Mac OS X Tiger Preview
- June 28, 2004
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Apple has also added a page that shows off some new features of Mac OS X Tiger.
Tiger keeps up Apple’s blazing pace of innovation with more than 150 breakthrough new features, including Spotlight, a revolutionary new way to find files and information on your personal computer; Safari RSS, a new version of Apple’s innovative web browser that provides instant access to the most current RSS information on the web; Dashboard, a dazzling new way to get in and out of a collection of new all-purpose “widgets” quickly; and iChat AV multi-way video and audio conferencing, the industry’s first consumer solution with a stunning 3D interface.
The new Spotlight feature looks like it got some ideas from the excellent utility LaunchBar. It allows for quick searching of the system and shows results in an organized fashion.
Dashboard is the same thing as Konfabulator. How can Apple copy a product this blatantly? Even the widgets look the same. I’ve tried Konfabulator and never could use any of the widgets. They were huge, ungainly and fugly. I doubt I’ll be using Dashboard.
A new version of Safari called Safari RSS allows you to keep track of your RSS feeds within Safari, instead of using Shrook or NetNewsWire. They include a small QuickTime movie that shows how it works. It looks quite cool, but I won’t really know until I can get my hands on it. For now, I’ll stick with Shrook.
The new Automator feature looks really nice. I know I’ll be using this when it comes out. It allows you to set up batch processes quickly and easily. There have been a couple times in the past few weeks where I needed to rename a lot of files by hand, which got old after renaming the fifth one.
VoiceOver looks really nice as well. It’s like a screen-reader, but fully integrated into the OS. This should make navigating the OS MUCH easier for those with disabilities. I’ll be playing with it when it comes out.
And lastly, the new version of Xcode coming out looks absolutely awesome! The visual modeling alone makes it an amazing upgrade. Not only can you visualize your code beforehand, but Xcode will automatically update your class diagrams as you’re coding! How cool is that?
Tiger definitely looks pretty cool. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!