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Seven cool features of Leopard that might get stubborn friends to upgrade
There are dozens of little niceties in Leopard: like how Front Row now lives on my iBook (sans remote) and allows me to operate the thing as a sort of thin-client media jukebox (courtesy a Mac mini server). Or how Font Book now prints books of your fonts (especially nice for those non-techies). With the 300+ new features, I still have yet to fully explore this thing, but I'm certainly starting to believe this is the Mac OS Apple really wanted to deliver a few years back. There's no doubt in my mind this is a big turning point for the platform, and I really believe user adoption in 2008 will be unprecedented as a result.Following is a list of features and specific "cool things" I think you can point out if you are trying to explain to a friend why they should upgrade. For the record, I installed Leopard on a 1.24 GHz iBook G4, and it runs beautifully, which in itself is a selling point.1. Finally, a Record button for your actions Automator now has a UI recorder. Anyone who remembers the good old days of macro recorders before OS 8 will look at this and sigh, but I, for one, welcome my new robot overlord. Automator is finally useful for mortals with UI recording. Oh sure, it isn't perfect, but it really beats trying to explain just the concept of Automator to the average human. Never mind the metaphors and the workflow within Automator itself -- eyes will glaze over. UI recording is absolute heaven when you do a lot of drudge work, like contracts, filling, prepping photos, etc.2. Mail gets GTD fever If power users turn up their noses at Stationary in Mail, point out how they can now put their notes, to-do's and RSS into Mail. I haven't really set all this up as I'd like yet (the iBook isn't my primary work machine), but my unfettered hatred of Mail.app is somewhat lessened now by the fact that it is starting to behave like a "real" email client. The notes and to-do's are icing on the cake, but also very important if you like to get things done and stay organized. A few smart folders and you have a truly powerful system. Still, it is disappointing to see Apple take half a decade to figure out the whole "archive mailbox" thing, but pobody's nerfect I guess.3. Web clipping makes Dashboard relevant again My wife quit using Dashboard long ago. It simply served no purpose for her. But web clipping, baked right in to Safari? That had her mildly interested. Tracking the top 3 Twitters, or whatever the top story on Perez or TMZ happens to be with a keystroke is a selling point for folks who aren't using RSS. The only downside is that you need a pretty big screen if you want more than a couple of pages to appear.4. Shared drives finally "just work" and Shared Screens work with other OS'esGranted, there have been issues with networking in Leopard, but seeing shared Macs in my sidebar? That's pretty sweet. In previous versions of OS X you had to click on Network, now it just shows up. Is a few clicks a big deal? Well, for the average user, yes, this is a big deal. The average user doesn't like to explore. They can be timid, and frankly, don't necessarily know (or care) what the Network thing even is. Displaying networked components directly in Finder will greatly increase the probability that users will at least see everything. It has already saved me time when trying to reconnect and move things around my home LAN. For me, the real fun was seeing how VNC "just worked" when I was able to access my Mac mini (which was already running as a VNC server) via Screen Sharing. Even though the mini runs Tiger, and despite a slightly wonky connection, overall it was super easy to set-up. Think about it another way: average users don't want to run a third-party application like Chicken of the VNC. Average users don't necessarily trust those apps (thank you, Bonzi Buddy) and it is a lot easier to remotely control a machine if the functionality is built into the OS. Oh, and did I mention you can share screens with Linux? I finally have a use for that old Dell laptop and my Ubuntu CD!
24 Hours of Leopard: Cover Flow
Feature: Cover Flow in the Finder.How it works: Just like album Cover Flow in iTunes, Leopard brings the side-scrolling view to the Finder, allowing your "flip" through your files and see live previews (including paging through mutli-page documents and playing movies).Who will use it: Everyone at one time or another. When I first heard of Cover Flow in the Finder, like Matt Neuburg, it seemed like pointless eye candy. But like him I'm beginning to think otherwise. Cover Flow makes quickly flipping through a bunch of files to look for something much easier. This becomes particularly important when you're looking through folders you're not that familiar with. So even if you're more inclined to keep the Finder in a conventional view, Cover Flow will still probably come in handy on occasion.
iPod Classic and Nano get updated to 1.0.2
iTunes has an update for the new iPod Classic and the new Nanos, and while the update doesn't have a description at all, MacRumors sez: Improved CoverFlow Quicker menus And the much awaited video out fix, among a few other interface tweaks Apparently there's a new option that will "Ask" users to output video when a compatible cable is connected. And some people say that the calendar and contacts will synch better as well, although I have the same reservations I have whenever I hear about unlisted feature updates -- if Apple did make it better, why didn't they want to tell us? Wouldn't they want us to know the iPod works better than ever?At any rate, if you think it works better, then more power to you-- enjoy your updated iPod. As always, the update can be grabbed by connecting up your Classic or Nano to iTunes and hitting "Check for Updates."Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Apple working on pressure sensitive touchscreens
Apple Insider's got the latest on yet another Apple patent application, this one for not just touch sensitive screens, but for pressure sensitive touchscreens. Right now, the iPhone can tell where you're touching it, but not how hard you're pressing on it. The device described in the patent could do just that, and use the force information "for purposes of providing command and control signals to an associated electronic device."Pretty interesting. I can't think of a great use for it besides the one Wacom and other high-end input tablets already use (the harder you press, the darker mark you can make with a virtual pencil), but then again, I'm not an award-winning user interface designer (just a pretty average user interface user). Who knows what Apple could come up with using an interface like this-- maybe flip through CoverFlow albums front-to-back as well as horizontally?Of course, like all patents, as AI notes, Apple has no obligation to actually use this design in any of their products. But just in case you needed any more hints that they're not walking away from a touchscreen interface anytime soon, here you go.
High quality album art (from Apple)
With Apple emphasizing Cover Flow more and more in the new iPods, etc., the need for good quality album art is ever increasing. I know iTunes is supposed to grab art for songs that are in your library and the iTunes Store, but in my experience it hasn't worked that well. Fortunately, Josh Powell has cooked up a nice little site called Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber that lets you search the iTunes album art repository and download high quality jpgs from Apple's servers. In my brief test (with Springsteen albums), most of the cover art came back as 600 x 600px. However, some albums featured art up to 1425 x 1425 or higher. The search engine is rather strict ("White Stripes" returned nothing, it had to be "The White Stripes"), but this looks like an excellent resource for filling in holes in your collection.[via Digg]
Metaliveblogging the "Beat Goes On" event
The reporters are there. The Apple Store is down. The rumors have been spread. And now it's time for the Apple Event you've all been waiting for.We're not actually there (I'm in my cozy apartment in Chicago's beautiful Wicker Park), but we are watching everyone who is there, and we'll be metaliveblogging everything we see. Here's who we're watching: MacWorld, Engadget, MacDailyNews, the Mac Observer, Ars Technica, Slashgear, The Utility Belt, The Apple Gazette, and Stuff. So why press F5 on all those windows when we'll do it for you for free, and provide entertaining commentary all the while?The liveblog starts right after the jump, and stay tuned for updates. Today is all about iPods (and maybe even the Beatles), so let's do it.Update: It's over, and wow the iPod got a lot of love today. Don't forget that we'll be discussing everything that happened on tonight's talkcast. See you on Talkshoe tonight at the special 9 pm ET start time, and bring all that iPhone pricing rage along with you.
Rumor: OS X on the iPod in September
The latest rumor to hit the iPod trail, besides the obviously faked nanos, is that the iPod is headed for an OS X-based system, and that Apple is planning to unify all of their products. This one's actually be floating around for a bit, and at this point, it's almost more of an educated inference than a rumor at all-- Apple has already shown that they're looking to start making connections across product lines. CoverFlow moved from iTunes to the iPhone, and we've already seen evidence that the iPhone interface may find a place in OS X proper.So it's only natural that the iPod would join the crowd. What will that entail? More CoverFlow, more album art, a better iPhoto '08 interface. So far, the same old click wheel seems to be involved (so no phone-less iPhone yet), but in general, a flashier interface than the old scrolling text screens we're used to.While we've heard (and speculated) on all of this before, this is the first time we've heard a solid date: AppleInsider is saying that by the end of September (before the holiday season), we'll be looking at an iPod with OS X on it. I don't disagree-- if Apple is planning to update the iPod in this way, they'd want to do it before the holidays. If we don't see anything by October, my guess is we'll have to wait until early 2008 to see any updates at all. Of course, by that point, we'll be too ga-ga over Leopard to worry about it.
Should Apple have used Cover Flow in iPhoto '08?
TUAW reader o!ivier has posted a mockup to his Flickr account of how he believes the iPhoto '08 Events UI should have been designed. Seeing it as a more natural evolution of what Apple is doing with Mac OS X and their apps (iTunes, Finder in Leopard, etc.), o!ivier believes Apple should have built in Cover Flow for browsing events instead of the new 'skimming' UI, where users run their mouse over resizable thumbnails to see all the photos contained in the event scroll by. Instead, this Cover Flow mockup proposes the idea of scrolling left and right through Events just like you scroll through albums in iTunes. Clicking an event produces thumbnails of all the images laid out in the area below, which can then be resized independently from the Cover Flow area.I rarely prefer design mockups like this over what Apple produces, but I have to admit: I think Apple dropped the ball here. O!ivier's mockup looks far more useful, as you can browse through Events and view resizable thumbnails of all the photos they contain without leaving the Events UI. Don't get me wrong, skimming is cute, but Cover Flow + iPhoto looks like it would look just as slick but provide a far more useful working environment.Who knows - Maybe Apple just wants to wait for users to get used to Cover Flow in Leopard's Finder. After all, they need to give us at least a few reasons to upgrade to iLife '09, right?
Safari, meet Cover Flow
I'm not sure why eye candy gets such a bad reputation-- we all need a little beauty in our lives, and no UI designer should ever argue that a "cool!" factor is a bad thing to have, when you've already hit all the other bases. Cover Flow is a perfect example. When people made their wishlists before iTunes 7, I don't know anyone that said they wanted a visual way to browse their albums. But everyone loved the Cover Flow plugin, and now those designers are working for Apple.So Jimmy G has an idea: why not add Cover Flow functionality into Safari? You could browse updated versions of your bookmarks just like you browse your albums in iTunes. I'm not sure I'd implement it exactly the way he has (click the pic above to see a bigger version), as if I'm browsing my web visually, I'd rather more real estate was given to the pages themselves. But it's an interesting idea.And I think we could use a little more color in the web browsing experience-- the space between the browser tabs, if you will. If you're a Firefox for Windows user you really should try out the Tab Effect**; it lets you flip between tabs like a rotating cube. It's actually a little much to use all the time, but it's a cool idea, at least. And the PicLens plugin for Safari also puts a little oomph in your picture browsing-- it can create slideshows of Flickr pictures with just a click. You may think it's superfluous (and yes, if your app doesn't function already, it is) but we all need a little bit of eye candy now and again.Thanks, Jimmy!**Whoops. As commenter Rae notices, Tab Effect is Windows only, because it requires Directx 8. But it's still a cool effect.
CoverFlow, "Get all" podcasts in iTunes 7.3.1
A reader of ours sends along (thanks!) two cool new podcasting features in iTunes 7.3.1 that I hadn't noticed yet. First and foremost, podcasts are now browseable with CoverFlow, which is awesome (and probably points to an eventual implementation of CoverFlow on the iPod, if speculation is your thing). However, podcasters aren't sure exactly how art is determined for this-- they can define art by episode, so which episode art is shown in CoverFlow? Also, video podcasts use an image that comes a few frames into the video, which doesn't really help unless the podcast is designed to show a logo or identifier early on.The other new feature works great, though-- when browsing a specific podcast, you'll notice that a new "Get All" button shows up near the title. When you hit that, iTunes will automatically download all available episodes of that podcast. Depending on how many are available, that might be a pretty big addition to your collection, but if you find a really good podcast that you can't get enough of, it's great to have one-click access to everything out there.
Apple's Finger Tips walkthrough shows off more iPhone attributes
What's a smelly line sitter to do but leech off a nearby WiFi signal and catch last minute content of the mobile they're about the snag? In case you've been following along, Apple has released yet another video walkthrough that carefully explains ten more niceties of the iPhone. 'Course, we can't imagine anyone (well, there's always an outlier) having trouble resetting their device, setting up a passcode, or deleting a text message, but the kind folks at Apple are showing you anyway. Additionally, you'll catch instructions on how to silence the ringer, create a favorites list, assign a ringtone, browse in Cover Flow, edit text, and set up mail preferences. Go on, check out the vid in the read link, we promise we won't tell anyone you're still miffed by the lack of a number pad.
The Big iPhone Zapruder #3: Music, Cover Flow, Video and more
And the exhaustive analysis of Apple's iPhone Guided Tour continues, this time with the third installment and photo gallery covering some of the interesting new features we found in the iPod app. This is of course one of the iPhone's key components, and Apple has really made some great improvements to the UI and experience. While we have already seen most of them demonstrated by Jobs and in the commercials, there were a few handy new tidbits revealed in this tour.%Gallery-4212% Cover Flow track selection: We've seen the wonders of Cover Flow, but I don't remember seeing that you can actually select an album and chose a track while still in the Cover Flow view. Previously, I thought the demos showed that you had to select the album and switch back to a full track list view; but not so here. Theatrical Aspect vs Full Screen video: Looks like the iPhone doesn't default to playing widescreen movies in what Apple calls 'theatrical aspect' so you can see the whole thing; they're zoomed in to a full screen view. Double tap for full widescreen, double tap again to get out. On screen movie controls: I think we've seen them before, but I couldn't find a screenshot, and even the Calamari ad has the user hit the Home button to get out of the movie; he doesn't actually interact with it. Customizable iPod buttons: Here's one of the slick ways Apple has really improved on customizability, allowing users to specify which five buttons line the bottom of the iPod app. Listen to a lot of podcasts? Want a genre button instead of artists? You can swap out all the buttons for easy access to the parts of your library you use most. Brilliant. Headset controls: I also don't remember much being said about the headset that comes with the iPhone. At first glance it looks like a simple, standard set of iPod headphones with a new microphone slapped on, but the mic has a surprisingly functional button. Of course, you can use it to answer and end calls, but when listening to music, you can double-click the button to advance tracks. That's about all the new goodies we picked up in the iPod section of the video. Stay tuned for more in-depth analysis soon.
Hello Tomorrow: The 300+ new features of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
While Steve Jobs introduced ten major features coming in Mac OS X Leopard at last year's WWDC, the entire list of new features has finally been unveiled. We already knew about some of the enhancements coming in apps like Mail and the all-new Spaces and Time Machine, but Jobs today highlighted some significant new features such as an interesting new approach to the Desktop and a (finally!) updated Finder. This isn't all that's coming in Leopard, however; not by a long shot. In fact, along with a redesigned Apple.com, the company has unveiled the full Leopard features site, elaborating a lot more on most (but likely not all) the new features we'll get to play with in October. The list this time around actually tops over 300+ new features - the most significant upgrade in Mac OS X's history. Included in the list are apps we haven't seen featured on stage, including iCal, Parental Controls, DVD Player, Automator and more. There's a lot to look through here (and likely much more to discover that Apple hasn't detailed), so we're going to take some time to digest this all. As always, feel free to send us tips as we publish more info on new features as quickly as possible.
Swap full-screen Cover Flow and video in iTunes
Here comes the community at Mac OS X Hints with yet another cool trick which, in this case, should help us waste just a little more time in iTunes 7.1.1. I specify that latest version because this hint concerns Cover Flow's new found ability to run in full-screen mode: as it turns out, you can command-tab between a full-screen video and Cover Flow. This is enabled by the apparent fact that that cmd-tab doesn't toggle Mac OS X's app switcher when in iTunes is full-screened; you have to hit Escape to get out of this environment for cmd-tab to get back to its normal duties. This is a slick, very eye candy feature that, in a way, I am surprised Apple didn't do at least a little bragging about with the latest iTunes update.
Coverscout 2.3
Coverflow is a really great incentive to get album art for all your tracks in iTunes 7, but surely you don't want to do that manually. Sure, iTunes can download cover art from the iTunes Store, but what if some of your music isn't on the iTunes Store?Enter Coverscout, which was just bumped up to version 2.3. This little app searches several sources to find that album art that is just right. New in 2.3 are: Use an iSight to take a picture of a rare CD or album cover and Coverscout will convert it to album art for you Better searching iTunes 7 support Coverscout is a Universal Binary, and costs $19.95.
CoverFlow: I knew that looked familiar
When we first looked at CoverFlow a little more than a year ago, we were impressed: "It really is nice to look at, I have to say, and flipping through albums is fun...I'm certainly eager to watch this application develop." It seems that Cupertino was also smitten, as the message on CoverFlow's (former) home page explains:"We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes."Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Work hard, and you, too, can be consumed by a corporate giant. Seriously, though, congratulations to the authors of CoverFlow. Well done indeed.
