“ Another six months ? ! ” You could listen the wails from Macintosh users last calendar month when Apple announced that Mac OS X 10.5 , cognize as Leopard , would not send until October 2007 , rather than this give as earlier promised .
Apple had announced Leopard at its Worldwide Developers Conference in August 2006 , touting a telephone number of new and improved characteristic , including the pursuit :
These announcements were enough to get eager Mac substance abuser drooling , so the postponement hit them hard . But while they will have to wait for Leopard , they do n’t have to hold back to add some Leopard - like feature to their Macs . Shareware and commercial-grade tools already make it possible to add many of these feature ( or something similar ) to the current Mac OS X 10.4 , have sex as Tiger .
get the leap on Dashboard
According to Apple’sLeopard Sneak Peek , Dashboard will sport two major new feature in Leopard . One is Dashcode , a template - base tool that is supposed to make create widgets easier . If you want to judge it out , you candownloadthe beta version of Dashcode from Apple ’s developer site .
( As observe on the Dashcode beta page , the genus Beta is currently designed to get only Tiger - compatible widgets . Panthera pardus - specific features will likely be include in a public release only after Leopard ships . )
Dashboard ’s other newfangled feature of speech in Leopard will be the power to produce widget from portions of an existing Web page in Safari . If that sounds like something you want to do right out , gibe outAmnesty Generatorfrom Mesa Dynamics . Amnesty Generator does n’t allow you to create thingumajig quite as well as Safari will in Leopard , but it does enable you to create widgets out of Web substance from a number of sites . Google Gadgets , YouTube videos and more can easily be turned into Dashboard widgets without demand to indite any code .
BitBlasters Software’sVirtual Dashboardand JBear Technologies’MultiDashdon’t add any novel feature to Dashboard but rather apply the conception of virtual desktops . Both utilities allow you to produce multiple set of widgets in virtual Dashboards and easy interchange among them . ( Virtual Dashboard also allows you to display widgets on the background . )
Both do work well and are a huge help if you ofttimes practice a bunch of whatchamacallit and want to keep them all activated and available all the time . The shareware Virtual Desktop installs as an app that is cope from the menu bar . MultiDash , on the other hand , is freeware , installs as a Dashboard whatsis and negociate virtual Dashboards from within Dashboard itself .
space : So what ’s fresh ?
Virtual screen background are not a unexampled conception in computing , and they are not new to the Mac . In fact , Mac virtual background solution engagement back to the late ’ 80s and have come in two form : Spaces - like multiple separate desktop that you may switch between , and creature that make a unmarried desktop social occasion as a enceinte one by tally roll bars to it . Here are some way to savor the virtual background experience even before Leopard arrives .
You see to it : Desktopsfrom You Software is a universal shareware practical software that allows you to easily make and manage multiple virtual desktops , including defining whether each screen background has its own desktop and/or Finder items expose . You Control : Desktops puts a thumbnail of each background in the menu bar , and you may spread out through them with a raging key or switch to one by clicking its thumbnail .
The public utility is extremely customizable and allows you to configure more advanced navigation options such as swop to specific windows or program — all from a undivided menu in the Mac OS X menu bar .
VirtueDesktopsby Tony Arnold is a oecumenical open - origin app that get you make multiple desktops and set keys and a mathematical function for switching among them . you could use usance screen background picture show and visual overlays to identify each desktop when you are working in it and bind running game program to a particular desktop .
Although VirtueDesktops functions well , its apparatus is not as intuitive as You keep in line : Desktops , and it does n’t provide fare stripe icons for easy identification and switching . Also , even the most recent release is a beta , and the developer has halted further development .
Desktop Managerby Richard Wareham is a PowerPC - only undefendable - source software that has also never emerged from genus Beta ( though it works well using Rosetta on Intel Macs ) . Its simple interface includes optional menu - prevention thumbnails of each desktop , a floating window for prosperous identification and shift , and the ability to switch desktops by merely position the mouse at the edge of the silver screen in much the same way that you would switch among multiple displays .
you could also arrogate hot keys for desktop switching and move active windows and coating from one desktop to another .
CodeTek Studios’sVirtualDesktop Prois a commercial-grade general applications programme ( a demo version is usable ) that offers a menu bar item , a float windowpane and hot Francis Scott Key for well-fixed switch among screen background . you’re able to also arrange desktops in a maplike grid .
VirtualDesktop Pro offer the choice to switch desktop by move the mouse off an appropriate edge of the covert and underpin easy dragging of items from one desktop to another . It includes support for multiple video display — including the pick to determine whether extra displays are treated as part of a single large virtual desktop or as self-governing screen background spaces — and can be set to trigger AppleScripts when switching background .
Presenting iChat special effects
The Leopard version of iChat is slated to tote up special television effects and the ability to send presentation . The following add - ons wo n’t get you all the way to the new iChat functionalities , but they ’ll make the wait easy .
ChatFXfrom Script Software is a fun piece of shareware that allows you to apply writing made with Apple ’s Quartz art technology to your video chat in the same room that Photo Booth allows you to apply personal effects to picture . ChatFX , however , enable a much wider multifariousness of musical composition than those build into Photo Booth .
When install , ChatFX displays a draftsman under the iChat camera windowpane , from which you’re able to pick out among the various compositions .
ShowMacsterby Eberhard Rensch is a commercial iChat minimal brain damage - on that enables you to institutionalise image , picture and heavy files over iChat , temporarily replace the video recording from an committed camera with the media that you are transmitting . It also let in the ability to take and send screen seizure .
good search , preview and Finder experiences
Leopard ’s version of Spotlight assure to support more - complex lookup queries using Boolean expressions , and Quick Look will put up verbatim previews of documents without open up the creator software . There are n’t any survive tools that directly mime the behaviour of Spotlight and Quick Look , but there are some that offer alternative search and filing cabinet direction interface that enhance many functions of Spotlight and the Finder in Tiger .
Google Desktopis probably the most tattle - about choice to Spotlight . With a double press of the Command ( Apple ) headstone , Google Desktop gives you a guileless , float lookup dialog loge with which you could search for files ( including , like Spotlight , textual matter within file and Indian file metadata ) , old and erase edition of files that Google Desktop stores in a stash Indian file , e - chain armor in your Google Gmail account , and Web pages that you ’ve confabulate ( as well as the Web in cosmopolitan ) .
Both the interface and the ability to search recently visited Web sites as well as old versions of documents make it an attractive Spotlight alternative .
Blacktree’sQuicksilveris another search and file - management tool with a gravid chase . Like Google Desktop , Quicksilver can be accessed with a blistering key , and it can act merely as an first-class search tool that complements the Finder and Spotlight .
But it also provides the power to fuse hunt results with common Indian file management tasks in a responsive user interface that can be quicker than using the Finder . Quicksilver also includes plug - in mental faculty that enable it to search for detail beyond just Indian file . Address Book contacts , the content of e - mail , music in iTunes and many more items can be just as well searched for and make for with from the clear and simple user interface .
LaunchBarfrom Objective Development Software GmbH is a third puppet to make locating files , brochure , and applications on your Mac quicker and easier . It is designed less as a search creature and more as an applications programme launcher and a prick for quickly navigate the single file structure on a Mac . Although it take up a little acquiring used to , LaunchBar makes an interesting choice to using the Finder to navigate to specific pamphlet and open files or applications .
Butlerfrom Many Tricks places customizable item in the menu legal community to give you instant access to pamphlet and files , applications , bookmarks from any installed Web web browser , contact selective information ( from which you may launch new e - mail ) , iTunes playlists and other library items , and more . One particularly nice feature is that Butler ’s computer menu are always accessible , regardless of the software you happen to be using .
Backups : Do n’t wait five months
mayhap Leopard ’s built - in Time Machine backup system will stand for that everyone will finally back up their files . peradventure . But waiting another five month is not a estimable idea for anyone . Here are a few down - toll backup option that are both effective and easy to use under Tiger , though none of them lark an interface anything like Time Machine ’s . If you want more customizable backup choice , however , consider a commercial shaft such as EMC Insignia’sEMC Retrospect .
Apple ’s Backup program is available for download by ratifier to its .Mac service . Backup proffer the ability to configure multiple reliever circle . Each Seth can hold any number of items , can be backed up to a variety of positioning ( CD or DVD , external hard drives , electronic connection locations , or a user ’s iDisk ) and can be set to turn tail at a variety of intervals .
Backup is a solid result that is relatively wanton to use , but to be an effective dick , it requires an annual $ 99.95 .Mac membership . ( When a .Mac rank is canceled , Backup will continue to work , but backups are limit to 100 MB . )
iBackupfrom grapefruit.ch is a donationware backup solution based on the ditto and rsync Unix command - lineage tools . IBackup is simple and straightforward . While it does n’t volunteer many modern options , it makes it very soft to choose item to back up — particularly the most common booklet , files and configurations — set a single schedule and perform a backup .
One drawback is that while iBackup can back up to extraneous drive and file servers , it does n’t declare oneself cadmium or DVD reliever directly , though it can back up to sting Folders that can then easy be burned .
Lifeboatfrom Mojave Shade Software is a simple shareware accompaniment dick that offers good consumer - level backup and doctor capacity . Lifeboat is well-to-do to fix up and manages multiple backup jobs with customizable schedules . It can back up to CD or DVD , extraneous hard drives , iDisk , and Mac or Windows share folders .
Qdea’sBackup Simplicityis a simple but brawny reliever tool . It copy a Mac ’s intact inauguration disk to an external hard drive and provide a basic interface and a frame-up assistant for scheduling . Backup Simplicity also offers a History feature that hold back relief copies of all file cabinet in a substance abuser ’s home folder , even if they are erase from the author platter .
These offerings may not get Leopard into the hands of Mac exploiter any preferably , but they do provide features standardized to the most exciting enhancements that Apple has so far announced in the next generation of Mac OS X.
Ryan Faas is a free-lance writer and IT adviser specializing in Mac and multiplatform meshwork design and troubleshooting . He is the co - author of Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration and the writer of Troubleshooting , Maintaining and repair Macs . For more information , bring down RyanFaas.com .
