August 8th, 2006Leopard Sneak peek - A bit deceptive
After all the wait around Leopard’s official preview, I must say I’m a bit skeptical about whether this should be called a major release or not. Steve Jobs demonstrated 10 “major” features available in Leopard during the Keynote Address at WWDC 2006.
Let’s analyze them carefully:
- 64-bit: Who really cares?
- Time machine: Effortless back-up. Good effort and impressive UI. Let’s see if the need is really here and how much space and ram this eats up.
- Mail: Stationary? Outlook express (ok I hate it) has had it for years, not as clean, but was present. Notes? Notes and todos, this is are neat little features.
- Spaces: Virtual desktops become a standard feature. Oh Unix, when you hold us… Great old feature, not sure it should be one of the 10 key Leopard features…
- Dashboard: Very clean & useful to be able to turn any web page clip into a widget, really. What about the ability to have these widgets where they are meant to be: the desktop?
- Spotlight: Minor enhancements but nothing really new here
- iCal: “
- Accessibility: For this one and their claim to have a fantastic natural voice, please check Apple’s sample and Loquendo to hear the difference. Apple’s new voice sounds like a 60’s robot (and I’m pretty sure that this robot hasn’t been taught foreign languages).
- Core animation: These new visual effects and animation libraries sure look like a cool toys.
- iChat: Video backdrop, photobooth effects, theater and the screen sharing sessions are no doubt stunning, very fun and useful BUT in a world where 97% of the users have PCs with windows, we would’ve liked to see native support for Yahoo! and MSN voice and video features.
What would’ve been cool to see is:
- Finder: Tabbed browsing
- iChat: As I mentionned above, Voice & Video interoperability
- Dashboard: Display them on the desktop, dammit!
- Accessibility: Hablas Espanol ? Parlez-vous Français ?
- Bittorrent integration: With reward system for people sharing bandwidth for Updates, iTunes (Music) Store…
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first one to install it whent it becomes available, but I was expecting more, expecting to be surprised, as it was the case when I discovered Tiger’s features set.
Well, I guess (or more exactly I hope) I’ll be surprised when the so-called “secret features” arrive.
Anyway, if you want your dose of info on Leopard, here are some useful links:
- Apple’s site
- Early hands-on on Macfixit: Safari 3.0, Various utilities
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