Filed under: Leopard
So what other tricks can we expect from Leopard?
Along with today's announcement of Leopard's release date, Apple has also now updated the Mac OS X site to reflect all the enhancements you can find in the latest release of OS X. So, what's new?
Apple, clearly keen to show what they've been working on in the last few months (what with the delay n'all), have listed all 316 features, categorised them and allowed you to peruse them at your leisure. Here's just a few that caught my eye:
- AppleScript can now read and write plist files (whilst a little thing, and a niche feature at best, this is promising if you're wanting to backup items such as serial numbers for applications from the application plist files, and do it in AppleScript)
- .Mac syncing of more system items (Dock items, Dahsboard widgets, Mail notes and, it appears, even the entire System Preferences)
- TextEdit now support Open Document and Word 2007 files.
- Open panels now have a Media Browser tab, allowing you to open items directly from the relevant location.
- Library Randomization - identical to Windows Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization, meaning that people looking to exploit Mac OS X can't rely on system code being at a specific memory address (i.e. it's harder to persuade an OS X system process to execute malicious code). Whilst Apple has always touted the more robust security of Mac vs Windows, it's good to see they're not sitting on their laurels and becoming complacent with OS X. Also of note is the digital signature technology in all the Leopard applications (and third-party developers can sign applications too). I've always believed this to be a technology that would be used in any iPhone SDK, so seeing it within XCode is a promising move - even if the possible use of Digital Signing in an iPhone SDK is pure conjecture on my part.
- Front Row now sports the Apple TV interface,
and the integration with the Apple Movie Trailer site. - iChat has seen a smorgasbord of new features added - Photo Booth effects, new media codecs, video and audio chat recording, tabbed chats, the ability to hide your own local video from a chat window, and screen sharing.
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Appleman said 10:59AM on 10-16-2007
Notes that sync with the iPhone is in there!
Reply
Chad said 11:01AM on 10-16-2007
Mac Mini + Leopard = AppleTV with built-in DVD Player! Almost.
Reply
Quix said 11:08AM on 10-16-2007
I wonder if there will be any substantial improvements to 3D graphics performance. For all the recent Mac gaming "news," we really need better performance. Mostly we need better 3D processors in the consumer-grade Macs, or better yet a consumer-grade tower with a replaceable graphics card. Sure, it will be great to get Gears of War and UT3 on Mac, but what the heck are we supposed to run these games on?
And the software obviously needs improvement too, as Windows versions of games running in XP in Boot Camp are faster than the Mac native versions running in OS X. And that's sad. I thought *we* were the ones with the streamlined, modern OS?
Apple needs to push OpenGL to the next level. And start taking gaming seriously enough to stop putting mediocre video cards in their machines.
Reply
Brian said 11:10AM on 10-16-2007
"AppleScript can now read and write plist files (whilst a little thing, and a niche feature at best..."
Not if you administer multiple systems, it isn't.
Reply
David said 11:10AM on 10-16-2007
All widgets should eventually sync with iPhone. Also, I think the hotly debated iPhone SDK(lite) is being prepped as a feature for iWeb to allow simple iPhone-optimized sites. I don't think we'll see a full iPhone SDK until Steve Jobs' concedes he is a little premature in pushing everyone to web apps.
Reply
stefan K said 11:16AM on 10-16-2007
whatever happened to the shared Desktop through iChat. That seems to have been slightly changed.
Reply
Nik Fletcher said 11:23AM on 10-16-2007
stefan: Screensharing is surely very similar, if not identical to shared desktops?
Reply
Brandon Martinez said 11:30AM on 10-16-2007
I love the Auto-font loading feature, now you don't have to worry about certain applications (cough cough GarageBand) dieing because of font issues. Just disable all but the default system fonts, and let the apps sort out what they want.
Reply
Kevin Ashworth said 11:30AM on 10-16-2007
*Synchronize with Yahoo! Address Book*
At first glance, I welcome this feature more than any other. It's gonna be a Good Thing.
Reply
JoolsG4 said 11:30AM on 10-16-2007
Where can we find a list of 300+ features Apple has actually REMOVED from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard?
If you want, I'll start with these:
1) Sending SMS text messages from Address Book
2) Incoming SMS text messages appearing on your Macs screen
3) Replying to incoming SMS text messages from your Mac
4) Initiating calls to contacts in your Address Book
5) Answering incoming calls
6) Sending incoming calls to voicemail
All these features (via a connected Bluetooth mobile phone) are removed from Mac OS X 10.5
Reply
Andrew Ian Dodge said 11:34AM on 10-16-2007
Lets hope they haven't broken anything.
Reply
Aron Trimble said 11:47AM on 10-16-2007
TONS of typos on that page... You'd think with all the time they've had to put it together there would be some spell/grammar checking!
Reply
Pete said 11:52AM on 10-16-2007
Err... doesn't front row already do the trailers? It does on my machine!
Reply
hagar said 11:58AM on 10-16-2007
@6 shared desktop through iChat is now part of the new finder: See Instant Screen Sharing from the Finder. I find it to be a better location than iChat.
Reply
Ron Green said 11:58AM on 10-16-2007
What happened to resolution independence?
Reply
pentumforever said 12:06PM on 10-16-2007
@10
Well thats just one Feature. Adress Book Phone Support.
So you've got at least 300 to got, I'm waiting for you list. (I'm happy with 295 as well if you wanna count them as 6)
Reply
Gene Cowan said 12:09PM on 10-16-2007
My favorite teeny, tiny little feature, one that I've been wishing for for years: the ability to right-click on a word and look it up in Wikipedia. Yea!!
Reply
Lloyd said 12:17PM on 10-16-2007
Doesn’t the iPhone have textedit on it? If it does I wonder if it will open word, and open.
Reply
peeweejd said 12:18PM on 10-16-2007
I want the ability to upload to FTP sites from the finder like an iDisk. I routinely use finder to download backups from my website, but man would i like to be able to upload.
Reply
Just_a_guy said 12:24PM on 10-16-2007
I can't wait for games to start using core animation!
I also can't wait to start using spaces and stacks. What I am looking forward to the most however would have to be.......quick look: I can finally find the file I was looking for without opening up a million programs!
Reply