Steve reveals 10 features of Leopard for Spring 2007 release

If you're waiting for Leopard, you'll have to cool your heels until Spring 2007, when Apple officially promises the release. To wet your appetite, Apple previewed 10 Leopard features at WWDC today:

• 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 show iPhoto pics or a Keynote presentation during an iChat), 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.
  

There's some mouthwatering stuff here. Now I wonder what those other top secret items are that Steve said he's still keeping under wraps?