Gizmodo
Now you you about Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard launch details, it's time to dive into that list of 300+ features and point out the functions I think we've never seen before today, not even at WWDC 06/07 keynotes:
•Mail's Post-It-style notes synchronize automatically with the iPhone.
•Address Book now synchronizes with Yahoo.
•Finder Path Bar: "See the path of a file when you view it in the Finder. Just choose Show Path Bar from the View menu and the path is visible at the bottom of the Finder window. You can also drag files to any location in the Path Bar."
•Preview has more editing power: "Crop, rotate, resize, and save images in a range of image formats. Selection tools make it a snap to cut and paste images from Preview directly into other applications."
•Sync Dashboard widgets across Macs using .mac.
•Automator has a cool looking UI recorder and playback, along with an improved interface.
•Boot Camp is now official, complete with Microsoft WHCL-Certified Windows Drivers. (And an uninstall mode.)
•Another expected feature is Web Clip in Dashboard. No sign of iPhone integration, however.
•The new-look dock is now spring-loaded. This means that you can drag an image over iPhoto, press the space bar and, once iPhoto is opened, you'll keep dragging the image to the desired folder.
•You can now have the dock synched in many Macs (this requires a .Mac account.)
•A welcome addition to early-morning Giz editors: a Japanese-English dictionary (not a translator, but in the Dictionary application.) Too bad they haven't included Spanish, French, Swedish or any other language but those two.
•DVD Player now comes with auto zoom, to box your movies correctly.
•Apple says that DVD Player has now higher quality video thanks to "Adaptive Video Analyzation technology that applies deinterlacing and inverse 3:2 pulldown on demand."
•Apart from all its well-known interface improvements, the Finder now includes precise grid control for icons and a one-click way to make all folder views look the same.
•I like the printable font book pages now, but just because I'm a font addict.
•Front Row will stream iTunes content from any Mac around the house, and do DVD playback.
•iCal has received a lot of new features, like inline editing of events, sharing of meeting materials in an event dropbox, and CalDAV group scheduling.
•Beyond the iChat Theater and all the screen sharing capabilities, iChat has also received a lot of small improvements, including a very-welcomed File Transfer Manager and persistent chat windows (at last.)
•iChat Watch for My Name...Receive an alert when someone calls your name in a group chat. And
never miss a comment directed to you.
•iChat Watch for My Name...Receive an alert when someone calls your name in a group chat. And
never miss a comment directed to you.
•iChat mpeg4 recording of video chats. (Warns the other party first.)
•iChat: Invisible mode and multiple logins for .mac/AIM, Google or Jabber.
•Instant Screen Sharing from the Finder. "Start an interactive screen sharing session with other Macs on your network. Just select the Mac from your sidebar and (if authorized) you can see and control the Mac as if you were right in front of it."
•Image applications will be able now to import photos from 802.11- and Bluetooth-enabled cameras.
• Self-Tuning TCP promises "optimum application performance, especially in high-bandwidth/high-latency environments."
•Photo Booth comes now with a burst mode, so you can record four-photo successive shots as GIFs. The objective: to annoy everyone in iChat with your moving buddy image. Photobooth also records videos.
•Live partition resizing
•Wirelessly import images from many 802.11-enabled digital cameras and Bluetooth devices.
•Application Binding. Assign an application to a specific space. Anytime you run that application, it will open in its assigned space.
•Spotlight works as a simple calculator now.
•GPS geotagging info supported in Preview.
•iLife Media Browser
•Airport shows which networks are secure.
Can you find any other cool feature in Leopard that you didn't know about that'll make your life easier? Post it in the comments. [Leopard]
Comments
excellent! Where are the Cinema Display updates!? Damn you mac rumors!
Hmm, OK...I'll wait like 1 or 2 months before going out and grabbing this.
Has anyone on Giz been a beta tester to attest to the stability of the OS? Normally I wait for a .1 upgrade, but I got 10.4 (no update) and it was fairly stable.
System requirements: 1.21 gigawatts!
I just got a new Macbook Pro and I'm glad to see that they offer a $10 upgrade for recent buyers. Now I can sit back and watch how Leopard fares before potentially messing up my system with a slightly-less-than-stable OS revision.
Does this mean if I just purchased last week 3 Apples with 10.4, I can upgrade for free to Leopard (pay for shipping)?
@EMoShunz: no, (i believe it's two weeks? - there may be some weird discount scale), but you could not feel as bad as, say, me, about torrenting it.
great, coverflow out the wazoo!
Come on Steve, only a 10% discount for students? I'm poor. I remember paying only $79 for the student version of 10.4
@EMoShunz: I actually just got a replacement mac through Apple because my 3 year old G5 ran into issues. I directly asked the manager of support about the new OS and whether I would be able to receive it if I had purchased 1 month in advanced and I was told that there will most likely be an announcement on release that we can pickup a new copy free of charge.
The one and only copy of an OS I've ever purchased was Windows 3.11. I've since always upgraded at a 100% discount if you know what I mean, including Vista Ultimate. Being this my very first OS X upgrade, does Apple use ways to verify valid Leopard installs kind of like the Microsoft Genuine crap deal? Or should I follow my hunch and get a Family license?
I just realized we didn't get an update to quicktime.
you would have to be smoking some pretty strong stuff to pay that much for an OS upgrade. Regardless of whether its mac or pc, paying that much in additionn to the hardware us just nuts. What's so special about this update anyway? Coverflow?
If you bought your computer on or after October 1, you get Leopard for $9.95.
[www.apple.com]
@apeguero: A family lisince might be the way to go...and no, Apple isn't quite as business friendly paranoid as Microsoft for verification of OS installs - i.e. no apparent "calling home"
@jamesr242: I don'y know, I think $129 is a steal, considering the stability of the OS and the interesting features added... and all of this for less then Vista Ultimates almost $400 dollars.
I purchased an MB Pro that arrived in Sept. How much to upgrade to Leopard, if I'm a student?
@jamesr242: not just coverflow, there are approximately 25% more bells and 33% more whistles with this upgrade than the standard mac update. sure it doesn't really enhance the OS on a functionality level, but the aesthetics are to die for!
seriously though, the stuff listed sounds like the free updates that come with most software. only apple has decided to be an innovator here and charge an unreasonable price for it. you know, like they do for their hardware.
@apeguero: Apple has yet to really verify valid installs in my experience although I still have purchased their OS since its well priced. The one way I do however think they do trace would be through the system update installs. Im sure that this gives them some type of information.
I personally ordered the Family pack for "mom, wife, sister and me" and at work here we ordered 6 Family packs since we have 28 Mac users that want to upgrade immediately. I say go with the Family pack.
@tamoko: vista is a whole new operating system. you are paying for an upgrade, something that microsoft does for free. also upgrading from xp to vista ultimate is only $250, not $400. just thought you should know that.
@tamoko:
Thanks Tamoko. That's the same feeling I get too where I can get a 5 license package for $199 which is half of what Vista Ultimate is for just one license that gives you lots of crap if you change hardware or re-install too soon. I'll buy the family license. It looks like a good upgrade. I'll ask for the student discount and if worst comes to worst then I'll ask for the Military discount and get it for less.
@EMoShunz: [www.apple.com] is the update link, anything Oct 1 to Dec 29 can upgrade for $9.95.
@mwalker05:
You can install Leopard all on it's own. It won't require you to have Tiger in the System. It's a full blown OS not an upgrade.
You can't do that with a Vista Upgrade disk, right? I've heard before that one can install a Vista Upgrade on it's own, not register it and then re-install the same Vista Upgrade as an upgrade of the Upgrade you just installed (fuck that's messed up), then activate that. But it's not a stand-alone install. Correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, I'll buy one family license and play it legit for now.
Looking forward to buying some new Apple hardware with Leopard rolled in for free. Woot!
Also tried to install Vista on a new freshly built system and it wouldn't even install without crashing hard over and over. I finally gave up and now run XP, Kubuntu (on older laptops), and OS X. I may as well skip Vista entirely at this point. Glad to see Leopard finally (almost) here!
I just ordered a 5 licenses package for 199$ (226$ with F@$%#% canadian taxes) for whole the house here, I did this for Tiger and it is a very good deal: it's around 45$ for each computer for a brand new OS version upgrade... very good deal IMO.
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@mwalker05: Man you should do a little research before shouting out. Leopard is an entire OS as Apeguero said. No trying to be a prick or anything but this is a full release.
@mwalker05:
If by "whole new operating system" you mean that you will have be buy "whole new" hardware in order to use it you are absolutely correct. Make no confusion, comparing a service pack to 10.5 is insane. Vista may have been a whole new system, but what did it really bring to the table this is better than XP, aside from security updates?
@apeguero: no you are right. vista is very strict about the 1 per 1 thing and the family license is a steal for new installs. but i just think its a bit unreasonable to charge that much when you are already running the previous version of osx and the only changes i see are ui
come on apple... 129 for an upgrade... argh cant get this for a while. i still need to get a 25,000 wheelchair... hmm... wheelchair or OS... easy one here... WHEELCHAIR!!! i want my fuxxing mobility back!
BIG question. I understand Boot Camp is part of 10.5, does this mean that the Beta version will now be disabled in 10.4, so tht you have to buy 10.5 for it to work again. I have not seen an answer to this anywhere.
@mwalker05: Seeing ui changes... What other changes would you 'see'? I guess when you get your copy you can go digging through the unix source code and see what kind of non-cosmetic changes have been made. Assuming you have a copy of Tiger to compare it to. I imagine comparing it to your Vista source code might prove harder.
@NicleT:
That's an excellent point you make NICLET, if one is strapped for cash, just find 4 other Mac users in your family circle or friends and each ponies up $40.00 and blamo! A legit copy of Leopard for each.
@nightsky: If this helps, I've asked a couple of Apple Store employees and they have all said that Bootcamp will not stop working after Leopard is out. Your Windows partition will keep working just fine. It's just that if you ever need to re-do the whole Bootcamp thing then you won't be able to as it will be out of Beta and no longer supported. So, as long as you don't have to reformat your hard drive and do a fresh install then you should be just fine.
What I don't get is, if anyone thinks this is a terribly minor upgrade that it's not worth it, then don't buy it! Fortunately, there are usually very few compatibility issues with 3rd party hardware and software, so there is no pressure to buy or not buy Leopard, even years down the line when it seems everyone is using it.
Oh, and I've bought single and family OS licenses over the years, and from what I can tell, Apple goes by the honor system on this issue. And while I've not always been honorable, Apple certainly can't accuse me of not buying more than a fair share of Apple hardware and software.
I notice that Apple has moved away from the translucent menu bar. I wonder if this will still be an option.
That's nice, but how about doing something actually useful, like adding some options to finder to make it more functional (seriously, why do I still have to do a cp on the command line to merge a directory rather than it being an option on the overwrite dialog, and how about some file sorting options in column view, or better yet, something akin to a tree view so working amongst several file systems doesn't require as many windows)
Finally! This will actually justify me buying an ACTUAL leopard...I hope he plays nice with the tiger that I already have...
Glad to have a bunch of macheads in my family. We're just going to split a family pack amongst our machines, and because it's not just an upgrade pack, my sister's Panther-riding G4 Quicksilver will be getting it as well. Sweetness
CRAP! Reading down the comments, I wanted to do a preemptive strike and casually suggest that Leopard is a point release and not comparable to Vista (being a whole new OS). LOL. For the goof-nuts that say Vista is a whole new OS, I'd like to question them on how they define "whole new". The amusing difference between Vista and MacOS Leopard, is in my opinion, Apple's focus on making people more efficient and giving better tools with a clear value proposition. Meanwhile, Vista features dwell in areas most people don't care much about (however interesting), and fixing things that should have worked better for a while (like the Start Menu).
Right now, Time Machine and Spaces are big on the list of upgrade reasons for me. I like the BOLDNESS of Apple just saying... Look, we have over 300 new features. Here is a comprehensive list of them:
[www.apple.com]
Meanwhile, on Vista I'm running into the same screenshots over and over, trying to look for a decent reason to even consider it.
SKREW THIS SHIT... IM TORRENTING IT...
@Cleverboy: some of those "new" features are regurgitated from previous releases - example:
"Customize the look and feel of Terminal with new window settings. You can set the background color, text color, and opacity of your windows"
That is not remotely new.
Also, just because Vista is a piece of crap (and they did not fix the start menu, they obfuscated it, along with much of the OS, which I find ridiculous), doesn't mean we should praise Apple for providing and OS, which still lacks fundamental usability features available on winXP, Linux, BSD, and Solaris. I'm not saying to revolt or flame, but if something is missing from your workflow, don't gloss it over, go to apple.com/feedback and let them know.
@Cleverboy:
Well from a non-mac user it seems like I run into the same leopard screens all the time. And the improvements seem superficial or just unnecessary. I mean seriously, stacks? Whats so wrong with the standard hierarchy of file systems now. Do we need some hybrid file/folder. Nah.
That's the spirit everyone. We can say how useless all the little aesthetics are, how perfectly fine the old O.S. is, how much of a waste of money it all is. But the sad fact remains that the same mantra could be applied to 90% of all software "updates" - but that doesn't make these updates worthless.
Compare the mac OS experience from 10 years ago with leopard, and you'll see amazing improvement. Compare windows 95 with vista, and you'll get a good laugh. Through all those updates however, most of the core experience remained the same (Apple's Dock, Windows Start Menu). The updates have been small, superficial, and sometimes helpful.
But in the end, it's all progress. Leopard is better then Tiger, even if by only a little. If you don't like the price, it's always your choice whether or not to upgrade, but stop complaining about progress (however little is made) and be glad. Life is much better when you're not pissed off all the time, trust me.
The Back to my Mac feature ([www.apple.com], requires a .mac account) seems pretty cool. It's nothing that couldn't be done before (remote desktop/vnc) but it will be intuitive and easy.
I never had to enter a serial number or to activate an Apple OS after install, and I suppose it will be the same with Leopard.
@alin0steglinski:
hahahaha.......x2.
@sorrow24: Your Buddha-like calming post annoys the SHIT out of me!
@apeguero:
At $129, you should just buy it.
That sounds great and all, but I'm not buying it unless it comes with a token keychain or mini bottle of vodka.
Leopard's True 64bit + 5 Core 2 Duo Macs in the family = NO BRAINER!
Where is the TOP-Secret that Jobs talked about?
@alin0steglinski: Whoa, dude, what happened RE wheelchair? Email me.
yeh, i want some top secrets too!! this is abit disapointing... i was hoping for some amazing new apps... new iTunes, new Quicktime... theres till 10 days!!
Isn't this the MAC OS version thatn won't run on older MACs because of piss poor performance?
I wonder if MAC addicts will wait for SP1 before using it.
Would anyone complain that it is just a cosmetic upgrade with eye candy with no real value over the previous version?
I'll have my boss buy the family pack for work and take an extra license home with me. Free Leopards, yaaaeeeey.