- Share This Post
- submit
- 4
-
Sparkle (0)
Yesterday was a disappointment for some Apple enthusiasts, who had been awaiting new product revelations from Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). There was no sexy new iPhone, iPod, or tablet Mac, which some had hoped for. But there was a new Mac Pro desktop computer that rounds out Apple's Intel Mac line, and big news about Leopard, the OS X 10.5 operating system currently under development at Apple.
Apple announced that it won't release Leopard until Spring, 2007 -- a delay that some have challenged as a Microsoft-type move. At the same time, Jobs' team offered a sneak preview of ten features that will be included in the new operating system. From a developer's perspective (and WWDC is a conference for developers), there was some exciting news. To judge for yourself, watch Jobs' WWDC keynote at apple.com. The ten new Leopard features revealed yesterday include:
- Time Machine - a new built-in backup system that will back up your entire system and allow you to restore the whole thing or just selected files.
- Enhancements to iChat -- including a tabbed interface, custom still or video backdrops for your video iChat, iChat Theater (which lets you mirror your desktop during an iChat, so you can show the person on the other end what you're working on), and Photo Booth effects to make yourself look silly during a chat. Other iChat enhancements that were mentioned but not demoed include video recording (yes!), invisible mode, and animated buddy icons. The Apple site also shows the ability to share your desktop during an iChat. Now just let me figure out how to use these features to do screen recordings and machinima -- hmmm.
- Two dashboard additions -- Web Clip, which allows you to build dynamically updating widgets from any Web page (examples -- a cartoon or bestseller list that updates every day); and DashCode for widget development, complete with modifiable widget templates (for RSS, podcasts, and more), and a library of parts to pop into your widget.
- Additions to Mail.app -- a To-Do list made automatically from emails and that ties into iCal and other apps; Stationery (rich HTML email templates); and Notes (to replace those reminder emails you've been sending yourself).
- Universal Access features - natural sounding voiceover, closed captioning in QuickTime, and braille support.
- Core Animation - with features like keyframing and tweening to help developers create animations.
- Spotlight enhancement - Spotlight will be able to search other machines on your network, do Boolean search, and will launch your applications for you.
- Virtual desktop Spaces - letting you combine task-based applications into separate logical desktop configurations. That means you can have one group of apps running for Web design, another for print production, and yet another for podcast creation and editing. You'll be able to drag items between Spaces.
- Complete package - of built-in apps, including Boot Camp, Front Row, and PhotoBooth.
- 64 bit processing.
But that's not all. Steve Jobs promised some more top secret features, but didn't say when they'll be revealed. Perhaps at Macworld in San Francisco in January?
