SimplyBlog
 
 
 
Summary:  A review of the preview of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.  In particular, a great new backup tool is coming, nice updates to Mail and iChat, and the necessary updates to iCal to keep it in the running.  Still no sign of internet search in Spotlight or a broader implementation of universal tagging, rating, coloring, and sharing.
 
At WWDC on August 7, 2006 Apple gave a preview of the features of Leopard.  Back on July 26, I spelled out a list of features I wanted to see in Leopard.  Here I’ll review what they came out with in comparison.  My first miss: apparently Apple had in mind a snow leopard based on their black and white graphics in the Leopard logo.
 
Leopard is due for release “next spring”, and some have specifically claimed April 2007, while those more optimistic still think it will come out in January.  Steve Jobs explicitly stated that they are keeping some features secret for now in order to keep Microsoft from knowing what to copy too early.  That fits Apple’s standard policy, and makes sense, though conspiracy theorists seem to want to believe there are other reasons to hold back, such as making sure people don’t put off purchases out of anticipation of future features.  I doubt early announcement of features would have a significant negative effect on sales, especially since it would be balanced by greater purchases due to stronger faith in the future of the platform.
 
Getting what I wanted
These are the things I had hoped for that were announced:
  1. •Integrated backup, yay!  My first blog post was about the critical need for better backup capabilities, and Apple was thankfully way ahead of me.  Time Machine looks like a smart, integrated solution.  Immediately I’m wondering how well it will work for laptops, since they spoke of scheduling backups at specific times of the day, and basically I need a backup to trigger whenever I plug in my hard drive.
  2. •End-user programming, maybe just a little bit: DashCode looks like a fairly simple way to create new Dashboard widgets.  No update to Automator was shown, despite its need for improvement.
  3. •Voice output; no voice input yet: A great new synthesized voice was demo’ed with a significantly more realistic sound, but no voice input was mentioned.
  4. •iCal, Mail, iChat: We got some nifty updates to iCal, Mail, and iChat, but not exactly what I was hoping for.  iCal came the closest.  More details below...
  5. •iText: This came in a manner of speaking, as notes in Mail.  The notes start off in your Inbox, thus cluttering my inbox, and items from the text can be marked as to-do items, thus contributing to my huge to-do list nightmare without offering any improvement in to-do list organization.  I hope it will be possible to sync the text up automatically with the iPod.
 
What I’d hoped for that we didn’t see
  1. •Universal tagging, rating, coloring, sharing. I was hoping Apple would enable any file or data object to be tagged, rated, colored, and shared.  In fact, we saw essentially no hint that they’re going in this direction.  Very disappointing -- Apple has a huge lead here and if they don’t do this it would be a squandered opportunity.
  2. •Internet search in Spotlight. While some enhancements were mentioned for Spotlight, there was no mention of internet search.  That would be a huge omission.  Since no screenshots came out showing the enhanced Spotlight, I’m very much hoping this falls under the Top Secret area.
  3. •Safari, Address Book, Dictionary, Font Book. Wow, nothing shown for any of these.  If they don’t improve Safari, I’ll be shocked.  I assume the big reason not to mention Safari enhancements is to avoid that the features would be copied into Firefox before Apple ever released them.
  4. •Miscellaneous. The WWDC preview gave no hint of any of the miscellaneous features I’d hoped for: a better widget, greater file format compatibility, better device compatibility, a complete UniCode font, and support for multiple simultaneous speakers in AirTunes.  Any of these may simply have been too detailed to deserve mention.
 
What Apple did deliver
  1. •Time Machine. Time Machine provides incremental backup and showcases Apple’s new Core Animation capability.  Individual files can be retrieved from the past.  The nice touch is the integration it allows with individual applications so that each app cam display the old data in a meaningful format, which they illustrated by showing the address book retrieve old contacts.
  2. •Mail. Mail didn’t deliver the clever auto-filing feature I suggested, but nevertheless adds notes, to-do’s, RSS feeds, and HTML templates.  The RSS feeds go into the Inbox, yet another thing to clutter my Inbox.  The HTML templates, in principle, are fairly cool.  In practice, as with most templates, they lack template options that serve workhorse needs.  None of the templates are clean and professional, appropriate for business memos and unassuming personal communications.  Instead they are bright, playful, and designed to attract attention rather than respect.
  3. •iChat. iChat is aggressively moving forward.  New video backdrops let you put different scenery into your videochats, but still no way to add sunglasses and silly hats to your image.  Screensharing and presentation modes add value, and a tabbed window lets you manage multiple chats more effectively (but I still think a tiled window would be useful for managing multiple fast-moving conversations).  No word on Yahoo or MSN compatibility, which is what really matters.
  4. •Spaces. This lets you move between multiple virtual desktops that each have a different collection of windows.  I’ve never been convinced this would help me much, but it deserves some time playing with it to know.  Exposé didn’t seem like a big deal either but turns out to be so wonderful I’d sacrifice my left pinky for it.
  5. •Dashboard. My main complaint with dashboard is that it makes a cluttered mess when what I’d like is a small summary widget that just gives me the primary facts in a clean, referenceable format.  What we get is .Mac syncing of Dashboard widgets (excellent), a Web Clip widget for showing parts of web pages (handy but nothing special), and Dashcode for making widgets.  Dashcode is promising, but we’ll have to see just how easy it is to use.
  6. •Spotlight. New features allow searching of connected servers, boolean searches, and previews on search results.  The preview is almost what I described -- I think certain types of results ought to show the preview directly in the search results, at least as a user option.  A dictionary definition of the word typed is a good example where this makes sense.
  7. •iCal. iCal is adding the standard features you already get from other calendar programs -- group scheduling, room scheduling, shared calendars with multiple editors, and shared documents -- which was the minimum needed.  I still want to-do list management to have major improvements.
  8. •Accessibility.  A lot has been added here: new voice synthesis optimized for rapid reading, Braille support, localized audio cues, better VoiceOver customization, improved navigation to objects, and additional support for closed captions.  In fact, I had thought that closed captions were already fully supported but I guess I was wrong.  This is a good sign that video iPods may add closed captions as well.
  9. •64-bit.  My focus was on front-end and usability enhancements rather than technical infrastructure primarily because that’s more my area of expertise.  One hopes every release improves speed, reliability, security, and optimization for the hardware platform, and the 64-bit optimization is delivering on that.  Other performance enhancements will hopefully have been in the works -- rumors have suggested in particular that far more of the system will offload tasks to the graphics card.
  10. •Core Animation. Core Animation is a very promising new OS infrastructure that could easily lead to some really nice animated graphics in the standard interface.  I don’t want to understate this: I think this could herald a dramatic evolution in desktop user interface design, with smoothly-flowing cinematic design.
Mac OS X 10.5 update: Catching up with Leopard
Wednesday, August 16, 2006