We've got Leopard, what do you want to know?

Today we snagged our copy of Apple's latest version of OS X, Leopard -- something one or two of you may be slightly familiar with. So besides all the stuff found on the 300 features page, besides all the stuff you've seen in the months of public betas, what do you want to know? We'll be here to do our best in illuminating the whole experience for you during the crucial, painful next few hours wherein you've nothing left to do but wait patiently for launch and ask Engadget questions about the technical minutiae. Let's kick this thing off:

• Apple confirmed it: no backing up with Time Machine over the drives you have connected via USB to your Airport Extreme. Also, no Time Machine backups to SMB shares -- AFP network shares only. Again, yes, Time Machine can back up over the network, but ONLY to AFP shares, ok?
  
• When plugging in a disk Time Machine does its song and dance, but what we wanted to know is whether it requires you dedicate that disk for backup use exclusively. The answer: it doesn't, you can go on using your external drive's free space as you please, but Time Machine will also take advantage of selected disks for backup. And no, if it's an HFS-formatted disk you're plugging in, it won't ask you to format it.
• Classic support wasn't killed for any technological reason, but because Apple felt that it was finally time to move on, and that support was no longer necessary. Sorry QuarkXPress 4 users!
• Apple's fancy new screen sharing is VNC based, meaning you can use it to connect to any VNC-shared system, Apple or otherwise. However you can't use the iChat screen-share with anything but other Apple machines, despite being VNC.
• Nope, there's no YouTube in Front Row.
• Sorry, syncing notes to your iPhone won't work either. Well, not entirely. The notes Mail.app keeps are actually just HTML email messages in a special folder, and if you use IMAP it will sync that special notes folder to your server. So in theory, if you have IMAP and you access your IMAP email through your iPhone or other device, you can view / edit those notes. But no, they don't sync to the notes your iPhone's native notes app keeps.
• Yeah, the R2D2 "Apple hologram effect" didn't make the final cut, either. Help us Phil Schiller, you're our only hope.
• The upgrade took about an hour on our 1st gen MacBook Pro (2GB RAM); expect it to eat up another ~3GB of space.
• Yeah, you can't add drives to the dock You can still add drives and folders! It just doesn't always work when we pull it over from Finder.
  
• We can confirm Leopard supports A2DP! (It's a little buggy, but it's definitely working.)
• More questions answered after the break.

• Yeah, you can see yourself reflected four times on the box cover -- one in each part of the holographic galaxy. Of course we're vain enough to notice, so what?
• Final build is 9A581.
• Time Machine lets you pick which drive to use as your backup drive; we don't have a second internal drive on our test laptop, but there's no reason it shouldn't let you pick an internal drive as your backup.
• So far we haven't noticed any slow downs from the upgrade -- except when backing up over a million files (duh).
• We haven't found a way to turn off the translucent menu bar, but it's really not that bad. Definitely better than Vista's Aero glass, which is distractingly translucent.
• iChat Theater ("document sharing") works with any format file or document the presenting machine can support. Why? Because it makes a video stream of the document so the person on the other end doesn't have to support your file types, you insensitive bastard.

[tyler @ Oct 25th 2007 10:53PM]

will it play doom and then blend?

[Jagannath A @ Oct 25th 2007 10:58PM]

yes and no

electrons dont blend.. silly :P

[Ireland @ Oct 25th 2007 11:02PM]

Here we go again. I envision a lot of folks in these comments saying Windows is better because it does games.

Look, at the end of the day, if you are a PC gamer, you should get a PC, and if you are a console gamer, you should get a Mac :P

[Josh @ Oct 25th 2007 11:12PM]

Depends on which version of doom you have. If it is the archaic fire and brimstone version, it is compatible, if you recently upgraded to the WWIII version, you are probably going to have to create a partition for windows - sorry.

[raidedguy @ Oct 26th 2007 12:15AM]

People aren't going to start insulting mac because windows is better...
Go Linux!

[ADMINVOID @ Oct 26th 2007 3:43AM]

RE: Ireland

what to are we supposed to buy when we play both???

[Robert @ Oct 26th 2007 9:54AM]

wil it do this when looking at a windows network

OS X 10.5 (this is what it looks like when you browse a windows network from your mac in cover flow)
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~perekdr/leopard_windows_easter_egg.jpg

[John @ Oct 26th 2007 10:49AM]

How the hell did you go from one of the now oldest and most stale technology jokes from assuming someone was trying to say windows is the bestest operating system ever? Someone says that on ANY post that involves:
A) gagdets
B) software
C) anything

It's like "will it blend", which we got here in a rare double-meme post. It doesn't mean anything, it's just amusing, you mindlessly defensive troll.

[Ryan @ Oct 26th 2007 12:58PM]

@ADMINVOID

...a life.

[Winters Night @ Oct 25th 2007 10:53PM]

Hey cool, i get to be the annoying "first" guy!

serioulsy though i can't wait for tomorrow. i plan on being there as soon as doors open at 6.

[phrozunsun @ Oct 25th 2007 11:04PM]

...or not.

[Ireland @ Oct 25th 2007 11:04PM]

Except you weren't "first".

[prokanda @ Oct 25th 2007 11:32PM]

Aww, going to get the new mac os? Makes sense with that spelling... and total lack of the ability to pay attention to what post you are. ;)

Ahh, mac fan-boys... continuing to show the world what type of person wants a mac. :)

[Nathan @ Oct 26th 2007 12:16AM]

Looks like you only qualify as annoying this time.

[david @ Oct 26th 2007 12:18AM]

@prokanda I just wasted five minutes of my life reading every post you have made here. You are one of the kings of haterade here. Lighten up, stop hating, get laid. go to X17 and give your hate to a worthwhile cause like britney spears.

[ThePengwin @ Oct 26th 2007 12:24AM]

@david:

You wasted 5 minutes reading that? wow, thats a long time for that amount of text....

[jman315 @ Oct 26th 2007 4:20AM]

@ThePenguin

He said EVERY post, not that post. Looks like you should've spent a little more time reading his post.

[paullyjay @ Oct 26th 2007 7:42AM]

so prokanda, you'd be a microsoft fanboy? not sure which is worse! :O)

[rockintom @ Oct 26th 2007 9:27AM]

paullyjay: This isn't black and white. You don't *have* to be a goddamn fanboy.

[Jake Bechtold @ Oct 25th 2007 10:56PM]

Will Microsoft Office 2004 for mac work with Leopard?

[peter @ Oct 25th 2007 10:59PM]

Of course. Why would it not? It was designed for OS X, not Classic mode. Just about anything major that worked for Tiger will work for Leopard. If Office stopped working with Leopard, college students accross the land would rise up in revolt against apple, and they wouldn't risk alienating one of their biggest markets.

[Jake Bechtold @ Oct 25th 2007 11:02PM]

Okay, just making sure. Thanks!

[sean.boots @ Oct 26th 2007 1:24AM]

""If Office stopped working with Leopard, college students accross the land would rise up in revolt against apple, and they wouldn't risk alienating one of their biggest markets.""

NeoOffice for the win, my friends. I haven't used MS Office in 7 years, now. :) (StarOffice -> OpenOffice -> NeoOffice.)

[John Doe @ Oct 26th 2007 2:20AM]

Sean. Let us know when you decide to join the real world where such apps don't get the job done. For your average home user, sure. Anywhere else you will be slapped upside the head, and rightly so.

[szamot @ Oct 26th 2007 3:39AM]

it does work and I think it works better than the current Office 2008, while nice, it is a bit cumbersome at times.

[umm....hello??? @ Oct 25th 2007 10:56PM]

can I install it on my PS3 (and will it work)??

[Ireland @ Oct 25th 2007 11:07PM]

Good God if you want OS X, just get a Mac would you. You're only putting off the inevitable anyway ;)

[prokanda @ Oct 25th 2007 11:35PM]

It sure as hell should! I mean, they should band together.. these extremely proprietary companies that have absolutely nothing of worth EVER debuting on their machines...

apple and sony should merge.

both:
1) love making things that are proprietary
2) are snotty about the superiority of said crap
3) can't get people to care enough to jump on board and make them smash hits (besides the ipod/wega tvs.. respectably)

love it.

[umm....hello??? @ Oct 25th 2007 11:46PM]

@Ireland

most likely. = ) But I truly would like to know if it would run on my PS3...it'd save me about $1000--although the PS3 wouldn't be nearly as portable.

@prokanda

yeah, the only downside is the extra $$$ they charge (considering a PC can be gotten for around $350 vs. mac mini for $600).

[tom @ Oct 25th 2007 11:54PM]

can i install it on my tv? that would be sweet. or on my toaster...

[david @ Oct 26th 2007 12:17AM]

@prokanda I just wasted five minutes of my life reading every post you have made here. You are one of the kings of haterade here. Lighten up, stop hating, get laid. go to X17 and give your hate to a worthwhile cause like britney spears.

[Jesse S @ Oct 26th 2007 8:32AM]

If the Cell processor supports (at least) SSE2, maybe, but I doubt it.

[BoxOfSnoo @ Oct 25th 2007 10:57PM]

How does it run on a low spec machine? I have a 1 GHz G4 w/ 768MB RAM.

[Dom @ Oct 26th 2007 1:43AM]

I'd like to know the same thing. The Apple website says my 1ghz PowerBook should run it, but it'll be interesting to see if things are snappier (as some people are claiming) or if it gets bogged down.

[John M @ Oct 26th 2007 11:23AM]

I want to know this answer too...guess I will find out as I have orderd it already...Also, I want to know is there is a product key...Because I have 2 macs and I sont want to pay the extra $50.00 bucks for the family pack...can anyone confirm if it works on the honors system???

[John M @ Oct 26th 2007 11:42AM]

Can you use one external HD to Time Machine 2 different Macs?

[MEAT! @ Oct 25th 2007 10:58PM]

That doesn't really look like a star cluster, though.

[Ryan Block @ Oct 25th 2007 11:34PM]

Ok, ok, it's a galaxy.

[Reader @ Oct 26th 2007 2:38AM]

Since when was a galaxy anything more then a really big star cluster?

[Gian @ Oct 26th 2007 8:42AM]

@Reader

Well, in fairness, you wouldn't call a monster truck a car, even though, technically it's just a really big car.

For example: "Hey, man! I just went to this really cool car rally, where they were racing and crushing cars. It was awesome!"
"Really? Crushing cars? Why? Do you mean they were wrecking the cars? Crashing? What the hell are you trying to say?"

See? Complete ambiguity. No one will be sure what the hell you're talking about. :-)

Gian

[MEAT! @ Oct 26th 2007 9:29AM]

Beyond the name argument, the term "star cluster" refers to an entirely different beast than "galaxy" does. Relative to a galaxy, a star cluster is tiny and only contains stars that have been born at about the same time. A galaxy, on the other hand, often has stars being born and dying out continuously, with different generation of stars mixed in.

[Atlas83 @ Oct 25th 2007 10:59PM]

can you do the whole remote controlling and stuff like that with a slower machine or only latest fast Intel Machines?

[Scott Rose @ Oct 25th 2007 11:00PM]

Quark users? Quark has been Mac OS X native for a long time.

[Joseph @ Oct 26th 2007 12:07AM]

right, but v. 5 was such a POS that indesign took over the market. hence people running quark 4.

[sephil @ Oct 26th 2007 11:21AM]

I'm still Quark 4 user also. Running Classic emulation under 10.4.10... The latest version of Quark doesnt have good support for Japanese font yet so many in Japan still work with Quark 4.5. It's also the same situation with Illustrator. My office stuck with version 8 since CS suck.

[Jeff @ Oct 25th 2007 11:01PM]

Does it have A2DP (or AD2P, whatever its called) support??

[Bengeance @ Oct 25th 2007 11:37PM]

I second the A2DP question. Can I finally use my bluetooth stereo headphones without a dongle, or crazy hoop-jumping madness?

[bombastinator @ Oct 26th 2007 2:25AM]

I read that there was a2dp support in the beta, But of course I have no confirmation. One more thing to wait on confirmation for.

For those readers who do not know what a2dp is, It is one of the newer bluetooth profiles which allows, amongst other things, high quality stereo through bluetooth, so your bluetooth headphones will produce good sound instead of the cruddy radio like sound you would be getting now. A2DP means Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. The lack of a2dp has been pissing off musicians for a while now.

[PollockRoc @ Oct 25th 2007 11:01PM]

Any chance for a future update to include the ability to use Time Machine over a USB connected drive over an Airport Base Station?

[Ryan Block @ Oct 25th 2007 11:35PM]

It's technologically feasible, I'd wager it just didn't make it into the launch release. We'll have to see if Apple adds it in later.