Leopard Preview Reactions?
 

Apple has graciously posted a Leopard Sneak Peak section. Check it out:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/


Thoughts?

My thought is my Titanium PowerBook is really going to show its age come Leopard, so i plan on upgrading to a MacBook Pro soon!

I think virtual desktops was a long time coming...and the implementation looks great. I'm also dying to see which secret features they couldn't show are.

Time Machine looks like it's going to be the savior of many people's day once Leopard hits the scene. I'm just not sure how it actually works and i'd like to know more. Does it just not actually delete your files? It must take up more disk space?

I love how Steve didn't show off all of the features of Leopard because he doesn't want them photocopied by MS.

Good lookin' out, Stevesy!

edit: haha go and look at Time Machine. Only Apple would replace the desktop with a picture of space for one of their apps.

edit: So I guess we have to wait until MacWorld to see the other cool features?

On to MacWorld!

When you delete files they never go anywhere I would emagine it just works like a Recovery Program, just much simpler, like all thinks apple.

I couldn't see the whole of some of the videos They just stopped half way through. Also I think iChat looks really good, however is there any plans to make it work with MSN Messenger? Not many people use iChat thats its only limitation.

The Power Mac looks nice too, 2 terrabits of hard disk (that'll keep time machine going), 16GB of RAM 6GHz processing nice £1,200 graphics card. A bit over the top but who cares!

Didn't that leopard preview spoof from a few months ago also have a 'multi-desktop' kind of thing like 'Spaces'?

Also:
Does that mean there may be new menu effects?

Woah! Where did you hear that?

Also there is a sidebar (below the tiger ad) on that page that hints that Boot Camp will be included in Leopard.

I think Time Machine will work like Windows and other recovery programs. The app and it's files will take up a little extra room, but it won't make full backups of your files (unless that is an option). In other words, If you zeroed out all your unused space you couldn't recover it.

iChat's new features look neat, but I hope that it doesn't allow for MSN integration. I do hope that it allows for an active history like AdiumX does. Honestly, I may start using iChat more, but I think I'll probably stick with AdiumX when all is said and done.

Spaces is long overdue for OSX and Windows. I've been waiting for this feature for 5 long years. I wonder if this will work seemlessly with Parallels running full screen on one VD (virtual desktop). I wonder if you can alter how many VDs you have so: 1) you can have more than the deafult four; 2) You can have less than 4 if you really just want 2 or 3 total. I think I'd like to have one Desktop act as a giant bulletin board for anything and everything I copy or cut.

I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't showcase any new Finder options. Though perhaps not technically the Finder, I did like the inclusion of Spotlight's Boolean logic.

The new Mac Pro design is nice. Does it have HW RAID?

About the Time Machine, I think you can use an external HD to 'backup'.

The Finder looks the same.

Maybe they are still working on the new Finder...

One can dream....

One can certainly dream that Apple has dramatic Finder improvements that they didn't show because it would fall into the category of "Things Steve Didn't Want Microsoft to Photocopy Too Soon."

In other words, "Some things are not developed enough to show our customers so we'll spin it so it seems like we're really just hiding these features from Microsoft."


PS: This is the first time I can recall where the starting configuration and price is higher than the minimum offered at the Apple store. What I menas is tht Mac Pro starts at $2,499 with 250GB HDD and two 2.66GHz Xeon processors, but you can make it $2,124 with a 160GB HDD and two 2.00GHz Xeon processors.

You can customise the power mac in the apple store that spec costs £11K (wth twin 30 inch HD monitors)i

I believe they said it would be included.

It looks nice, but not enough for me to shell out $129 to upgrade from 10.4.7. Anyone know how much hard drive space it may take (i'm afraid to ask about RAM)?

Almost funny, I just started using Mac OS as my main system after being an exclusive BSD & Linux user. Just when I'd finally gotten used to the lack of virtual desktops...

I like the feature set they showed in iChat, spaces looks useful and time machine will be nice so long as it doesn't eat my harddrive alive. I'm also glad that Mail now has a more obvious way to send to-do's between different computers.

Dashboard and Spotlight are the two things that I was hoping to see the most improvement on, honestly. No point in adding new features if they aren't going to make their old ones more usable. But it looks like they are headed in the right direction. Dashboard now has a 'web-browsing' capability (I was whining for a Pandora widget, guess I got my wish :). ) And an easy way to design widgets, though I wonder how powerful that will really be. Spotlight now has a preview window. But, until spotlight says "won't require you to open the full spotlight window, then reveal ten files in finder before you find the right one, thus allowing you to actually move the stupid thing" I won't be satisfied.

Edit: Just read some specs on time-machine. It does auto-backups on an external drive, so I'm going to put that on my 'must have' feature list. That would make me feel far more secure about my computer.

Virtual Desktops and the Mail enhancements will make me buy it - excellent enhancements that will assist my MO.

Cheers,

Gavin

Er, is Spaces not merely a similar app to You Control's Desktops app?
Gavin

Er, is Mac OS X not merely a similar OS to Microsoft Windows?

(There are several virtual desktop apps out there already, just as there are several mail apps and web browsers. That doesn't make it wrong for Apple to make one.)

Desktop managers are have certainly been around for quite some time and on various platforms so in this case, Apple is more catching up on X11 than anything else, but, styrafome, before we get back into the RDF, can you please spell Konfabulator for me without feeling that Apple did something slightly wrong when they stole the concept without even talking to the original developers ?

Apple also did that to Proteron LiteSwitch and Karelia Watson, but there is also a huge gray area between slightly wrong and clearly evil. It isn't even that clear-cut to developers, as in this blog entry from Script Software whom many feel were ripped off by Apple today.

That's part of it, but it also keeps the differences around. This has been a feature of some NAS systems for well over a decade (I remember seeing a sales pitch of this feature back in 1994!). One of the features of a journaling file system is that changes are essentially appended to the end of the file to make file updates faster and aid in crash recovery. A side-effect is that with a little extra bookkeeping, you can see a time-stamped snapshot of a file by controlling how far into the "change journal" to traverse. This will consume more disk space, but it should be transparent to the user. There is no reason the file system couldn't manage history and purge old deleted files only when needed by new files.

Nothing in the WWDC blew me away................ except the 'shared desktop through iChat'.... The ability to have a video chat with my parents or one of our remote offices and then the ability to take control of their screen when they are stuck is pretty cool.... that feature alone is worth the price of Leopard for me.:D

Just as long as it doesn't eat my graphics card alive... :(

I still need money to upg to a new graphics card, and all these fancy features make it sound like a 32mb card won't cut it. I just got Tiger too...

I almost forgot about that aspect, Photek. I have most of family buying a Mac as their next computer and they will need a good deal of retraining. Er, I mean "thinking different". The fact that I won't have to buy Remote Desktop in order to assist them with their new Mac will be a blessing.


Also, they pointed out how MS is copying Apple, but I noticed that many of the other features they showcased have been available in other OSs for some time.

Yeah i felt the same way...although of course they are better on OS X :)

I was not implying any wrongdoing, merely asking a question. I do not have, perhaps, the familiarity with the myriad of Mac apps that are out there; hence my question.

FYI, there's a Pandora widget here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20173

The graphics card in Macbooks and Mac mini's are nothing special, I'm sure they'll work with it, infact certain. So your graphics card should cope.

I've just finished watching the 1hour 20min Keynote presentation on apples website. The only thing I didn't like is the release date, Spring 07 that means we are gonna have to wait at least until march if not June! Thats 7-10 months. They will have added a lot more features however and tested it well for bugs. Whats the chances of it being released before Vista. At least we'll be able to use it when it's released.
If Vista does launch in January the PC users will still have to wait 6-12 months for the flaws to be ironed out and a SP. The memories of XP

iChat Leopard Sneak Peak Not Working right!
 

Is it just me or does the iChat QT preview freeze up, turn semi transparent white just as the guy relaxes in the beach scene?

System software is up-to-date, just wondered if anyone else was experiencing the same thing - tried it on the Macs at work - same problem.

I guarantee we'll start seeing a whole lot of both innovative and crappy new interfaces. There was a joke made during the Core Animation presentation about how Apple's human interface guidelines don't mean anything anymore. Even the Apple folks laughed at that.

It's a beta what do you exspect?

No I didn't make myself clear not the software but the vidoe preview here:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/leopard/ichat.html

but no worries because it's finally playing all the way through!

Time Machine is a backup program, not a recovery program. When you plug in an external HD, Leopard asks if you want to use it as your backup disk. There's only one problem that I can think of. Imagine this: someone is working on a top-secret Apple project. He sends the file to his boss, then deletes it because there's a Microsoft spy in Apple. Then he goes and gets a coffee. The spy goes to his computer, looks around for the file, and does not find it. Then he activates Time Machine, gets the file, and leaves.
What I'm saying is that sometimes you don't want to be able to get a file back. There has to be a way to remove a file from the backup.

I heard you could exclude any folder from the backup. Just add any folders you don't want the lawyers to see and that might do it.

I'm not sure what you meant by the above, but the most important part of TimeMachine is the user-interface for file recovery.

I heardThere are too many people in the room TimeMachine session at WWDC. I'm sure some people can't enter the room...

I like the look of time machine and im hoping the AD Plugin will be improved and Steve is hiding the best features until the full release. I am installing the Leopard beta now. OMG 5gb install disk lucky i bought those dual layered dvd disks last yeaR!!!!

I think he simply meant that it won't recover deleted data, unbacked-up deleted data.

Fortunately, if you use Time Machine correctly "unbacked-up deleted data" shouldn't be an issue.

Well the console has changed a bit and now has a mcx debug log - interesting! Ad plugin has moved to version 1.6 :) Got to be good. Impressed with the beta

I found this Google Video clip of the upcoming Spaces interacting with Expose in 9 virtual desktops. I can't imagine ever needing that many, but it was cool to watch to anyway.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...32624913848469

I know that *nx desktops have had this feature for a decade but Apple has really done a masterful job of implementing it better.

I think time machine is more a data convience for the user than it is a solid back up method. Even though apple states you can back it up to a server (which I will assume is a network share) no one knows how much data it takes up and I am almost 100% positive it will not change the methods of which back ups are made.

It is a lot like system recovery on a windows box with a few exceptions. 1) it must be set up on some sort of external or extra HD that the OS does not run on. 2) it backs up everything by default and custom settings by custom where as MS system restore does not touch any user data ever, it just keeps track of the registry and drivers and system files

So really to me time machine seems more like a data convience for folk who tend to delete an email too early or perhaps have multiple versions of similiar documents and delete them before they need to do so. Or just the trigger happy delete users who delete everything they don't think they need with out first taking the time to determine if that is what is to be done.

It sounds like a decent feature overall, but its not a deal breaker for me and I honestly probably won't ever use it. I keep my data backed up over a network and then by back up device after that. Anything else is trivial since I make master images of machines and update them as I can. So really since data is stored on a different location and backed up immidiatedly and often I would rather just wipe the machine and reimage it, and then restore data from the back up.

One thing not mentioned, I really hope time machine offers some sort of driver roll back. I have had a few drivers botch a few OS X installs in the past and I really wish there was an easier way to roll back. MS windows has one of the better features when it comes to this. You can even roll back during an install. I had an older audio driver crash windows the other day in one of our animation labs, during the install it crashed and I chose to cancel the install and it completely rolled back the install taking all the files off. That is a feature I would like to see in every OS.

Spaces is probably one of the few features I look forward to. Being a linux user multiple desktops have been something I have used for a while now. It is about time apple adopted it.

I also want to see more user customization of the UI. I want themes, and to be able to change a lot of default settings on windows, the dock, and desktop management. I have always found it weird that a company that has their slogan as "think different" doesn't allow the user to think different on how the OS is laid out. I mean come on, everyone has their own preferences so just let the users have their choice. I also want to see more customization of the finder. Sometimes I wish I could rearrange the finder UI when browsing through certain files and especially when using a multiple button mouse. I really want the cycloptic mouse to die. I love having right click options and I love being able to customize right click options.

core animation seems like apple tossing the devs a bone. perhaps if applications like retrospect take advantage of time machine APIs, then we might see some worthy apps and you might see some nice native features pop up. this soley relies on the mac dev community. hopefully open source will pick up some of this stuff and make something cool. however, i hold no expectations either way until i see some stuff.

The rest is well, we will just have to wait until its release.

Leopard should reflect ethical, strategic choices
 

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Apple has got my attention – I’m looking forward to Leopard with careful expectations. But I am more concerned with strategy than features, and I would like to see Leopard reflect some moral choices that also make good business sense.

TimeMachine seems interesting, but I hope it comes with clear options that easily enable me to delete a file. Permanently. But I like Tom Larkin’s idea of roll-back on the driver front – in fact, I wonder to what degree TimeMachine will enable “going back” in terms of software updates that don’t work, etc.

Spaces seems like a very natural way to organise my computer activities.

Widgets haven’t interested me much before, but the idea of Dashcode enabling me to easily make customised widgets sounds enticing. That would give convenient access to the most interesting stuff on the Web.

As software developers take advantage of Apple’s full-fledged, 64-bit OSX, Jobs & co should be able to underscore the Mac advantace, translating it into further market share gains.

All that is fine and well – but I would also like to see Apple making a strategic decision: To chart their path ahead with stricter ethics.

1.) That means evaluating third-party software to see what is worth incorporating into Leopard, and then giving deserved credit and remuneration for that.

2.) I would like to see Apple incorporate Little Snitch into OSX, and state clearly that they will respect users being in control of their machines.

3.) I want to see Apple take a far more pro-active approach to users’ security.

In the long term, such a crystal-clear strategic decision would work to Apple’s advantage. I believe it would weigh heavily also with corporate clients who are tempted to reevaluate platforms after being fed up with Microsoft’s arrogance and security failings for years. (Did I say "reevaluate platforms"? With BootCamp and Intel-embracing Macs everyone can have their Apple and eat it too.)

Such ethical choices would also represent an open challenge to the rest of the players on the market. Come to think of it, improved ethics will only strenghen Apple’s cool factor.

Best regards,
ArcticStones

Apple cowardly going after bloggers once again
 

ArcticStones, if only Apple Legal listened to your observations:

Instead they sent a DMCA C&D letter to a blog, asking them to take down an embedded youtube video. They were however not ballsy enough to do the same thing to youtube.

Here's the mail:

"VIA E-MAIL

NOT FOR POSTING

Re: Apple Computer Copyrighted Material Illegally Disseminated by Crunchgear.com

To Whom It May Concern:
We represent Apple Computer, Inc. (”Apple”). It has come to our attention that your website, at http://crunchgear.com/2006/08/28/how...-os-x-leopard/, is posting a video demonstrating certain features of Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (aka “Leopard”). While we appreciate your interest in Leopard, it has not yet been released to the public. The software demonstrated in the video must therefore be running on a pre-release developer’s build of OS X 10.5. All such builds have been distributed to developers under strict terms of confidentiality that prohibit the dissemination of screenshots or other displays of the software. The builds are also copyrighted by Apple, and U.S. copyright law explicitly prohibits unauthorized displays of copyrighted works.

Apple therefore requests that you remove this video from your website and take steps to prevent any further distribution of videos or screenshots of Apple software without Apple’s authorization. If you are represented by counsel, please provide me with the identity of that counsel.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation,

/s/ Ian Ramage

Ian Ramage
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
Embarcadero Center West
275 Battery Street, Suite 2600
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 984-xxxx (direct)
(415) 984-xxxx (fax)
xxxx@omm.com

DMCA Certification: I hereby state, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that your activities are not authorized by Apple, that the information in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on behalf of Apple in this regard."

Source and extra comments:
http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=268

Result:
The bloggers have deactivated their youtube link:
http://crunchgear.com/2006/08/28/how...-os-x-leopard/
but the youtube video is still there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcOZc3rv8-Q
and Apple has basically the same sequence, just a little glitzier and with sound here:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/spaces.html

Keeping part of the new features confidential is fine, singling out bloggers but leaving alone those who could afford to successfully fight such frivolous nastygrams is both cowardice and bad PR.

I see; sort of like the RIAA going after individual file sharers, but not daring to take legal actions against commercial news sites? (I presume YouTube is raking in a substantial amount of money from advertisements, whereas the blog in question is not.)

Oh well, that’s making a glaring inconsistency transparent to everybody, isn’t it? :rolleyes:

And how do you know that?
I've seen no declaration by YouTube that they didn't receive a letter from Apple.
You have some inside information?

Just because the video is still up on YouTube is no indication one way or the other. They could well have received a letter and be ignoring it (or "studying it").

Seems the easiest thing is to see whether or not the video remains accessible on YouTube, and whether Apple takes legal steps against them. That should settle Voldenuit’s point in a clear-cut fashion. ;)

No it doesn't.

If I send out private letters to A & B asking them to do something, and A does it (while publicizing my letter) but B doesn't do it (and doesn't publicize my letter), then the world at large doesn't know anything at all about my letter to B. And I might decide afterwards that I don't want to pursue the issue, so nothing else appears publicly.

The point is that posters should refrain from making statements in areas where they have no knowledge.

yeah well i have 'seen' the bittorrents of 10.5 beta. its out there and its very accessible.

No.
Fair point, but nonetheless it seems to be a completely over-the-top reaction to go after the blogger rather than the place where the content really resides.

And the "NOT FOR POSTING" header is fairly ridicule as well, see the comment here: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/31...er_sends_.html .

If Apple e-mailed youtube at the same time, they're "considering" the question since August 30th, which is quite a while for a DMCA notice...

Apple going for the (seemingly) easy target is not a new theme:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=56368

Let's see how it works out...

I don't think so.
The video appeared in place on the blogger's page. It wasn't merely a link to a YouTube page.
The location where the content is stored on disk, or whose server it is that actually transmits the bytes to the browser is a technical matter.

Suppose, to make the issue clearer, that YouTube merely provided a hosting service and didn't provide any access to the videos on their own pages. I.e. suppose that the only way you could see a YouTube video was if someone provided access to it on their web page and that YouTube's only involvement was to provide the back-end servers.
A concerned party (e.g. Apple) might indeed send a letter to the company providing the hosting services, but the main letter would be to the individual who has the web page.

If the above isn't clear, here's an analogy:
Suppose that my neighbour has a pornographic video playing over a wireless network. If I hook up to that wireless network and then set up a screen in my front window showing that video to passersby, it would be me that would be likely to be prosecuted. Whether or not my neighbour also had screens in public view would be irrelevant to my own case.

How about we keep the thread on topic, folks.

My fault – I suggested Apple bring improved ethics into Leopard. :o And I s’pose one thing led to another.