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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Panther up close, part four: Bundled apps
Like its predecessors, Panther includes a number of bundled applications, but Apple has been busy distancing itself from Microsoft (and apparently virtually every other third party Mac developer) this year, so this release is the most application-heavy the company has ever released. However, no major new applications debut in Panther; instead, Panther includes the same or slightly newer versions of the apps Mac OS X users have seen included on their systems before or downloaded via the Web. Mail.app sees a minor upgrade with nice colorful graphical touches and a long-overdue threading feature. The performance is allegedly better, as is the spam filtering, but I get very little email on my .mac account, so I can't see a difference, but I do like Mail.app quite a bit. I don't see any major (or minor) changes in Address Book, which is a decent app. Apple's iChat AV is allegedly "new" in OS X 10.3, but this software debuted in beta form months ago and the version included here isn't any different than the one you've used. Safari--my favorite Web browser on any platform--is updated to version 1.1, but I don't see any difference over 1.0; it's an excellent application either way. Preview has undergone dramatic performance improvements, though it's very similar, visually, to its predecessor. Previously, I had preferred Acrobat over Preview, but this release is quick enough that I'll probably keep using it. Apple iSync wasn't updated, but there's a Web refresh for one and all. Most conspicuously, in my mind: None of the so-called iApps--iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, and iPhoto--were updated at all (however, all Mac OS X users can grab a Web-based iTunes 4.1.x update of course). The DVD player app has been updated with a much nicer interface. And ... that's about it. It really is astonishing how little is going on with Apple's bundled applications, yet another indication that Panther is a minor, not major, update. On the other hand, there are a few new interesting utilities and services, and I'll get to those in the next update...

[ Posted at 6:11 PM | Permalink ]