Leopard - And then what?
Tigerstorm (1009 points) | Tue, 2007-06-12 01:19
Here are some of my personal relections some hours behind this years World Wide Developer Conference shortened WWDC.
In January at Macworld first glimpses of Apple's new operating system called Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was presented, with cool ideas such as Time Machine an all automaticly backup application running in the background making backup much more easier. Steve demo'd 10 features such as: Mail, Spaces, Timemachine, Core Animation and so on during the Macworld keynote and at this time Microsoft's Vista wasn't launched and we got the word that there were some "Top Secret" stuff left to show in WWDC because they didn't want their compeitor (Microsoft) to know about those features..
At the end of the Macworld, Steve launched their new biggest product since the iPod. The iPhone as we all know about it, and also renamed the company former called Apple Computer to Apple Inc. Some time around April we were all reached about the news that Leopard was delayed due to the fact that Apple needed to borrow engineers from the Leopard team to complete the iPhone, which made Leopard delayed until October but a full preview was going to be previewed at WWDC..
Today's keynote is over quite some hours ago, but I'm left a bit disappointed and wondering if Apple is taking iPhone over their head? Sorry but I'm missing out some of Apple's "Top Secret" features in Leopard. Part from a new Finder, new Desktop, new Quick Look and Bootcamp built inside.. I'm wondering what are the other "Top Secret" features? Steve demo'd almost the same things that he did at Macworld earlier this year.. I remember when the first sights of current version 10.4 Tiger appeared with block busting features like Dashboard, Spotlight, Safari RSS, Automator and lots of great features.. So far Leopard hasn't blowed me away in that direction a part from Time machine..
You must be thinking I'm just complaining about Leopard, but here's some features that I do like and look forward to, although they seem little compared to Spotlight, Dashboard etc. I might make a big mistake as Apple might be lurking in the dark with the really big features, there are almost 300+ new features in Leopard, but why did they not demo'd those today at WWDC?
- Time Machine
- New Desktop
- New Finder
- DVD Player
- All windows uses a single, consistent appearance.
What are your thoughts of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard so far? Please feel free comment.. =)
Commenting on this Blog entry is closed.
I couldn't believe that such cosmetic changes as the new dock were THE top secret features. I'm not complaining. Leopard is still gonna kick ass, but why build the hype and then under-deliver.
I'm sure it's going to be great, but I was left shrugging my head and going back to my work without giving it much of a thought.
The new finder looks cool, but I hope to heck they don't make it the only option. It's a gimmick just like coverflow in iTunes - something I used for 5 minutes before switching back to the easy-to-navigate list view. If Apple takes away the columns view in the finder I'm going to be really pissed!
The new dock features are cute, but nothing earth-shattering. Especially if you're really organized with your filing.
Most of the new finder features have been around via add-on apps for a long time.
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It started in iTunes and then 'mysteriously' moved to EVERYTHING in apple's universe. Now don't get me wrong its not a BAD thing its just that I get the feeling that iTunes is the architect of apple's 'new' interface guidelines. If it works here then EVERYTHING else should use it. . . which is NOT a good thing, cover flow is nice BUT that's all it is: a pretty gimmick! lol Still tryig to find base requiremnets for OS X.5 anyone know what they are?
BTW does anyone LIKE the new apple.com?
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
I thinks Stacks are not only very cool, but also very useful. The Quick Look feature is another thing I can't wait for (although I've already using something similar for a long time called 'MacGizmo)
Don't get me wrong with this comment, I'm very happy to see that Stacks are apparantly well integrated in the Desktop.
But am I the only one who has a bit of a deja-vu and feels like it could have been done even better? Or is this one of those top secret features that they're only showing the tip of the iceberg of?
Take a look at this rather old video on youtube…
Have a look at this :-D
http://homepage.mac.com/rdas7/stacks.html
I liked Coverflow when it was a standalone application. I happened to be a member of the forum where the author let us beta test it but I was dissapointed in how Apple implemented it in iTunes - it was too claustrophobic. The integration into the Finder initially got me excited as it looked much better but it left me wondering how long people would ditch that view and go back to plain (fast) list view. If anything they should have put it into Preview and IPhoto or even Spaces.
Stacks doesn't really excite me - you can already do a less flashy version of that by dragging a folder into the dock and right-clicking/holding down the mouse button. Spaces? Meh. Time Machine is nice but not a killer feature.
A Finder improvement that I'd really like to see is a dual pane Finder window that lets you browse in 2 or more folders at the same time (ala Norton Commander for you old DOS folks). There are some 3rd party apps that do this but they're all bloated and ugly, imho.
Maybe I'll change my mind when I get my hands on Leopard.
How about ForkLift? Can't see anything bloated about that.
I've been meaning to write about it. It's pretty good.
Sounds great - may I ask you to have a look at MacGizmo (the original Quick Look) too? A very nice product and an extremely nice developer.
Quicksilver?
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
This was a re-hash of this past MacWorld. For myself, the features are hit and miss.
In fact, some features seem as though Marketing somehow clawed its way into Development. Case in point - Transparent, reflective dock. That doesn't really solve any problems. I think one could make a compelling arguement that it adds visual clutter. Mobile, visual clutter.
Stacks is interesting, but again, doesn't really solve any problems because it's a linear solution to the lateral problem of efficiently attacking any given process. For example, consider using Stacks to send an e-mail message: APPLICATIONS > MAIL > NEW MESSAGE > ENTER LETTERS OF RECIPIENT. With Quicksilver, I type the first 3 letters of a mail recipient, Mail executes automatically, and creates a new message with the mail recipient's name already there for you. An efficient, lateral solution.
Time Machine is a great feature, imho. The interface dove overboard on the metaphor, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a much-needed feature.
New features in Mail are nice since my own workflow is largely a toss between Mail and iCal. The Stationary aspect of mail - uncertain about that, though. Particularly since Outlook 2007 changed it's rendering engine to use Microsoft Word (terrible) instead of IE. Welcome back to 90's table designs. Feh. Curious to see how this effects Stationary e-mails.
So I guess, ultimately, that's the curiousity: Does Leopard answer the question of utility? How are people using the OS and does it help them in their endeavors?
From my own vantage point: Mostly, sure.
A Finder improvement that I'd really like to see is a dual pane Finder window that lets you browse in 2 or more folders at the same time (ala Norton Commander for you old DOS folks). There are some 3rd party apps that do this but they're all bloated and ugly, imho.
Maybe I'll change my mind when I get my hands on Leopard.
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