“Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger will include tighter integration with Apple’s internet services and sport a refreshed Finder interface, according to reports that cannot be positively confirmed, but are believed to reflect accurate information on the latest builds of the OS,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
Jade reports on features, including:
– Redesigned and improved .Mac integration
– Faster iDisk performance
– Updated Finder and Mac OS X interface
“Apple will perform the first public presentation of Mac OS X 10.4 Panther during its World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in late June. According to sources, Apple will issue the first developer release of the OS to conference attendees, with an official market retail release planned for October,” Jade reports. “There are also mumblings that the company may plan to charge more for the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger update than it did for last year’s Mac OS X 10.3 Panther refresh, though AppleInsider could not immediately confirm these rumors.”
Full article here.
It will have to be something special for most people to upgrade. Panther is the first OSX to have a finished feel about it, so unless Tiger is noticably better, I’m quite happy with 10.3.
Dave,
I am sure there will be a plenty of reasons to shift to Tiger as Panter is just the first version of the “finished” product.
One reason to shift would be the implementation of multiple workspaces (if it is there).
I’m liking Panther right now. My response, unless it is one huge leap forward, would be “not gonna do it, wouldn’t be prudent, not at this juncture”. It will have to be priced right for most users to make a rapid donation to our favorite charity.
Hey, whatever happened to the whole idea of “Piles?” Remember, the feature where you could stack files in a pile rather than always making a new folder? I thought that would be really cool. Why did it up and disappear? Am I the only one who thought it would be a wicked cool feature?
It is easy, and rather enjoyable, to sit here and make speculations. The ones they have offered are very vague, and I’m sure they’ll be able to say “I told you so” after Steve’s keynote.
For me, the worst thing about Steve’s keynote demonstrations is the long amount of time waiting to see it. Regardless what it is, I’d give a week’s wages to watch Bill Gates and his Longhorn staff view Steve’s speech. That has got to be fun to watch.
On my wish list, Rendezvous made to autoconnect computers. Not just for easier peer-to-peer communications, but for CPU sharing so a whole office can be a single super computer, and have this possible over ANY network (Firewire, Airport, new wireless Firewire, and even the internet). For the cost of a Mac OS upgrade, you can have your circle of friends create a super computer. Then these can tie into other groups for super-clusters.
“Remember, the feature where you could stack files in a pile rather than always making a new folder? I thought that would be really cool. Why did it up and disappear?”
Just dump all your files on the desktop if that’s what you want. Sounds incredibly messy to me.
Actually, I think the rumormongers were confusing Piles with the eventual Expose. Give me Expose any day!
I will get Tiger – BUT only after about 6 months after it’s released, so that all the problems with it are sorted out on the internet newsgroups and mac websites.
My system (10.3.4) works perfectly and I will leave the early adopters to have the problems in their systems sorted out first.
If by “multiple workspaces” you mean …. attach a 2nd monitor and 2nd USB keyboard/mouse and two of you go at it on the same box at the same time ….. yyyyeeeeaaaahhhhh!
WWDC and SF Pride. That is a good vacation
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If it’s more expensive than Panther, I definitely won’t be upgrading to Tiger. Panther is perfectly fine for me and I won’t pay MORE for 3.4 when I’ve only had 3.3 less than a year! But to each his own….
feej,
You remember the design of piles correct. Before Panther was released, I saw an artist’s concept drawing of how they would appear on the desktop and it was a bunch of files piled up on top of one another. Oooo, sounds sexy!
Maybe I am imagining it, but don’t these os upgrades become the “standard” to which new apps are written, and are then necessary for the latest and greatest? MSFT does write some awesomely obese os’s, but their backward compatability seems much more flexible to me. My complaint that I have to dual boot good old windows 98 with w2000 so that I can play A-10 cuba seems minor compared to plunking down $100+ a year to stay current as some of you do.
Seldom do I find an update to an operating system that is earthshaking. I usually do upgrade but I really do think that this time I will stick with 10.3.4 until the new one is out. If it is raved over by mac fans, I am ready to spend. Otherwise I plan on skipping one upgrade. By the time it gets to OS11 one could spend $750 or so.
Piles preview info here.
I would give my firstborn (had I had one) for the latest and greatest operating system from Apple.
Joe
Newly released apps from everyone but Apple will run under Jag and Panther, but not too many support 10.1 or lower. As I’ve said above though, Panther is the first finished OSX, although Jag came close. I expect to see the minimum OS version to stay at Jaguar for a while, even after Tiger hits the shelves.
These aren’t really OS features, but how about adding
– better spam filtering to Mail (huge plus)
– The ability to import songs from iTunes to GarageBand
– a defrag tool (So you don’t have to freaking buy one)
It may feature Al Gore desktops … and the marketing mavens think that will add value. After all, he is Steve’s poodle on the board, and invented the internet.
I think MS Windows beat Apple to the market with piles. Their entire OS is a pile…
Joe Mc, I have no problem paying a few hours’ salary for a much improved OS. I disagree with your statement about backwards compatibilty. As I’ve mentioned before, the most recent Mac OS X is currently running on my original iMac – you can’t claim that with an equally old PC. And a lot of software designed today will not run on older versions of Windows – or on slower processors. That’s why people have to buy new PCs every 2 years.
BTW, nice Al Gore comment from KiaT. Can’t let it go, can you?
Am I the only one who has noticed the typo? “Apple will perform the first public presentation of Mac OS X 10.4 **Panther** during its…”
It’s that way on the AppleInsider, too. Please fix it here. then delete me.
NEWSFLASH!!!!
Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ MAY NOT cost more than ‘Panther’ upon October release
It’s all speculation people! We’ve seen this before and we’re going to see it again. Who knows, Apple may even charge less just to spur adoption.
There there there… now it’ll cost more. Well, this is not going to encourage people to shift i’m sure nor will it make Apple’s fan richer. Expensive hardware and now expensive software as well.
I know that it is worth it but looking back at how OS X got to this stage, we should have all been refunded for the early versions of Apple’s new OS.
Rather disappointing if it comes to be true.
Perhaps, if they are charging more, it is because they are offering more. 10.3.4 is pretty good. To charge more for an upgrade would imply that they thought we would think it worth it. It might not be true though.
I’m looking forward to Piles. I think it’ll be a good way for disorganised people to organise stuff.
If it is more, I think people will be pretty reluctant to pony up the readies, but they probably will anyway.
You don’t need a defrag tool unless you regularly use huge files. OS-X defrags on the fly (but not the huge files).
Whatever. I’ve purchased 5 copies of Panther for different reasons and different people. I’ve seen at least 50 people pirate it. It seems the people that are most vocal about paying for upgrades, seldom do.