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WWDC 2007 Keynote Analysis
 
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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
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Jun. 12, 2007
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Leopard

The next and largest segment of the keynote was Steve's discussion of ten new Leopard features. Now stop me if you've heard this list before: Time Machine, Spaces, updated iChat and Mail...

Well not all of the features Steve discussed were rehashed from previous keynotes, he introduced three new features that we didn't know before today: new desktop, new finder and quick look. I'll cover those in the most detail.

The new desktop along with stacks is a fairly neat feature. Stacks allows you to group items into stacks for quick access through the Dock. The download stack is one of the more compelling features I've seen lately that relates to how I work. I've actually implemented this manually by using a temp folder on my drive to download all of my items to, and then I go through the folder every so often to clean it out.

The new finder will also be a welcome addition, as the finder has not been updated in a while. The UI appearance when browsing various parts of the system will be in a style similar to that of iTunes. The addition of a coverflow-style previewing system seems more like eye candy than something useful.

Quick look is the mechanism for doing live previews of files. I can see this being an excellent way to see what is inside a movie or a document like Word or a PDF. And by working with the most common file types out of the box, Apple makes sure this feature will be useful. However I don't like the way you have to access it - by taking your mouse cursor away from the document and clicking the quick look icon at the top of the finder or by hitting the space bar. The space bar method might be OK on a laptop if your hand is already near the keyboard, but on a desktop this could get annoying.

The only other compelling feature presented today was "Back to my Mac" which utilizes .Mac, not necessarily Leopard - as Microsoft is adding a similar feature to their operating systems through an installation of Windows Home Server client (though the files are accessed in a central file server and not from individual PCs). You can access files on any Mac from any location - at home or on the road, and you can browse the files the same way whether they're local or remote.

There were two features that I was interested which weren't presented but are on Apple's website. First is the new Front Row interface, which now matches the interface you see on the AppleTV device. Next is a feature that I saw earlier today on the BootCamp preview page that is now gone - safe sleep. The feature would let you essentially put your Mac to sleep in the configuration it is in now, and then resume your OS X session after you finish using Windows - essentially pausing your Mac OS X session and booting into Windows.

Update 6-12-07: Macrumors is now reporting that the safe sleep feature has been pulled from Leopard.

All in all, OS X 10.5 Leopard is still leaps and bounds above what Windows Vista offers in terms of being user-friendly and increasing productivity.

 
<< Previous
Page 2 of 4
Next >>
Page 1: Introduction / Games
Page 2: Leopard
Page 3: Leopard - What's Missing / One More Thing - Part I & II
Page 4: Wrap-Up
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10 User Comments
1 - Posted by Kurtis on June 12, 2007 - 1:39 am

2 - Posted by Brian on June 12, 2007 - 10:38 am

I watched the keynote last night and while the new OS X still isn't revolutionary, I am digging the new features. October is too far off!

As for the iPhone "SDK," what understood from the keynote is that all the third-party "applications" HAVE to be run in Safari. The way he accessed that example application was through Safari. Maybe they will allow you to create shortcut icons on the "desktop" that would launch Safari to a specific app.

I also wonder if you will be able to download some of the applications (ones that don't require internet access) so you can use them on your phone even if you're not connected to the internet.

As for how you would access the iPhone features through the "SDK," I am guessing it will be similar to the DOM interface when programming for browsers.

3 - Posted by Rob V on June 12, 2007 - 1:45 pm

Grr.. I cant stand how this person who wrote this articke thinks they could ever call themselves a journalist. First of all Resolution Independence and ZFS are implemented, that was previously released information, hence why it wasnt said at the keynote for the 500th time. Duh! get your info straight Anthony Fiti!

4 - Posted by Max Slowik on June 12, 2007 - 1:51 pm

Oh, and see, the changes that I thought they were making seemed like enough to call it a new OS for the first time since. . .10.4. That was BS.

But x86, x86-64, and PPC builds, new file format, resolution independence, (something I was really pissed that wasn't a part of Longhorn) a new Finder, and integrated Boot Camp: that's well more than janking Quicksilver and calling it Spotlight.

Widgets do not an operating system make.

5 - Posted by Anthony on June 12, 2007 - 2:56 pm

Rob,

Several other websites (Ars Technica for one) have confirmed that both features you mentioned are not part of 10.5.

-Anthony

6 - Posted by Brian on June 12, 2007 - 3:17 pm

lol, Rob... Neither of those were mentioned in the keynote... but thanks for jumping to conclusions anyway.

7 - Posted by Frosty on June 12, 2007 - 6:32 pm

that keynote was so boring, omfg, almsot as bad as the ones at macworld, but then again it may have something to do with the fact that i'm 16

8 - Posted by Brian on June 12, 2007 - 10:05 pm

I didn't find it that boring. I thought it was fine, except the "SDK" and Safari announcements didn't really thrill me. "One more thing..." *me excited* "Safari on Windows" *uhhhh.... ok.... next*

And Steve was quite repetitive with the Leopard presentation. First, explain what's new, show slides of what's new, then demo what's new, and finally summarize what's new. Rinse and repeat... nine times. He could have just explained it while demoing it and move on to the next feature, keeping people with ADD and ADHD from fidgeting as much.

Seriously... why did he spend so much time on the new desktop? Yeah, it looks great and all, but it was kind of weird, spending so much time taking about the transparent menu bar and the reflective angled dock. Yeah, I like it, but I already got it when you showed the first slide... no need to mention it three more times and say "isn't this cool?" It's you're friggin product, of course you're going to say it's cool...

Mneh... it wasn't that bad... I'm just in a ranting mood.

9 - Posted by Max Slowik on June 13, 2007 - 4:21 am

Huh, no ZFS? That was, like, the interesting bit. I mean, we're at the point where damn near every part of the machines has had exponentially greater bandwidth growth compared to hard drives. The only thing left is to start using clever drive configurations (Vista's ReadyBoost might reap crap benefits but it's a freaking start) and more importantly, better file formats.

I think I have money on WinFS getting included with Vista SP1, so Good Idea from Plan Nine don't fail me now.

10 - Posted by MichaelHarper on June 20, 2007 - 10:54 am

I agree with Brian that conflating external apps with something you run locally through a browser is pretty shitty. "SDK" is REALLY stretching it. And Anthony, I'm glad you'll be buying an iPhone, because I won't... at least not yet. But I'd love to hear what you think of yours :)

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