , it will provide far - less - automatonlike text edition - to - speech voices with Leopard . line of work demonstrated a Mac show a paragraph of text with a voice that was every piece as natural as the voices offer up byCepstral .
13. Expand Disk Utility’s powers
We ’d hop that Leopard ’s version of Disk Utility would provide more robust tools for dealing with a misbehaving Mac as well as for partitioning drive without having to delete the data on them . We ’ll go on hoping until Apple gives a definite yea or nay on this issue .
14. More from Mail
Jobs did n’t address the under - the - hood improvements I ’d longed for in Mail — more encompassing rules and filters , for example . In his world , set about more from Mail mean providing user with letter paper templates , notes , and to - do ’s that link to practical software such as iCal . I ’m bright that along with these eye - catching features , we ’ll see those under - the - goon improvement as well .
15. Smart syncing
Want to synchronize folders on your Mac with those same booklet on a mount file server or remote server as well as you may with .Mac ? So do we , but Apple has dropped no trace that Leopard will give up you to .
16. Keeping tabs with iChat
Nailed it . Not only will the next revision of iChat let you display multiple chats in one window via a tabbed interface as well as salvage video chat file cabinet , as we ’d hoped , but you will be able to display an iPhoto slideshow or Keynote intro within a video recording iChat , observe and curb a exclusive shared desktop with a Modern feature squall iChat Screen Sharing , and place your iChat persona in front of a practical backdrop — either a still mental image or QuickTime picture .
17 and 18. Automator II and more Automator updates
We would like Automator to be able to record onscreen actions and volunteer more advance programing tools admit variables , conditionals and branching . Jobs advert nary a tidings of Automator ’s time to come but we remain hopeful that no only will Automator be even easier to use under Leopard , but more conciliatory too .
19. Capturing moving pictures
We atMacworldlive and die by Ambrosia Software ’s amazing still- and motion - capture service program , Snapz Pro X. If job ’ failure to bring up similar movement - seizure capability in Leopard is any hint , our investment funds in Snapz Pro X will not have been in futile .
20. Bring back Sherlock
Given the promise ofWeb Clip , a Leopard characteristic that will rent drug user catch a portion of a Web page that update on a regular basis — local movie listings , for example , or update fun score — and clop that data into a widget , we can get the last nail in Sherlock ’s casket . Apple has understandably thrown its exercising weight behind widgets to the point in time where we ’ll be shocked if the Sherlock icon has n’t made its last appearance in Tiger .
21. Pop-up innovations
Macworld ’s Big Cheese , Jason Snell , was hopeful that Apple would allow Dashboard widgets to interact with the Mac bone in meaningful ways . For example , you might drop behind a contraption out of the Dashboard layer and into the Mac ’s user interface or , when something authoritative hap , a widget might bubble up to the surface . From all appearances , widget will stay beached in the Dashboard environment .
22. Tabbed Terminal
If you expend a lot of meter in Terminal with multiple windows open , you ’d like a variant of Terminal that included a tabbed interface for neatly arranging those windows . If a Developers Conference is n’t the space to show off such a geeky characteristic , we do n’t do it what is . Yet a tabbed Terminal was not on the menu . On the other hand , Jobs ’ WWDC keynote is as much for the mainstream military press as it is for developers and a tabbed Terminal is n’t potential to wow the readers of theNew York TimesandBusiness Week .
23. PowerPC or not to be?
Even though Apple officially ended its relationship with the PowerPC processor by announcing the Intel - establish Mac Pro and Xserve , the PowerPC lives on in its support in Leopard . Take a gander at the bottom of Apple’sLeopard Sneak Peekpage and you ’ll see these words :
All these features and more are cede to you in one world-wide , amply approachable , 64 - fleck operating system of rules .
The fundamental word here isuniversal , a terminal figure Intel - Mac user are accustomed to depend for when researching software compatibility . But as the lunar time period turns and we move to the point where software that work with Intel processors are the norm , those run sometime mac with PowerPC central processing unit will be just as interested in Universal software — and an operating system — that play with their computers .
[ Christopher Breen is a aged editor in chief forMacworld . ]
