| Apple OS X Leopard 94A66 |
[26 Jun 2007|03:55pm] |
Apple's next operating system, Leopard is going to be quite amazing. The developer preview is much more feature filled, bug free and feels a lot more complete then last years WWDC preview. That's to be had though, it has been a year since the last WWDC. So let's take a look at this years Leopard build, shall we?
The desktop has gotten quite the overhaul. It's mostly eye candy and a few tools that make it easier to navigate and sort your files. The menu bar has also lost some weight and gone transparent. I for am not a fan of it whatsoever. I think it looks pretty ugly. Fortunately some developers have already created a little application which make the menu bar non-transparent. I do hope that Apple puts in an option that lets you set the opacity of the menu bar. The dock has gotten a bit of a facelift and this is one change I do like. I do love my eye candy! It now has a more 3D look and it's also reflective. It really only looks good when on the bottom of your screen though, when you have it on the left or right sides of your screen it's not that great. For me that's okay, I keep my dock on the bottom. Stacks are another part of the dock and I've been using them a lot already. I have icons for various sets of applications and I use the default download stack quite often now. I really like Stacks, it's just another one of those small time saving tools.
Finder has mostly received new features and a facelift. You can now view your files in Cover Flow mode which is kind of cool, I don't see it being a major productivity enhancement. The Finder sidebar is also slimmed down and includes some nifty "smart lists" so you can easily see your most recently changes files of that day, or the day before, etc...It also can show you all images, all videos or all documents. I for one like the new Finder, although I did have some issues with keep the window at the size I wanted. I have that issue in Tiger too. Overall the new Finder improvements get an A+ in my book.
QuickLook is something I played with for about 10 seconds because I didn't have very many files on my Leopard test machine. I am not sure I have decided about how good (or not good) this feature is. It sounds great, but I haven't used it enough to make an educational response about it yet. I am not sure I really understand the importance of it, when it take a few seconds to open an application anyways, but then an again it could be useful for people who make different versions of graphics or something.
Time Machine is huge! It's going to be awesome. I haven't played with it a lot, but it sure is going to make the whole process of backing up your data very simple. Right now, Backup is pretty simple, I don't see how anyone could have any issue with it but I think the whole process of restoring your data in Time Machine is what separates the two. With both Backup and Time Machine they seem to have the set-it and forget it options, but Time Machine brings you into this interactive and easy to use restoration process that even Grandma can use. I am quite excited to try out Time Machine on a live, non-development machine. When I connected an external hard drive, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to use it for Time Machine. I am hoping that message doesn't come up once I've told Time Machine what hard drive to use though.
Spaces is a complete rip off of Virtue Desktops (but beefed up) as was Dashboard to Konfabulator, but I think Spaces is a lot better. I enjoying seeing all 4 desktops with window previews and the ability to easily move a window into another space. I like how you can rearrange the spaces in any order you want and I like how you can have setup as many spaces as you want.
The new Apple Mail client is going to be another big thing for me since I spend at least 1/3 of my computer time in Mail. One new feature that I am really impressed with is that it acts not only as a Mail application but also as an RSS reader and you can keep your notes and todos in there also. The notes feature I think I will really enjoy, and I am sure others will too. I know there's been many times when people tell me something in an email message and I then have to open up stickies or some other note taking application to jot it down. It's going to be nice to have this all in one place. I am assuming you'll need to have Leopard server if you want to keep the todos and notes on the server, but I am not 100% sure. The sidebar in Mail has the Finder look to it, it's a lot more slim and better looking. Stationary is something that doesn't interest me to much but it's nice that it's there. I am sure I will find myself using it to show off some of my new pictures at some point.
The 2nd third of my time I spend in iChat so the new features in iChat are going to be well received. One feature that I really looking forward to was the screen sharing feature which seems to have left the iChat feature list. I haven't been able to find anything about where it went other then it's now part of Finder, but I am not sure if that's right. That seems more of a LAN-wide feature and not an over the WAN ability. At least they still have the abilities to share photos, videos, keynotes, etc...and also the wicked neat backdrops you can use when video chatting with someone! I just saw a screenshot of Apple's "tab" implementation which isn't really tabs at all. It sort of looks like AOL AIM client which I do not like at all. They're not really tabs (think Chax) though. I am not really sure how often I'll be using video chat as I use once every 6 months, MAYBE...although it's possible that with these new features I'll be using it more.
iCal has gotten a UI overhaul and it looks great. It's very smooth and fluid. While I am not too excited about iCal itself I am looking forward to the calendar server that will come built into Leopard server. This will give me yet another reason to stop using the Apple .Mac. I can put all my iCals onto my own server and use that to sync and share them.
One last feature I would like to bring up is the Parental Controls that will be in OS X Leopard. Currently I use Mac Minder to manage my computer time. It works great, but having this built into the system is just going to make the whole process better.
This years developer preview is looking great so far. I would like to spend a few more weeks with it. It's quite feature complete as far as I can tell. I believe the next few months will be spent squashing bugs and fixing issues. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on the final copy. I think these new features are going to improve my productivity by a fair amount.
|
|
| Apple OS X Leopard 94A66 |
[26 Jun 2007|11:10pm] |
Apple's next operating system, Leopard is going to be quite amazing. The developer preview is much more feature filled, bug free and feels a lot more complete then last years WWDC preview. That's to be had though, it has been a year since the last WWDC. So let's take a look at this years Leopard build, shall we?
The desktop has gotten quite the overhaul. It's mostly eye candy and a few tools that make it easier to navigate and sort your files. The menu bar has also lost some weight and gone transparent. I for am not a fan of it whatsoever. I think it looks pretty ugly. Fortunately some developers have already created a little application which make the menu bar non-transparent. I do hope that Apple puts in an option that lets you set the opacity of the menu bar. The dock has gotten a bit of a facelift and this is one change I do like. I do love my eye candy! It now has a more 3D look and it's also reflective. It really only looks good when on the bottom of your screen though, when you have it on the left or right sides of your screen it's not that great. For me that's okay, I keep my dock on the bottom. Stacks are another part of the dock and I've been using them a lot already. I have icons for various sets of applications and I use the default download stack quite often now. I really like Stacks, it's just another one of those small time saving tools.
Finder has mostly received new features and a facelift. You can now view your files in Cover Flow mode which is kind of cool, I don't see it being a major productivity enhancement. The Finder sidebar is also slimmed down and includes some nifty "smart lists" so you can easily see your most recently changes files of that day, or the day before, etc...It also can show you all images, all videos or all documents. I for one like the new Finder, although I did have some issues with keep the window at the size I wanted. I have that issue in Tiger too. Overall the new Finder improvements get an A+ in my book.
QuickLook is something I played with for about 10 seconds because I didn't have very many files on my Leopard test machine. I am not sure I have decided about how good (or not good) this feature is. It sounds great, but I haven't used it enough to make an educational response about it yet. I am not sure I really understand the importance of it, when it take a few seconds to open an application anyways, but then an again it could be useful for people who make different versions of graphics or something.
Time Machine is huge! It's going to be awesome. I haven't played with it a lot, but it sure is going to make the whole process of backing up your data very simple. Right now, Backup is pretty simple, I don't see how anyone could have any issue with it but I think the whole process of restoring your data in Time Machine is what separates the two. With both Backup and Time Machine they seem to have the set-it and forget it options, but Time Machine brings you into this interactive and easy to use restoration process that even Grandma can use. I am quite excited to try out Time Machine on a live, non-development machine. When I connected an external hard drive, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to use it for Time Machine. I am hoping that message doesn't come up once I've told Time Machine what hard drive to use though.
Spaces is a complete rip off of Virtue Desktops (but beefed up) as was Dashboard to Konfabulator, but I think Spaces is a lot better. I enjoying seeing all 4 desktops with window previews and the ability to easily move a window into another space. I like how you can rearrange the spaces in any order you want and I like how you can have setup as many spaces as you want.
The new Apple Mail client is going to be another big thing for me since I spend at least 1/3 of my computer time in Mail. One new feature that I am really impressed with is that it acts not only as a Mail application but also as an RSS reader and you can keep your notes and todos in there also. The notes feature I think I will really enjoy, and I am sure others will too. I know there's been many times when people tell me something in an email message and I then have to open up stickies or some other note taking application to jot it down. It's going to be nice to have this all in one place. I am assuming you'll need to have Leopard server if you want to keep the todos and notes on the server, but I am not 100% sure. The sidebar in Mail has the Finder look to it, it's a lot more slim and better looking. Stationary is something that doesn't interest me to much but it's nice that it's there. I am sure I will find myself using it to show off some of my new pictures at some point.
The 2nd third of my time I spend in iChat so the new features in iChat are going to be well received. One feature that I really looking forward to was the screen sharing feature which seems to have left the iChat feature list. I haven't been able to find anything about where it went other then it's now part of Finder, but I am not sure if that's right. That seems more of a LAN-wide feature and not an over the WAN ability. At least they still have the abilities to share photos, videos, keynotes, etc...and also the wicked neat backdrops you can use when video chatting with someone! I just saw a screenshot of Apple's "tab" implementation which isn't really tabs at all. It sort of looks like AOL AIM client which I do not like at all. They're not really tabs (think Chax) though. I am not really sure how often I'll be using video chat as I use once every 6 months, MAYBE...although it's possible that with these new features I'll be using it more.
iCal has gotten a UI overhaul and it looks great. It's very smooth and fluid. While I am not too excited about iCal itself I am looking forward to the calendar server that will come built into Leopard server. This will give me yet another reason to stop using the Apple .Mac. I can put all my iCals onto my own server and use that to sync and share them.
One last feature I would like to bring up is the Parental Controls that will be in OS X Leopard. Currently I use Mac Minder to manage my computer time. It works great, but having this built into the system is just going to make the whole process better.
This years developer preview is looking great so far. I would like to spend a few more weeks with it. It's quite feature complete as far as I can tell. I believe the next few months will be spent squashing bugs and fixing issues. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on the final copy. I think these new features are going to improve my productivity by a fair amount.
|
|
![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jimmy's journal