Apple today unveiled a near final version of Mac OS X Leopard, the sixth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Scheduled to ship in October, Leopard introduces over 300 new features, including a new Desktop and Dock with Stacks, an intuitive new way to organize files; an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow and a new way to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; Time Machine, a new way to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac; Spaces, a powerful new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and Mail applications, which easily allow users to communicate even more creatively.
“Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS X’s leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We think current and prospective customers are going to love Leopard, and that it will help make the Mac even more popular.”
Leopard includes a completely new Dock featuring Stacks, which can help manage a user’s desktop clutter caused by browser and email downloads. With the click of a mouse, users can instantly fan out the contents of a stack to easily see each item. Leopard’s Finder has been completely redesigned, adding Cover Flow as an innovative way to quickly browse and locate files and applications. Finder’s new Sidebar simplifies the organization of files on a Mac, and adds easy access to shared Macs and PCs on a home network. Subscribers to .Mac can also use the new “Back to my Mac” feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet. Also new in Leopard is Quick Look, an innovative new way for users to instantly preview almost any file, and even play media files, without opening an application.
With its unique ability to let users travel back in time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media, Time Machine is a revolutionary way to protect your digital life. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac. In the event a file is lost, users can use Mac OS X’s Spotlight to search back through time to find and then instantly restore the file. Time Machine can automatically back up a Mac to an external hard drive connected with a FireWire or USB cable, to a server, or wirelessly to an AirPort Extreme base station with an attached hard drive.
Leopard also includes three new technologies that take full advantage of the latest developments in processor hardware: full native 64-bit support to enable applications to take complete advantage of 64-bit processing while still running side by side with existing 32-bit Mac OS X applications and drivers; easy multi-core optimization and scheduling to take advantage of the latest Intel hardware; and Core Animation, helping developers easily create animated user experiences as amazing as Leopard’s Spaces and Time Machine in their own applications.
Other new features in Leopard include:
• Leopard Mail, offering more ways to customize and add personal style to email than ever before, with more than 30 beautiful stationery designs and layouts that look great on a Mac or Windows PC; Notes, making it as easy to take and organize notes as it is to compose and read emails; To Dos, for creating lists viewed directly in Mail and automatically sync them with iCal; and data detectors that automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be easily added to Address Book or iCal
• Leopard iChat with iChat Theater, letting users present photos, presentations, videos and files in a video conference; Photo Booth effects, enabling users to transform their iChat video in real time with fun distortion and color effects; and video backdrops that allow users to choose any photo or video that makes them appear to be anywhere in the world, or out of it
• Leopard iCal, introducing powerful group calendaring features based on the open CalDAV standard that make it easy to organize and coordinate schedules with other people
• Spaces, giving users a powerful new, clutter-free way to create customized spaces on the desktop with only the applications or files needed for each project, and the ability to quickly switch between them with one click of a mouse or keystroke
• Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget
• Boot Camp, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs (copy of Windows XP or Vista required).
• new development tools, including Xcode 3 with a next generation editor; an all new Interface Builder for easier integration of advanced animation effects into an application; simpler debugging; and support for Objective-C 2.0; DashCode, a better way to create new Dashboard widgets without writing a line of code; and Xray, a new application for optimizing application performance.
Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard is scheduled to ship in October and will be available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of US$129 for a single user license. The Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack is a single-residence, five-user license that will be available for a suggested retail price of $199. Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple.
More info: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/
First!
Hopefully some developers can post info on all the other stuff they found in their beta copy.
Good so far though!
*cough*torrent*cough*
any word if this will be avail. for both PPC/intel or will it be intel only? seems like they’re heading in a strictly intel-centric direction…
leopard is universal.
What happened to remote computer access/control in iChat? Is it still in the feature set?
@zero
Go away. We don’t need your kind messing things up.
Damn, that makes both major keynotes for the year (MWSF & WWDC) without a single piece of new Mac hardware introduced.
I’m starting to believe the cynics that have been saying it’s now only iPhone or bust at Apple these days. The stock is down over $3 since the keynote ended, so you’d think Steve would get the message. Today’s keynote was about as unfulfilling as the finale to The Sopranos was last night, and that’s very disappointing.
Itll be available for PPC and Intel, but they’ll be obsoleting iBooks that were sold only 1 and a half years ago by making Core Animation only run on 1337 graphics cards and also the Intel 950..which I don’t really understand, if that can take it than a Radeon should be able to. Oh well, guess MS did it worse with Vista, but I think we’re all gonna have to go run PPC Linux if we want snazzy effects.
Anyway, none of the new features seem that good, whatever happened to the ‘top secret’ stuff? Maybe memory management will be better thanks to Cocoa improvements but OTOH stuff is gonna be getting even more bloated and new software will require Core Animation. The end is near for our iBooks.
Anyone seen the minimum system requirements? I can’t find them posted anywhere.
so whats up w/ the UI? not much change, what happened to that illuminous thing everyone was talking about?
Where are the “top secret” features that Jobs mentioned at last years WWDC? Good thing I’ll get it for free.
It will be UNIVERSAL
anyone noticed the “quick restart in windows” and quick restart in OS X” functionality in the new Boot Camp?
should be fun to try it out.
from Apple:
“New, faster restarts.
Leopard brings a quicker way to switch between Mac OS X and Windows: Just choose the new Apple menu item “Restart in Windows.” Your Mac goes into “safe sleep” so that when you return, you’ll be right where you were. It’s much faster than restarting the computer each time. Likewise, a “Restart in Mac OS X” menu item in the Boot Camp System Tray in Windows makes for a faster return to Mac OS X. With Windows hibernation enabled, you can pick up where you left off”
And also Front Row 2.0, AKA Apple TV minus the Apple TV, http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/frontrow.html a far better DVD Player http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/dvdplayer.html the new Xray app http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/developer/xray.html
plus all the server stuff
Magic Word: Covered, as in: I wonder what Top secret features they’ve left covered?
GManMac, I was wondering the exact same thing. During the keynote I checked the Sneak Peak page on the apple website, and they talked about a feature called screen sharing (this feature can still be found using googles cached page) but now this feature is gone. I hope its still apart of the feature set.
RC – So you wanted everyone to wait a week for the new Powerbooks?
soooo…. the old Back Row is now the new Front Row?
Where is the true screen resolution independence?
The new 15″ and 17″ MacBooks have three different resolutions on their screens. Thus 72 point type shows up as three different sizes across the three new MacBooks. True screen resolution independence would allow us to set it so that no matter what screen (or MacBook) the images are shown on they would all be true size by default. 72 point type would be a true one inch tall on any screen on a Mac running 10.5sby default. An 8.5 x 11 inch page actually would be 8.5 x 11 on any screen attached to a MacOS X 10.5 system by default.
From the lack of any mention of true screen resolution independence it seems like we are still stuck with MacOS X 10.5 still assuming *all* screens are still 72 dpi (although today extremely few are really 72 dpi).
Keeping assumptions made back in 82/83 during the development of the first Mac is just plain stupid. It’s about time we moved on.
I’m very disappointed. True screen resolution independence was one of the rumored items to be in 10.5 that I really wanted.
No mention of a better way to organize my 800 widgets. I was really hoping for a Spaces for Dashboard. Or something I described previously:
Imagine a second row above the widget row when you bring it up. In this row would be folders that you could drag and drop widgets to. I could have a “Summer” widget folder and one for a trip, etc. You then just have to drag the folder off the widget dock onto the desktop and you have just replaced all your widgets with a new one.
RC;
Both keynotes this year have been software-focused. So new hardware has been introduced at other times throughout the year.
Or did you miss the MacBook Pro updates last week, etc etc etc?
And the stock price? It *usually* drops after a keynote (with a couple of exceptions), because reality has a hard time matching the unrealistic expectations of the press and various wild-eyed fans.
I completely agree that this was a letdown. I can’t think of anything other than “Safari for Windows” that I haven’t already seen on Apple’s website. Where are the “secret features” that were promised? Where’s the better .Mac integration (or, at least, promise push email with .Mac accounts)? Where are iLife and iWork? Why no mention of iCal or Address Book? What about the new filing system from Sun?
Look, I love Apple – in fact, so much so, that this crappy WWDC has put me in to a funk.
Do y’all think his Steveness is holding back more features? I doubt this as I can’t see what benefit would be had from that.
M
So, not even a mention of ZFS as the default filesystem? I was hoping SJ would at least confirm this….and no new Mac hardware? Kinda disappointing, but then again it is a developer’s conference, not a consumer show.
@ Paul Walker
I would have to imagine that all the ‘secrets’ are out. Vista shipped, so there is nothing for Apple to hide anymore. I believe that the secrets were the finder ( cover flow ) and stacks he didn’t want to show earlier. ( Or didn’t have a working demo of at that time )
Also, just as with MacWorld and WWDC every year, more info and announcements come out over the next 3 days. I fully expect new Mac hardware, too.
Where is TRUE screen resolution independence??? Where did that go?
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/1366/
Stacks was Piles before?
Overall, for me at least, a disappointing keynote. Don’t like the new skinny, translucent Menu Bar or the look of the new desktop, though Stacks should help decrease the clutter. Not that crazy about the new Finder either, though Boolean operators will make Spotlight much more useful. Quick Look is a nice new feature but on the whole the Secret Features weren’t up to my expectations. Also, the lack of a new iLife or iWork is quite disappointing. iWork in particular is getting long in the tooth and is still short of what is needed, especially Pages. Lack of professional apps on iPhone, esp ability to read and write to Word and Excel docs is also a big problem for me. And disappointed in the lack of any new hardware. New iMacs desperately needed. iChat in Leopard is very nice but iChat won’t help those without built-in cameras and no new standalone cameras announced. Overall, a C/C- grade from me and looks like the stockholders agree.
Ok, help me out here. The new leopard will work on 32 bit computers as well right. We are not all going to have to buy a new 64 bit Mac to run Leopard are we?
Ok, help me out here. The new leopard will work on 32 bit computers as well right. We are not all going to have to buy a new 64 bit Mac to run Leopard are we? Someone reported they have not intention of releasing a 32 bit version.
I’d like to see cover flow applied to applications like Yojimbo. That might be an upgrade I’d pay for.
Good gawd, you whiny whiners!
10 features out of 500 total were featured today, leaving 490 candidates for “top-secret”, ZFS, resolution, and boot-camp features yet to be revealed to the wider world, at least until people begin to leak them from their preview editions they received today. get a grip!
Apple’s failing to live up to its hype for once. Disappointing Keynote. Seems Leopard’s as much a service pack for Tiger as Vista was for XP. Some eye candy to keep up with Vista and some of the newer Linux window managers and not much else.
…and isn’t “stacks” a blatant copy of the same feature in Vista?
Wow. Leopard is not particularly good looking. I am starting to think that Apple needs another Jonathan Ive, one for software graphic design.
It’s like everything is about saying, “Hey, lookit here! Look at me!” Catching the eye of Windows users shouldn’t be our operating system’s central mission. We have to actually use this thing, too.
Seriously, it almost makes XP look tasteful and restrained. When the demo voice on Apple’s movie introducing The New Dock pointed out that it reflects everything that approaches it, I had a moment of thinking I must have stumbled onto a parody website.
It’s sort of like when the .Mac site design had brushed metal all around everything–if anyone else remembers. It just looked really, really bad, as does this.
I thought Time Machine as demoed previously must be only a rough draft, in interface-design terms. But its dark, reflective, overly busy design is everywhere now.
So here’s to whatever comes after Leopard! In at least some ways this feels like backwards progress.
Can you really install Leopard on a Core Duo (32Bbit) system ?
If you look at Apples hompage they only say 64bitprocessor and 32bit applications?
The new 3D dock looks cool — like a shelf with 3D icons sitting on it. But what about those of us who like a vertical dock on either the left of the right? How’s that gonna look?
haven’t seen the video yet, but Stacks idea reminds me of this.
http://www.bumptop.com/
@Mark,
“Do y’all think his Steveness is holding back more features? I doubt this as I can’t see what benefit would be had from that.”
OH, I don’t know. How about when they sold airport that had “n” built inside for about 5 months then told everyone, hey your “g” system is really 5X faster, for a buck. Apple, better than you know, always.
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@ Reality Check.
“Apple’s failing to live up to its hype for once. Disappointing Keynote. Seems Leopard’s as much a service pack for Tiger as Vista was for XP.” Boy do you need a reality check.!!!!!
This is a developers conference. Read “Roughlydrafted” to see what you should have been expecting, not what you would like to see. Also, read between the lines. Look for the things that don’t get screamed out. Apple is making Windows look like Apple, work great like Apple, but only for Apple programs iTunes, iPhone, Safari, etc. People wanted to run Apple on their Windows, well, its getting there, one step at a time. And for everyone that gets to see whats up, the next time they buy a computer, its more and more likely to be an Apple.
That keeps driving Apples Mac shares UP and UP and UP. And with only 6-10 percent of the market right now, there is plenty of UP to help the stock price rise.
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Did anyone else catch the line about there being no 32-bit version of Leopard? I saw a quote of Jobs saying there would only be a 64-bit version. Does this mean that my year old MacBookPro with a CoreDuo won’t run Leopard? If so I’m gonna be SOOOOO PISSED!
Amazing how many trolls come out the woodwork after these announcements..
Hoping to get the press to say how dissapointed the Mac fanbase is. For any press reading this, wait a few days until the paid microsoft trolls have all gone away and then measure the reaction.
Leopard is looking fantastic – 64 bit, Unix compliant, fantastic use of CoverFlow, and Quicklook is just brilliant too. I think iChat Theater will be a winner too.
This has taken OSX miles ahead of Vista.
Resolution independence and ZFS are for 2008 – I thought everyone new these were not for 2007. If you need to know more start reading some facts – try RoughlyDrafted.com
Well done Apple. A nice keynote. I’m for one not disappointed.
There is only one version of Leopard, and its 64 bit and 32 bit compliant – full stop.
The screen sharing has moved to the Finder. Check out the demo movies and you can see ‘Share Screen’ in additional to mounting a Network computer in the Finder sidebar.
I couldn’t see a tabbed Finder window either.
“Where is the true screen resolution independence?”
It’s in there! Just because Steve didn’t mention it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Don’t laugh at me, but will Leopard still run Classic? I’ve got one program that I use under Classic and I’d hate to have to buy an update just to run it under OSX. It’s fine under Classic. (Douglas CADD, circuit board layout app)
Although there were no earth-shattering announcements, I am very pleased with what they had. The redesigned Finder with Quick View is a very impressive and useful feature. The new dock and transparent menu bar is a subtle and welcome improvement. The new unified design of the Apple website and Leopard GUI is very clean and very usable. The more I learn about Leopard, the more small details I discover about it that I like.
Apple is delivering more of the well thought out, attention to detail, elegance and polish that made me a fan of Mac OS X in the first place.
It’s still wait and see for me. Steve only showed 10 of the 300 new features in Leopard – I hope some of these non-demoed features are serious ones.
Let’s hope David Pogue has a nice FAT Leopard book awaiting final print detailing all the new features (hopefully useful ones and not just bloat/eye candy).
Seems like Apple has been overly busy with the iPhone indeed, but, I imagine over the coming weeks more and more info about Leopard will emerge.
Here’s hoping there’s more under the hood…
I know it’s eye-candy, but – I must say that the 3D Dock looks VERY cool.
there will be a new iLife and iWork when Leopard is released but why would they announce it at a developer’s conference? it’s not like developers will be writing software around it. apple will announce it much closer to it’s release date so as to capture the buzz for Leopard and iWork sales.
if this was MacWorld, then sure, but it’s not.
Would you guys like some cheese with your whine? At this point it’s all about honing the usability and performance of OSX. Tough crowd (or a bunch of trolls)…any one of keynote items are amazing.
time to sell AAPL… it was too bad… I’d rather not seen this news…
I wonder if Apple bought MenuShade? I hope it’s half as configureable…Whatever?
Steve Jobs has foresight? Now I know how Apple is staying on top.
“I believe that the secrets were the finder ( cover flow ) and stacks he didn’t want to show earlier”
As you now know, there were no real “Secrets” just empty hype to try and stall the rush to Vista.
3D wrote
“I know it’s eye-candy, but – I must say that the 3D Dock looks VERY cool.”
3D ?
it’s just a parallelogram replacing a rectangle, there is nothing 3D about it at all.
DISAPPOINTED: esp ability to read and write to Word and Excel docs is also a big problem for me.
—
Sticking with their theme of web apps, you could upload your word docs to googles web based document manager and be able to do whatever you want with it there. It looks like the web will be the key to unlock the iphone.
The dock looks like the one in project looking glass… only waaaaay nicer.
Weak. Very weak. Why show in a keynote what everyone has already seen? Very weak. Nearly useless.
“it’s just a parallelogram replacing a rectangle, there is nothing 3D about it at all.”
Um, you do know making a parallelogram is all you can do to represent a rectangle in 3d prospective. That’s how any photograph would represent it. Look at your desk right now, it’s a parallelogram from your point of view. That’s as 3d as an image gets.
What were you expecting, an actual 3d hologram? You want a dock that protrudes from your screen and slaps you in the face? Maybe next WWDC.
i just installed leopard, the speed is overwhelming, unbelievable.
i’m just too tired to keep up with it, i will look at it again tommorow.
fantastic !
mfshroom
it’s just NOT 3D, i was reacting to those overblown claims of a “3D dock”
yes it can be better, my OS is really 3D, u can fly into it, walk, rotate anything etc.
and YES, it protudes from the screen, if u have special glasses.
leopard is great, but don’t call a slanted rectangle 3D, even alt tabbing on vista is more 3D than that.
I’m curious how the ‘back to my Mac’ feature in .Mac compares to a solution like [url=http://www.inuron.com]http://www.inuron.com[/url] They offer remote folder access through a metadata interface for both Mac AND Windows. Easy setup of detailed sharing policies and.. it’s free