While a lot is being made of the big, big changes and additions to Mac OS X 10.5; aka Leopard, there are many small, nifty things being changed or added to the system that, when combined, help to make the OS truly feel like a worthy upgrade.Exhibit A: Connecting/Mounting AFP, SMB, and other Servers/SharesWhether in Tiger or Leopard, when you want to connect to a server’s networked shares for the first time, you usually go to the Connect to Server dialog, and enter in the address. Alternatively, you can browse for the server(s) through the Finder, and double-click them and connect
You’re then presented with a prompt to choose the share(s) available for mounting.In Leopard, however, Apple goes one step further and eases the process of connecting and re-connecting to servers, by listing recently connected servers under the “Shared” listing in the re-designed iTunes-esque sidebar.
Before I truly delve into the new Finder, Time Machine, Spaces and other “major” features, I thought I’d give you a visual look at some of the more obscure changes in Leopard.
Specifically, the updated version of Front Row (which looks very much like Apple TV; it is almost directly a copy-and-paste in terms of the UI) and the new screensavers, designed to take advantage of the new Core Animation technology.
Ah yes, the formidable OS X dock. The subject of scrutiny amongst many Windows users, it has nevertheless continued to find a nice home in the OS X desktop right from day one.
In it’s current iteration, we find the dock to be a nice, not-to-obtrusive, transparent home for applications, shortcuts, and even documents, should you choose.
With Leopard, Apple’s decided to further up the ante: We now have a “3D reflective dock”. What does that mean? In layman’s terms, it means a whole bunch of shadows, lighting effects and other “awesome” things that, when you get down to managing your productivity, are more of a hinderance than anything helpful.
Below is a simple comparison between the two docks. As you can see, the Leopard dock does indeed appear more like a 3D surface than that of Tiger.
It’s been quite a while that Mac OS users have seen a point release to the well-regarded 10th version of the system, dubbed OS “X”. To be exact, 2 years and 3 months.
Sometime in October of this year, Apple will release to the masses the latest revision, Mac OS X Leopard. The sixth release for the OS X family, Leopard, comes more than 6 months on the heels of Microsoft’s Windows Vista.
Will it disappoint? Possibly. But then, Mac users, similar to those of Windows prior to Vista (XP), aren’t exactly clamoring for a “new and improved” version of their beloved Tiger, either. The difference here, is that unlike Microsoft, Apple is doing the right thing by continually adding new features to each point release, whilst making sure not to bloat up the OS.
Sadly for Microsoft, many users (including myself) are of the opinion that while Vista had promise, it’s too unfinished and clunky for one to justify upgrading from Windows XP.
Much, much more to come; for now, the gallery for 9a466 screenshots is up, as shown below. (July 9th 2008 - Gallery has been taken down; screenshots are long gone. Sorry!) Also, enjoy the few videos below. Some have audio commentary.
Leopard: It’s the Little Things
