Leopard
Latest
Where OS X 'Big Cat' code names REALLY come from
OK, so imagine this: You're Apple Computer, Inc. (still) and it's December 1997. You've just blocked British Mac-clone maker Shaye from licensing Mac OS 8, thereby putting it pretty much out of luck for new products; in fact, Shaye will revert to selling genuine Apple gear at the end of the year. Still, there's something kind of catchy about Shaye's branding... something vaguely feline: Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Lion and Lynx. Nice ring to those "big cat" names. Mrowr! Reader Andreas Tellefsen spotted this incredible coincidence on Mac-clone history site everymac.com -- it seems that almost all of the Shaye model names have mysteriously transformed into Mac OS X release codenames. 'Lynx' is even one of the two additional big cats trademarked by Apple ('Cougar' is the other). Is this an innocent case of parallel branding? A sneaky repurposing of deprecated product names? Nothing more than a tempest in a litter box? You be the judge.Update: Ola and other commenters note that the Mac OS X names also match up with the names of German tanks and AFVs, which is a wee bit more disturbing.
ThinkSecret posts Leopard Gallery
Our friends at ThinkSecret are at it again, posting images that will raise Apple's ire. This time, it's screenshots from Mac OS 10.5 (build 9A343, to be exact). They note that window resizing is now instantaneous and fluid, without that brief delay that some 10.4 users experience. Also noteworthy is the new "security" screensaver. When the machine detects movement, it displays images (presumably from the built-in iSight) with a real "security camera" feel. Pretty cool.We can't verify any of these images, of course, so keep that in mind while poking around the gallery. ThinkSecret is tagging the end of March as a release date.
Leopard Server Overview
Through he doesn't seem to offer any truly new information, Daniel Eran over at Roughly Drafted has a nice post summarizing the changes coming in Leopard Server. One of the most significant highlights is the addition of many more "collaborative services" including a new iChat server that relays messages to the outside world, an iCal server for calendar sharing, a wiki server, and the Podcast Producer for automated podcast publishing. It seems like Apple is finally starting to ramp up OS X to be a stronger competitor to Microsoft's Exchange server for sharing information across a workgroup. While it's true that OS X Server probably isn't on the radar for most home users, it's good to know that Apple is continuing to refine our favorite OS for running on sweet Xserve iron, or maybe even a Mac mini home server. [Edit: removed last sentence about pricing. Apparently, I misunderstood the way it works]
Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate 3
The Parallels team today issued Release Candidate 3 of Parallels Desktop, their virtualization software that we've mentioned once or twice. While their announcement blog post only touts two major new features (the ability to seamlessly upgrade a WinXP VM to Vista & a more secure file sharing process between OSes), the beta testing page has quite a bit more to say. A lot of features have been enhanced in RC3, such as better Boot Camp support, ever-enhanced USB support and a new Transporter bundle, but one hidden gem is of particular interest: Parallels Desktop is now ready for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. To be clear: this doesn't mean you can virtualize Leopard in Parallels Desktop - you can run Parallels Desktop on a Leopard machine. Head on over to the beta page for all the details and to grab a copy of the new release.
iChat 4.0 Voicemail
A trusted source has provided TUAW with a screen-capture of an iChat 4.0 preference pane which hints at an as-yet-unannounced new feature– voicemail. Such a feature would round out the programs VoIP offerings and create a more complete communication experience for users.Now if only iChat could integrate with Skype and SIP, I wouldn't need a phone at all!Update: Can it be exclusive if Mac Rumors covered it in Dec? Ah well, here's hope we both don't get matching nastygrams from Apple legal (hey, we love your work!).
AppleInsider: WWDC to take place June 11th - 15th
Take this with a grain of sodium chloride, but AI is reporting that "people familiar with conference planning" have tipped them off to the dates of this year's World Wide Developers Conference. These "people" call June 10th - 15th for WWDC 2007, nearly two full months before last year's knocked-back WWDC, which took place on August 7th, 2006 (delayed, presumably, to make way for the release of the Mac Pro). Even though many folks, including students such as myself, typically consider June to fall under the Summer category, these dates are still technically Spring, which is fueling speculation that Leopard could possibly land on June 10th - the first day of WWDC where Steve Jobs has traditionally done the keynote thing.AI also speculates that iLife and iWork updates could also depend heavily on Leopard technologies, which means we might not see even these software packages until WWDC also. However, they did respond with a coy "stay tuned!" when asked about these updates in their recent Q1 2007 financial results that we liveblogged, so... uh, stay tuned!
Apple planning to charge Tiger users for Boot Camp?
It was perhaps one of the most significant events the PC industry has seen in the last decade: Apple opening up its hardware to Windows operating systems through its proprietary Boot Camp software. Not only did it allow Mac owners running Intel-powered machines to dual boot XP at will, it did so completely gratis (well, save for the cost of a Windows license). Unfortunately, the honeymoon may soon be over for Tiger users accustomed to the free boot loader: according to a report on MacScoop, Steve and friends plan to begin charging about $30 for the software once OS X Leopard is released and Boot Camp leaves beta for the greener pastures of commercial. For those Macheads planning to upgrade to Leopard, this wouldn't be an issue, of course -- the new OS will offer Boot Camp as one of its standard features. Still, if you're planning on keeping the old Tiger and your draft-N router around for awhile longer, it sounds like there's a good chance you'll need to squirrel away about $32 for the future: $30 for Boot Camp, and two bucks for the privilege of unlocking your wireless card's dormant 802.11n functionality.[Via Slashdot]
Mac Pro sales waiting on Adobe
During Wednesday's Financial Results conference call, some insights came to light regarding the sales of Apple's Mac Pro. Were potential purchasers waiting on the release of Leopard before buying, in what they call a "Leopard related pause"? Apple said no. It wasn't a factor now and it didn't happen when Tiger was about to be released either. So why have Mac Pro sales have been under-performing? Apple thinks there is a major factor keeping people from hopping onto the Mac Pro bandwagon: Adobe. The lack of an Intel-happy Creative Suite, whose release is due during the 2nd quarter of the year (calendar year, that is), will probably open up a new stream of Mac Pro sales that have been delayed because of software incompatibility. I personally cannot begin to count the amount of money I have sent towards both Adobe and Microsoft for their software, particularly for Photoshop, Word, and Excel. And I can't imagine a time where we ever see Apple software displace these software essentials. So for me, having Intel-friendly Adobe and Microsoft Universal Binaries is totally a precondition before laying out the cash for a major Mac upgrade.
TextMate 2's upcoming features
I spoke with the folks at the TextMate booth for a bit about the upcoming version. Yea, it's going to be Leopard-only, and we've been discussing why more and more devs are sticking with Leopard for their apps, but there's some pretty cool stuff on the way for TextMate. Beefing up support for version control software like Subversion, better Xcode integration and support for FTP are all on the way, though we still don't get an ETA since Leopard, strangely, is MIA.
Apple updates OS X Downloads page design
Apple has refreshed the look of the OS X Downloads page. It is a much cleaner design, and highlights a number of RSS feeds (Top 20, Just Added, and Staff Picks). Listed on the right side of the page are the Top Widgets, and the top iTunes + iPod downloads.Do we see shades of a possible new UI in Leopard? Only time will tell.Thanks, Nik.
Software Not Addressed In Macworld Keynote
Today was certainly exciting day for everyone following the Macworld Expo. The announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV, the latter more so than the former, certainly blew this blogger away. The one category of products expected by almost everyone, but missing from the keynote, was Apple's lineup of software, including the iLife suite and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. This begs the question about what Apple's plans are for the perennial update to the software suites, and when they plan to announce the release date and feature set for Leopard.
Resolution independent UI patent dissected by Cabel Sasser
The developer of Transmit (and composer of underground musical hit Buggy Saints Row) has done due diligence on Apple's patent application from December for a method of generating resolution-independent UI elements. If Apple is going to scale the Finder's descendants to work on hyper-resolution displays, this kind of tool would be essential.Sasser's post gives a great intro to the importance of resolution independence (keeping UI elements smooth and silky even as more pixels are required to render them on denser displays) and explains what's cool about the patent application: Apple developer Mark Zimmer (inventor of Fractal Design's natural media drawing app Painter) has built a theme creation tool that actually works up buttons, scroll bars and other eye candy via a procedural description, instead of bunches of pixels. Want a higher resolution display? Boom -- the markup is run again with the denser target, and welcome the new hotness.Cabel believes we'll be seeing the fruits of this labor real soon now. Must be later today!
ecamm releases iGlasses 1.4
iGlasses, the software-based iSight video enhancer, has been upgraded to version 1.4. iGlasses is basically a bundle of video filters that allow you to process the iSight signal to enhance brightness or add special effects (like "night vision"). There are several new features of note introduced in version 1.4. First is the iGlasses Manager. It allows you to switch iGlasses on and off on a per-application basis, so you can use the filters in, say, iChat, but not in iMovie. Second, you can now use iGlasses in many more applications. Version 1.4 includes support for Comic Life, Delicious Library, Camfrog, jmeeting, WebcamTweaker, CamSpinner, Funny Photographer, CamGrabber, and more. Finally, 1.4 introduces enhanced AppleScript scriptability. I'm sure you can use the scriptability for some sort of twisted April Fool's prank, but I'm unsure as to what else it might be helpful for. You can buy a copy of iGlasses for $8 at the ecamm website, which isn't a huge amount of money, but be aware that a lot of this same functionality looks like it will be built into Leopard's iChat when it bows later this year.
Leopard makes an Amazon appearance
Apple's next-gen OS, Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard, is expected to ship in Spring '07. This is not a secret. But somehow we feel better when Amazon confirms it for us. As Nelson pointed out in the iWork '07 on Amazon comments, they are already listing Leopard with a note that says "Scheduled to ship in spring 2007." Amazon is conveniently offering to email you when it's available for purchase. I guess Mac lovers who plan to be in hibernation for the next 3 months might need that.Thanks Sean and Nelson!
Scott Stevenson on why upcoming apps are going Leopard-only
Scott Stevenson, blogger of many things developer-related, has penned an in-depth explanation that answers my assumptions as to why developers would (or should) go Leopard-only with their apps. The explanation Scott provides is pretty thorough, offering brief examples of what is so new and fancy in Leopard that would appeal to a developer. To be more specific: Leopard offers some powerful tools and major changes in code that can really propel many apps to be all they can be, and as Scott puts it: "Forgoing Leopard APIs until some arbitrary point in the future can actually hold the app back from its full potential." A lot of the points Scott makes seem to boil down to a couple of fundamentals, with one of them being the tried and true mantra of "know your audience." Scott is right on when he points out that Mac users are Mac users by choice, which means many of them who have a vested interest in 3rd party software (like TextMate and Delicious Library - both of which have announced future Leopard-only updates) are far more likely to be early adopters; i.e. - they're also likely to be first in line for Leopard. Even though he can roll with the devs, Scott writes in a language everyone can understand. His post is a great read if you're interested in the dynamics of why a Mac OS X developer would release an app on the bleeding edge of an OS update. [via The Apple Blog]
List of Leopard-only apps is growing
Cocoa Blogs has linked a blog post from Gus Mueller, developer of such apps as VoodooPad, that an upcoming FlySketch 2.0 update will be Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard-only. This adds to a growing list of upcoming app releases such as TextMate 2 and Delicious Library 2 which will only play with Apple's next big cat. So what does this tell us about 10.5 and its impact on the Mac, both for developers and users? Sounds to me like there are some pretty ground-breaking changes in Leopard since, from what I understand, developers typically try to keep theirs doors as open as possible by maintaining backwards compatibility with at least one previous version of the Mac OS. Of course, this can vary depending on how difficult it is to keep these doors open, as well as whether the developer works out of an office or a living room. Personally, this boosts my excitement for Leopard. If it changes things as much as developers keep hinting, 10.5 sounds like it'll be a fun ride.
Xar
The Leopard news of the moment is that Xar will be baked in. Xar, or eXtensible ARchive format, is just what it sounds like, a new way to compress files. You're thinking, 'Aren't there lots of ways to do this already?' Yes, but as this page entitled 'Why xar is interesting' explains Xar has some big things going for it. Firstly, it keeps metadata (like file type, MP3 data, and the like) in a separate file so you can tell lots about a compressed file without having to uncompress it. It also compressed each file separately, so if you Xar a folder each file is compressed separately.Xar is already available for download, if the more technical amongst you would like to take it for a spin.Pretty neat.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard build 9A321: updated feature list reveals some new goodies
Since celebrating some sort of holiday is pretty big this time of year, it seems only fitting that MacosXrumors has posted what seems to be an updated list of new Leopard goodies, based on one of the recent developer builds. While this isn't a mind-blowing list of breaking new features, there are some interesting bits in here, such as a new File Recovery feature of Disk Utility that lets you search for lost files by type, as well as a new video answering machine feature of iChat, which lets you record a short message for friends when you aren't around to answer them.These little updates that have been leaking over the last year are interesting in and of themselves, but it will be great to see the big hitters Steve will hopefully be unveiling at Macworld 07.[via digg]
Push IM feature in iPhone/iChat Mobile?
TUAW reader Andrew Leitch spotted a possible item of interest in the Apple online Leopard iChat preview. One of the contacts, 'Karin Svensson', whose status is set to online, without voice or video capabilities, has an "airport-esque array of concentric arcs" next to her name. Andrew asks whether this hints at a possible Push IM feature, perhaps supported in iChat Mobile on an iPhone. We're throwing the question out to you readers. What do you think?Update: The consensus is clearly that this is all a big nothing. Thanks for the feedback!
Computerworld on 15 things Apple should change in Mac OS X
Two of Macworld's top OS gurus - Scot Finnie and Ken Mingis - put their heads together to develop a list of 15 things they feel Apple should consider fixing or changing with the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, due sometime in Spring 2007. The interesting thing here is that these editors sit on two different sides of the OS fence; one is a Mac OS X guru, while the other knows all things Windows. The two have put together quite an interesting list, ranging from the basic necessities all the way up to UI inconsistencies and fundamentals that can sometimes derail an otherwise pleasant Mac OS X experience. It's a good read, though a bit long. Also, as a sidenote, Computerworld loses 10 points for employing the lame technique of spanning articles across pages to boost page views and ad impressions. [via Slashdot]
