My Thoughts and a Summary of Leopard

For those who don’t know, Steve Jobs gave another preview of Leopard (coming in October) during his keynote at WWDC 2007. (You can watch the keynote here) There are many new features in Leopard, some that I like, and some that I don’t. That said, I like most of them, but there are some things I find useless. To see all of the announced (so far) features of Leopard, click here.

What Features I Like

Updated Finder: One of the most important things shown in the keynote was a much needed update to the Finder. It has stayed the same for a long time, and has been long due for an update (or in this case, a refresh, more on that later). The new Finder includes a sidebar that shows all the places on your Mac, or Macs (and even PC’s!) connected to it, a Coverflow view for Finder that shows you your files like it does in iTunes, and much more.

Stacks: Stacks is also something new coming in Leopard, that lies in the dock (which has received an update too). Stacks clear up your desktop because they act as a way to organize files by keeping a bunch in the dock, near the trash (where things like folders and documents are kept). The 3D dock is used here to show the different files in the stack. There are two ways to view these files: By fanning them out (if there aren’t too many), or showing them in a grid.

Quick Look: With the updated Finder, Leopard comes with something called Quick Look, which gives you a new interface to view and browse through files. You can preview the contents with the icons, view the contents without opening an app, and it works with all of the views in the Finder. It supports PDF’s, video files, pictures, and much more. Not only that, but it is plugin based, meaning that if there is a filetype that it doesn’t support, it can be added easily.

Spaces: Spaces is one of the features I am most excited for, and I will be using very often. Spaces allows for you to have multiple desktops, so your desktop doesn’t get cluttered with all your windows. You can easily re-arrange them, and move windows between them easily. It’s also easy to change desktops, with just a keyboard command to move the one you want. The main reason I want this is because on this Macbook, 13 inches is often not enough to do what I want to do. The second reason is I used to use VirtueDesktops, but development on that ceased since the announcement of Spaces at last year’s WWDC ‘06.

Time Machine: I have an external hard drive that I bought for backup purposes and storing larger files. Unfortunately, because there is no easy and free way to do it, I rarely back files up, doing so once or twice a month. With Time Machine, this will change though. It will be easier to back files up, and an easy to use interface to view files I have accidently deleted. This will come as a blessing to me, and I assume many others.

Mail: The much needed update to Mail is another feature coming in Leopard that I am very excited for. The update comes with an updated sidebar, stationary, photo browser, RSS capabilities, notes, to-dos, and smart address, date, and number detection that allows you to add it to an existing Address Book contact easily. There is more to come, as Leopard is still 5 months away.

iChat: iChat is another app receiving an update in Leopard, with new features such as iChat Theater, iChat Backdrops (video or picture), Photo Booth Effects (something I find useless even in Photo Booth), better audio quality, and tabbed chats. The one that I will think will be the most used by me is iChat Theater, which allows you to show Keynote slideshows, iPhoto slideshows, and videos to the person you are video chatting with. Another useful thing to me is tabbed chats, as I usually have multiple ones going on, and use Chax to get tabbed chats, along with much more.

Safari: Another app long deserving an update is Safari, receiving such features as Web Clip, (re)movable tabs, inline Find, increased PDF functionality, and resizable text areas. Web Clip is a feature that allows you to take any part of a web page and make it a Dashboard widget, with a border of your choosing, that even updates automatically. The tabs in Safari 3 will be movable and removable, meaning you can rearrange them in one window, or drag them off and make it a separate one. A beta featuring most of that functionality is available here.

iCal: iCal is an app that has a lot of potential, but isn’t being utilized completely in Tiger. I don’t use it because of its flaws currently (it’s hard to use, clunky, and more), but there are some fixes coming in Leopard. iCal for Leopard features CalDAV standards, an event drop box, and an Inline Inspector for adding or editing events. CalDAV allows iCal to show and combine with the calendar for a business, allowing you to see when everyone is free, or even what rooms are currently available.

Front Row: With Leopard, there is an update to Front Row making it much more like the Apple TV OS then it is now. The interface has been changed to resemble the looks of the Apple TV. Podcasts is now an item on the main menu, accompanying DVD, Movies, TV Shows, Music, and Photos.

DVD Player: Along with Front Row, DVD Player was another app that received a silent update. It sports a new full-screen interface, that features Video Zoom, an Image Bar that allows you to archive your favorite parts of the movie, and the ability to create snippets that you can view later.

No More Brushed: One thing that has bugged me in Tiger and the previous versions of OS X is that some of the windows sported an ugly brushed interface. Frankly, I hate it, so I’m happy to see it go. But, the omission of brushed metal in Leopard also leaves room for more UI improvements, such as a consistent window look in all the apps, according to Apple.

New Icons: Simply put, Apple is replacing the dated icons that have stayed in OS X for many releases with new ones. I like them, but I will probably end up changing them (and the rest of the UI) like I do in Tiger.

What I’m Not

New Finder While I like the new Finder, I am somewhat annoyed that it’s just a new interface, and nothing really changed. It’s still the same old Finder, just prettified. I would of wished Apple was rewriting the Finder in Cocoa, making it easier to modify and theme, but as far as I can tell, it is still Carbon. I am drawing this assumption from the fact that except for a modification of the looks, there was little to no rewriting of the code involved. Many of the things that Apple is mentioning as an update to the Finder can be done in Tiger. For example, to preview a video or a text clipping, set the view to Column view, and select the item you want to preview. Another example is how Stacks can be imitated in Tiger, but that involves more of the Dock then the Finder.

Menubar: While I disagree with some things in Leopard, the only thing I outright hate is the semi-transparent menubar. It’s ugly, and it’s not transparent enough to even look somewhat cool. Nothing can be stored behind the menubar anyway, so showing the desktop behind that space is useless. I vote it should stay the same as it is in Tiger. This doesn’t deserve its own point, but the spotlight icon is also really ugly, and needlessly huge.

The Dock: While there are some nice improvements, some of them are useless. The 3D dock seems pretty useless, and the reflective surface is extremely pointless. I like it being see through, and basically the way it is now. Also, the fanning out of the stacks seems pretty dumb, as I would rather it go vertical then slightly slanted to the right. I hope these things can all be changed.

Aqua is Disappearing: I love Aqua, plain and simple. I don’t like the iTunes 7 interface, or really any part of it, so I was annoyed when I saw that aqua buttons were being replaced throughout all of Leopard. I will theme and mod my system (if the ability is still there), to suit my needs, so that’s not too large a worry of mine.

Shouting in the Sidebar: It’s this way in iTunes 7, and it will be in Finder and Mail and many other apps in Leopard: All the header writing in the sidebar is IN ALL CAPS. It’s pretty annoying, and an easy fix, but will be annoying to change in every app. Luckily the fix is just a modification of the LocaIizable.strings, which can be swapped out in the application resources. But, either way, I prefer to be able to read the sidebar, not be shouted out.

Putting Developers out of Work: Call it copying (Gasp! Apple copying!?), or something else, but there is a trend of Apple taking a lot of Mac apps already made, and implementing them within Leopard. This was done with Coverflow (which Apple bought), and the Stacks feature is replacing Todos and Overflow, Spaces replacing VirtueDesktop, Tabbed Chats replacing Chax (or one of its features), and Time Machine making many payware backup applications useless. I won’t go into details why this is happening, but Dustin Bachrach (developer of Todos), has a good post about it here.

Conclusion:

This ends my long post about Leopard’s features, which ones I want, which ones I don’t, and my thoughts on Apple’s integrating of existing apps into Leopard. If you have any comments on features of Leopard, or any other parts of the post, sound off in the comments.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.