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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

Monday, August 07, 2006

Leopard's ten new features dissected

It's funny. Apple calls Microsoft a copy-cat, and yet, I feel like I've seen some of these features somewhere before. Many of the features, however, are just sad. Is this really the best they had to show off right now?

1. Time Machine. "With Mac OS X Leopard and Time Machine ... you can go back in time to recover anything you’ve ever backed up. Time Machine’s time-based browser [lets you] see a snapshot of how your entire system looked on any given day — file by file." Wow, neat. It was especially neat when Microsoft included it in Windows Server 2003 over three years ago and called it Volume Shadow Copy. And yes, Windows Vista has it too, built right-in. It even has the backup stuff. Obviously.

2. Mail 3.0. This might just be my favorite one, because even a normal person will see this for the BS hyperbole it is (Time Machine will fool people that don't know any better). Leopard’s Mail includes breakthrough new features that have never been seen before in a Mail application: Mail Stationery, templates, Mail Notes, To Dos [with iCal integration], and RSS news feed [compatibility]." I keep waiting for someone else to laugh. Those aren't seriously the "new" features are they?

3. iChat includes "video and photo backdrops" (which is a fun idea, but hardly a huge OS feature), Photo Booth effects (eh), screen sharing (done before in many an IM app), a tabbed interface, and .. hm. That's it.

4. Spaces. It's multiple desktops, just like Linux and UNIX have had for years. Except this is Apple, so it's described as "an intuitive new way to group applications required for a given task," even though it's not particularly new. Useful, sure. New, no.

5. Dashboard. This one was actually a new Tiger feature two years ago, but now it's been improved with Dashboard synching across multiple Macs (but only with .Mac, which means it's not technically just an OS feature), and a new Dock icon. That's pretty much it for end user features. Whoop-de-freaking-do.

6. Spotlight. This was also a new Tiger feature two years ago. Now, it's got network searching, document previews (like Vista), and better search querying (again, like Vista). Yawn.

7. iCal. It's got iCal sharing via CalDAV, group scheduling, and document sharing (like MeetingSpace in Vista). Seriously, this was important enough to be one of the ten new features.

8. Accessibility. This one is genuinely interesting, though it will impact the smallest group of people (kind of like the Mac market in general). There's a new synthesized voice (English only) that sounds very good, Braille display support, and Closed Captioning. Good stuff.

9. 64-Bit. After shipping a generation of 32-bit-only Intel machines, Leopard will support 64-bit operations on the new Mac Pros only. That means butt-loads of RAM, which is A Good Thing but hardly A New Thing.

10. Core Animation. Doesn't impact end users directly and thus is not of interest.

To recap, Apple just announced that Leopard is a seriously minor update. Is anyone else shocked about this? And if not, what the heck is wrong with you?

[ Posted at 3:43 PM | Permalink ]