It's time for WWDC 2007 and the recent Stevenote was very exciting indeed. Especially when EA announced that from July 2007 onwards, they will start to simultaneously release their games for the Mac and they will start to release Mac games by porting Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer 3, Need for Speed: Carbon and Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. id Software announced their technology at the most unlikely place, which was WWDC 2007. They demoed their new engine, named Tech 5 (not final name) on an iMac, which was exhilarating and very cool.

MacOS X 10.5 Leopard was the main focus of the Stevenotes and Steve Jobs himself showed 10 very important and cool features which includes: new desktop, new finder, the all new QuickLook, the anticipated Time Machine, full 64-bit support in the same version, all new iChat, dashboard, Bootcamp, Core Animation and Spaces.

The new MacOS X 10.5 Leopard comes with a very new desktop, the transition is bigger than the jump from 10.3 - 10.4, but not as big as the jump from MacOS to MacOS X or from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. It features a new dock, and a transparent toolbar. Apple also introduced a new system called stack, which makes finding files or open applications easier, with a simple click of a button. You can also make yourself a new "Start" menu yourself!



Finder has also been highly retrofitted with a new sidebar, which is a lot cleaner than before. For you iTunes lovers, Apple has now included a Cover Flow method that makes searching for your files like searching for your music.



Quicklook is a new feature, where you can simply hit space bar and a small window will open to see what the file has quickly. You can preview songs, movies, documents, presentations and etc. Even in full screen, easily!




Time Machine is the coolest feature of all in Leopard. Makes you want to backup your files in an external HDD or server since it's that fun and secure. Time Machine will automatically back up EVERYTHING on to an external HDD with a simple click of a button and automatically afterwards too! Making sure that all the applications, documents, music, photos, contacts and everything else will be backed up! You can simply search for missing things if you lost them if you accidentally deleted something.



Full 64-bit support means that from the UNIX base to the Carbon/Cocoa libraries (the libraries that make you see things graphically) are now 64-bit. 64-bit technology would immensely make your computer go faster, since there are now more threads that your applications can now travel on. Apple is now making it standard for all their computers (except for Mac Mini which is still sporting a 32-bit processor). You can still however, run your favourite 32-bit applications with no penalty in performance! You don't need to buy a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version like for Windows Vista!



Don't you ever feel that basic webcam chats have become so boring? Try the new iChat that's coming with Leopard! You can now use Photobooth effects and add backdrops to make conversations interesting! Here's a bonus, you can even have animated backdrops too!



Ever want to create your own widget? Now you can with Leopard! You can create a widget that you make using Safari! It changes so long the webpages changes. It doesn't matter if it's a flash movie either, it will still clip it and put on to your dashboard! Also, now you can even check movie times with the new Movie widget! You can also buy tickets through the widget too!




Bootcamp is an all new feature where you can now dual boot your Mac to run MacOS X and Windows at the same time! Mac is now the only you'll ever need!



Animation now made simple. With under 660 lines of code, now you can have a 3D application without using too much effort!



Is your desktop usually cluttered? Spaces will clear your desktop. It will make 3 additional virtual desktops to ease your primary desktop space. You can jump from one to another with a simple click of a button! You can also create as many virtual windows at the same time! Your applications will still run while you switched applications, that means games will still run while you swapped over to chat with your friends!



IMHO, I think the MacOS X 10.5 Leopard already has more features than Windows Vista has in its whole arsenal. All Windows Vista has is Aero, backwards compatibility new Windows Explorer and mainly that's it. There's no new special features that is helpful for the user. Even Aero isn't helpful at all, except for the preview screens when you highlight the start menu.

If you're planning to get a Mac, I highly recommend you wait until October this year when Leopard comes out. If you already have a Mac, you can upgrade by buying the OS for USD$129 and it comes in only 1 edition, so you won't need to worry if you got the crappy one! (It's still cheaper than Windows Vista too!)

xboxrulz

 

 

 

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i so want it!
it looks so cool.
ive always liked macs, but the only time i get to use them is occasionally at school!

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I'm waiting until at least October before trying to get my hands on a Macbook.

xboxrulz

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I have one, and I can tell you now, there is not a PC that your average human being can afford that is as reliable as a Mac. Trust me I speak from experience, I have had a computer before, I sold my new dual core just to get a iMac, because I was tired of always having to have super firewalls on that blocked both what I didn’t want and what I wanted, spending endless hours resetting things to make sure it worked just right, and heck I don’t care what they say when it comes to multimedia, especially sound and video editing, a Mac is a must. I personally prefer to limit my digital art to images. Since lets face it I cannot play a musical instrument.

But for anyone out there who is sceptical of a Mac, at least give it a try. Unless you’re a Linux user there is a 99% chance you would convert to a Mac as soon as possible. The reason I do not include Linux users in that is because I happen to know programmers and the like love their Linux for it’s customizability and independence from Microsoft so they are quite loyal. Nothing wrong with that.

However Mac OS Jaguar… that is something else all together… lets be honest here… Microsoft’s Windows Vista is a rip off, it slows down your pc, takes up a chunk of memory, and wastes hard drive space and your time. Sure it looks flashy and has a few nice gadgets, but it’s nothing you could not download from online long before it came out. I had to have a programmer friend of mine cut out half the program coding to remove all the “useless” gunk in that operating system just so it would stop annoying me with this and that request to update. My windows 2007 Word and Excel files were not even compatible with the older versions, now how sad is that?

If you want an operating system that has flair, flexibility, style, sustainability (as in it does not require a million and one constant updates), manageability and of course improved time saving through it’s advanced design (which lets face it Vista is pretty much the same as XP but with more buttons to push and a pretty Theme) Mac OS Jaguar is a must have.

So to the person who started this forum I have to say… 10 out of 10 for good system taste

 

 

 

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Shadow Guardian, have you noticed that Jaguar is discontinued for a long time? I think you're talking about Tiger, which is the latest version of MacOS X.

I'm a Linux user myself, and I highly anticipate for OS X Leopard and I also want a Mac since 1997 (when I was 7). Now waiting for a type of computer for a good 9 years is quite sad actually, but I'm still sitting here waiting.

xboxrulz

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Yeah, Oct. is my huge technology upgrade cycle. Looking at a new Mac Pro to replace my QuadCore powerMac, upgrade to FC Studio 6, Adobe CS3 Premium and place the Quadcore G5 to my secondary unit with the Dual core G5 tower going to the Xgrid for rendering.

I found CDW had a deal last spring, a MacBook Pro for $1300. Granted, only 512MB ram and 80GB HDD, but I use externals and for $145 got a 1GB stick still less than $1500 total. Great computer.

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but is it a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo?

xboxrulz

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Core 2 Duo. 2Ghz.

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nice, can I see the URL?

xboxrulz

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Holy....

I might be buying a mac soon, if I do, I wanna get Leopard when it comes out! How much will it be? Too expensive probably that's the only thing wrong with macs. The price.
But the good things make up for that! Look at the new sidebar! and iChat! WIth photoshop effects!! Aaaargh! I want it!

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