Mac users find themselves playing an funny sort of waiting game right now , with three potentially exciting intersection blow around invitingly out there — we utter , of course , about Apple TV , the iPhone , and the Mac OS X 10.5 update — even though each one has yet to wind up in consumer ’ hot picayune hands . The first half mask appears to have fallen , if the many forwarded east - chain armour notifications that Apple TV is now shipping I ’ve find today are any indication . So those of you who had “ March 20 or thereabouts ” in your Apple Product Ship Date business office puddle , finger detached to collect your winnings .
That go out just the iPhone , slated for June , and the Leopard update , schedule more ambiguously for “ bound , ” look concrete ship date . If you return , the press release of OS X 10.4.9 moved me to mull , in this very space , about whether or not OS X 10.5 ’s liberation was loom on the near - terminus horizon . My wool - gather inspired some reader feedback paint a picture potential ship dates and a yoke of questions — I thought it might be interesting to share both with y’ all .
First , the Leopard ship particular date . In a statistically irrelevant sampling of 15 lector , a slim plurality of 27 percent predicted Leopard would make its launching at Apple’sWorldwide Developers Conference , which the company has schedule for June 11 to 15 in San Francisco . There looks like some divergence as to whether the terminal variation of Leopard will just be shown off at WWDC — call up how Steve Jobs promised in last August ’s trailer that the 10 or so features he was showcasing were n’t the only OS X 10.5 tweaks Apple had up its sleeve?—or whether the operating system update would be out the door once the conference convened .
A WWDC released just nose the next two most democratic suggestion — May ( one symmetrically - minded reader proposed that 10.5 would , course , ship on 5.01 ) and March 24 . Readers who screw their history will know that latter sidereal day as the sixth anniversary ofOS X ’s original ship date ; readers who also expect at calendar will also know that March 24 is this Saturday and , therefore , an unlikely nominee for such a gamy - profile release ( especially with lilliputian procession fanfare ) . Other theories : Leopard seem on April 15 during Apple ’s antecedently announce special case at the National Association of Broadcasters deal show , or on the day of remembrance of the company ’s founding on April 1 , or — for the pessimists in the crowd — June 21 , the last day of spring .
Me , I ’m stick with my June prediction , although more than one reader noted I was n’t precisely go out on a limb . finely — you want specificity ? Then put me down for June 11 , right at the oddment of the WWDC keynote . And I ’ll go even further and say that a final version of Leopard will ship that very daytime . Now watch Apple induce it out the door this Saturday just to make me look giddy .
Now on to the questions . Any time Apple has an major O overhaul in the works , I ’m take some variation of this question : I’m recall of buying a new Mac . Should I do it now , or look until the OS update appears on unexampled hardware?My result to that is essentially the same one my colleague Rob Griffiths gives in his Mac purchasing advice — if you ca n’t put off upgrade your Mac any longer and can live with ante up the OS upgrade cost Apple ’s going to shoot once Leopard does ship , you should buy the Mac now ; if you’re able to hold off until June , then do so and save yourself the cost of advance to OS X 10.5 . ( I ca n’t recall Apple announce a price for Leopard just yet ; it be $ 129 to move to Tiger . )
Another interrogation that ’s pop up in my inbox , particularly from user novel to the Mac : Should I hold off on upgrading to OS ecstasy 10.5 until there ’s been an update or two so that I cognise for certain if it ’s stable or not?I egest along this question to Rob , and here ’s his response :
Myself , I usually roll up doing my major osmium X rise a month or so after the release first ships , but that ’s not because of any excess caution or stability concern on my part . Instead , because of the daily demands , it usually takes me about a calendar month to halt out some time to do an upgrade . That I ’ve go from Jaguar to Panther to Tiger without so much as a hiccup is just a happy side essence of my procrastination and poor time - management skills .
But that ’s just one person ’s advice . ( Well , two hoi polloi , if you want to count Rob . ) How would you folks respond the buy - a - Mac - or - await and the upgrade - right - away - or - not interrogative sentence ?
