Ten things you didn’t know about Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard

“I’ve been made aware of some great stuff that Steve didn’t talk about in his [WWDC Mac OS X Leopard] keynote address,” Danny Gorog reports for APC Magazine.

Gorog reports, “I can also say for sure that Leopard, when it’s released will beat the pants of Vista in terms of speed and functionality. Windows users should however read this article so you’ll know what to expect on your machines by 2011.”

Gorog’s list includes:
• Attention to detail 1: rounded bottom edges of all drop down menu bars
• Attention to detail 2: location options only appears if you have more than one location set
• Help Menu improvements
• New ‘Get Info’ pane
• iCal improvements
• Stacks are really useful
• Cover Flow in the Finder is really useful, too
• Contextual menu’s “More” selection
• Smarter Airport Menu
• Bind applications to Spaces

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “thereal” for the heads up.]

34 Comments

  1. so he got his 5 minutes of fame. BFD, like we really give 2 shits about what he just said???? I’m suprised MDN even bothered to link this ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />

    -Pi

  2. IT Guy.. Cover flow and stacks are not “refinements”… they are entirely new features.

    Microsoft spent a lot of time advertising its less useful window management schemes….as bad as they are.. they are one of the only reasons to “upgrade” to Vista Premium.

  3. I’m really excited, there appear to be a lot of little touches but they seem to be the sort of thing that finishes the jigsaw as it were. We seem to be due for far more system wide consistency and a lot of things to take advantage of that which may not have worked in isolation before.

  4. well, in Leopard it looks like the Finder still sucks donkeynuts and Spotlight still is a fix for a problem that doesn’t exist the way Apple wants us to believe. Okay, spotlight could be handy at times…if it wouldn’t be such a pain in the arse to use. Now utils like Pathfinder, Quicksilver, Forklift, ABFR or Yojimbo…these are the small things that makes the OS truly superior.

  5. Other ‘important’ things that should be added to such an informative list.

    • Leopard will arrive on new disks
    • The package it comes in was sealed closed in 2007
    • The ‘About this Mac’ window now says ‘Version 10.5’
    • Also in this window it now says ‘TM & © 1983-2007….’

  6. Actually Panther had the most exciting new features to me. Tiger is good ( I love that Dictionary), but most of the new features of Tiger simply weren’t breath-taking. Now we have Leopard. I know that other Mac users are excited about graphic icons and Stacks, but I’m not all that excited about that for another $130. Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like a troll.

    Now quicker response time is fantastic. I would like to see some improvements with syncing cell phones and other devices, and better communications with Windows networks, printers and scanners.

  7. Another interesting feature now present in pre-release versions is that, apparently, you could mouse over a hint of an event in an email, and a popup will ask if you want to create an iCal event. If you choos to, it auto generates it from the text!

    Way cool! And can be very helpful. I hope they keep it.

  8. Something from the original article that seems relevant to this comment thread:

    “If you’re tempted to post a comment along the lines of, ‘is this all you could come up with: rounded corners?’ consider that people don’t buy European cars simply because they are more reliable than Fords, they buy them because of the better quality body work and trim too.”

  9. I agree that the details collectively make Mac OS X great.

    Regarding stacks, I have wondered about the “arcing” effect… Is there a preference to make it arc to the left for left-handed mouse users? Also, what does it look like if the Dock is placed on the left or right side of the screen?

  10. I’ve been using the beta for a while now, and my absolute favorite thing about Leopard is its improved wi-fi support. No more dropped connections, ever. My mac mini used to drop my wifi connection all the time, and about 80% of the time when I would open my PowerBook G4, it wouldn’t automatically connect to my WPA-protected wireless network, I would have to manually select it from the list. Now when I open the PowerBook, it’s instantly, like within half a second, connected to my wireless network, and my Mac Mini never drops its wifi connection at all, ever. Good job Apple!!!

  11. I like that last one, bind applications to Spaces. I’ve been hoping for some time that Leopard will support persistence in full screen mode applications. Right now, with third party virtual desktop products, full screen mode apps like iPhoto and iTunes don’t remain persistent when you move away from the desktop they are running on.

    Once you have apps running in full screen mode, each on a dedicated ‘Space’ it’s only a matter of time before Apple adds CoverFlow to Spaces for a whole new take on Expose.

  12. erm…….I thought that Tiger was still very much way ahead of Vista? that is why there is no hurry to release Leopard just yet?

    If so, why bother to mention a stratospheric product in the same breathe as a mud encrusted hog of a product like V***a?

    Trying to suck up to SJ?

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