“Want to see what the future of personal computing looks like? Don’t wait for Microsoft to show you; go out and get yourself a copy of Apple’s latest operating system release, OS X Tiger. It’s that good,” Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director for the Personal Technology & Access and Custom Research groups at Jupiter Research, writes for Computerworld.
Gartenberg writes, “For the past few weeks, I’ve been using the final version of Tiger. There are a lot of nice things in it. For example, iChat2, Apple’s instant messaging client, runs rings around the stuff on Windows, and on a G5, you can run a four-way videoconference in seamless full-screen mode. Try that on a PC.”
“The Dashboard application, including the concept of HTML applets showing contextual snippets of information, is very useful, and like most Apple stuff, it’s just plain cool,” Gartenberg writes. “But what makes Tiger a big deal are two features that boost personal productivity in ways no PC operating system has ever matched (at least not yet): Spotlight and Automator.”
Gartenberg writes, “The real challenge for Apple is to make sure that the market understands what it has done. My advice to Apple? Turn up the volume on this release several notches so it doesn’t get lost in the checklist wars… There’s no doubt that a lot of similar concepts will be included in the next version of Windows. But Longhorn won’t be here for at least 18 months. It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us by then.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple unveils new faster iMac G5 line with built-in AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, 512MB base RAM, more – May 03, 2005
The Independent: Apple’s ‘faster, smarter, simpler’ Mac OS X Tiger ‘a must-have’ – May 04, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger review for a Windows PC audience finds Tiger’s ‘far, far better than Windows XP’ – May 03, 2005
Longhorn mentioned in nearly every Apple Mac OS X Tiger review to assuage Windows masses – May 02, 2005
Boston Herald: Mac OS X Tiger should compel Windows PC users to think about switching to Apple Mac – May 02, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger will likely improve performance of your Macintosh – April 30, 2005
PC World review gives Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger 4.5 stars out of 5 – April 30, 2005
Mac fans line up for new operating system as passberby asks ‘what is a tiger?’ – April 29, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Ars Technica: Mac OS X Tiger ‘at least twice as significant as any single past update’ – April 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
InformationWeek columnist: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘a compelling upgrade’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Microsoft=Pwned
mw=still
as in Longhorn is still losing features weekly
I’m now with all those who’ve been demanding that Apple start advertising Tiger. In part to piss off those zits in Florida called TigerDirect, but more to capitalise on all this amazing press.
Apple – get someone to start making your adverts – and make them at least as cool as you did for the iPod ones.
Oh to watch Longinthetooth die a death before its even been born!
OUTSTANDING review, especially the author’s denigration of Windows advocates’ “checklist” response to Tiger (i.e., “we have search, they have search”). This is the review to forward to others, especially business/office colleagues and IT departments. As Gartenberg writes, Tiger is “productivity nirvana”–business will get this, at least those businesses that are going to win in the marketplace, and those are the important ones.
Time for us all to rev up our next feature list suggestions for the next version of OS X. Ideas presented will at least trigger other ideas.
My first suggestion is a full blown, classic Galaga Widget I wasted sooo many hours on that game as a teenager.
Long ago, I played around with QuickKeys. Then I played with RealBasic. Then I played around with AppleScript. Except for QuickKeys, I never had a good enough reason to get all that interested in them. So now OS X 10.4 has Automator. So, the past couple of days, I’ve been playing with it. Jeesh! Now, how come, all of a sudden (not really, I guess), I have loads of reasons for using it. I’ve created these little workflows that do all sorts of cool things for me. For example, for some reason Preview now saves screen shots in png format instead of pdf. I dunno why but, what I really want it to do is save ’em in jpg usually. So, now I got this little Automator workflow that batch converts all my little screen shots from png to jpg in one fell swoop. It took all of 30 seconds to create and it takes less time to perform the task. How cool is that?
Apple should advertise Tiger features like that more. I agree.
bamboozled,
My Preview Version 3.0 (389) in Tiger saves my screenshots in .tiff, not .png format. In Preview, choose File>Grab.
Read this: http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/mac_os_x_tigers_updated_preview_30_application/
I doubt advertising about OSX features will have much impact. Most people buy PC, because that is what they use at work. I think Apple will do better giving PowerBooks with MS Office to CEO of Fortune 100 companies. Then attach a letter, “remember the last time your big deal went sour because media found out about it before deal was complete? With this PowerBook, you won’t have to worry about your computer leaking the information to the world”
thanks mr. mertz. yeah, i read about grabbing screen shots like that in the new Preview. then I forgot! senior moment, i guess. but, then, my forgetfulness led me to play with Automator, which was cool in its own right, no?
Has anybody successfully had a “oh my god that is so amazing, best quality ever” multi user chat with iChat AV? The discussion forums at apple and elsewhere all talk of disappointment. I read with skepticism the article comments about a seamless four-way full screen chat… comments appreciated.
“Want to see what the future of personal computing looks like? Don’t wait for Microsoft to show you; go out and get yourself a copy of Apple’s latest operating system release, OS X Tiger.”
Not that I disagree with him, but you also need to buy a Mac. Picking up a copy of Tiger without a Mac just gives you a pretty box.
There are Mac users and Windows users. Just like there are photographers who buy Canon, and others who shoot with Nikon. No matter what Apple Ads would say, the Windows users won’t switch. They made up their mind years ago, they have their applications, their workflow, and they feel fairly comfortable. Done deal. Besides, the cost of upgrading all your applications would be prohibitive.
We all have friends who use Windows. And, the ones I know would never ever consider changing to Mac. I don’t know why, but the lack of Apple Ads doesn’t help.
These reviewers all seem to fail to make one important conclusion: Even if Windows had all the “features” of OS X, it would still be in awkward Windows form and never as graceful as OS X.
So even when Longhorn comes out, if you insist on talking about Longhorn, and it manages to live up to the hype, it will still be XP service pack 4. Meanwhile Mac OS X 10.5 Rabid Snaggletooth will be coming out with a [finally] better Finder. Then MS is toast.
Just remember, Longhorn will always be Windows, no matter how many features they cram into it. OS X just by the virtue of being OS X will be more elegant, easier, safer, more open and just more fun to use.
So I disagree, OS X is not the future of computing for MS users as the author implies. OS X is the present for Mac users. XP will continue to be the present and future for MS users.
Ted-O & Sid,
There are Mac users, all of them have used Windows, they have chosen.
There are Windows users, damn few of them have used a Mac with OS X installed, they don’t know any better.
If Windows users who weren’t PC Gamers and who didn’t have IT drones holding their hands all day were ever to test drive a new Mac, for a day or two, we would see a hell of a lot of them switching, regardless of the cost.
I don’t think a massive ad campaign would work. Perhaps refitting a Fortune 500 Company with Macs and financially guaranteeing and publicizing the lower cost of ownership and higher productivity would work. Other than that, the Mac brick & mortar stores are the next best thing.
Ted-O & Sid,
I was a Windows evangelist 15 years ago (sorry) and switched to Apple. More interesting is that Apple estimate 40% of the people who bought the 1m+ Macs in the first quarter were first time Mac buyers. Don’t let’s presume is all is lost and that Windows users won’t switch – they will, like me and many others like me. Sensitive advertising would not go amiss either!
I hope that if/when Apple ever does advertise Tiger, that it will have some level of hard core information in it, rather than a G5 blowing a hole in your house.
Ted-O:
On the higher end applications from Adobe you can “cross-grade” your applications to the Mac versions, usually for the cost of shipping ($20). I have checked this for friends I have successfully switched
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Mac people – just get one friend or family member to use your Mac, then help them switch – it works! My dad now uses my Ti P-book and my MDD G4 (allowing us to get a dual 2.5 G5 and a AlBook 1.67) and a co-worker now has a Mac Mini when her kids blew up her Win98 PC. If every Mac user converts one PC user a year – just think about it!
MDN Magic Word – Sent – your brain sent me to save you from PC’s!
Hey, Ted-O, I switched from Nikon to Canon – it can happen!
“There’s no doubt that a lot of similar concepts will be included in the next version of Windows. But Longhorn won’t be here for at least 18 months. It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us by then.”
Amidst all the comparisons to XP or Longhorn, this is the most telling statement and should be emphasised; especially the last sentence!!
Replay..
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again..
If a 1.25 G4 (mac mini) can run Tiger..
and Longhorn is going to look a lot like Tiger..
and Longhorn requires 3Ghz P4…
What does that say about the Mhz Myth…?
Ted & Sid,
I was a Windows user since Windows 3.1 and all the way through Windows XP Pro SP2. I switched at home in November 2004. I bought my second Mac, a PowerBook, in March 2005. I am very happy with the Mac. I don’t know if Apple should advertise or not, I’m not a markeing guru. But I know this . . . Windows users, despite the cost believe me, can and will switch. I have to use Windows XP at work and in fact am a Lotus Notes administrator with Notes servers running on Windows 2000/2003 servers. But, at home, it’s Macintosh. I have one more to buy this year for my kids and then we’ll have no more Windows computers on the Internet. We’ll keep the two we have just to keep running the apps we already have, but they will not touch the Internet any more.
Macs are cool. Oh, my friend at work also purchased a Mac this year, also his first. He has got his family switched to it at home as well. So, that’s one iMac, one PowerBook and a Mac mini.
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I thought Saturn had the rings.
OK, that’s not funny. TAXI!!!
mike, in my computers ballpark I also have an old Powerbook, a 667MHz G4 with 512MB memory. Runs Tiger beautifully.
“Want to see what the future of personal computing looks like? Don’t wait for Microsoft to show you; go out and get yourself a copy of Apple’s latest operating system release, OS X Tiger.”
Since Tiger is available now, doesn’t that make it the present of personal computing, not the future?