Mac OS 10.5 Overview (Leopard)

Mac OS 10.5, codenamed Leopard, will be available for sale at 6:00 PM Friday the 26th of October. It is the most recent version of the Mac OS and has many new features plus some updates to existing features. Here is a summary of the more important features and changes.

• Time Machine: Time Machine is a new backup program built into Mac OS 10.5. It allows a user to back up files to any external hard drive on a regular basis. The user has a choice of what files to back up and how often the backup is done. Time machine will take the user's choices and do an initial full backup. Subsequent backups will be incremental backups, which means Time Machine will only backup the files which have changed since the last backup. There are two features of Time Machine which makes it different from most other backups. First, users wanting to retrieve backed up files will use Time Machines graphically-oriented timeline restore program. It allows users to search for backed up copies of files by viewing the contents of the various backups as though they're folders stamped with the date they were backed up in order to allow users to ascertain whether it's the correct file to recover. The other important feature is the ability of Time Machine to allow users to recover some types of data on a record-by-record basis. The example Apple has shown on their website is one where a user is able to recover an individual address card record for Address Book.
  For more information please look at Time Machine on the Apple webpage.
  NOTE: In order to use Time Machine properly it's necessary to use a rather large external hard drive. Although there are no recommendations on the size of the disk needed for Time Machine it's probably a good idea to have an external disk at least the same size as the internal disk.
• Spaces:Spaces is a way to increase the amount of screen space available to users without having to actually buy an extra external monitor. When turned on Spaces allows the user to create up to 16 spaces, each of which the same size as the computer's current monitor. Each space is assigned a number; the first space is 1, the second space is 2, etc... A space may be reached by holding thecontrol key down and pressing the number of the space or holding the control key down and pressing the left or right arrow key.
  The allocated spaces can be used in several ways. Applications can be assigned to individual spaces, which means when an application is started any windows associated with that application will appear in the space allocated to that application. For example, a user could assign Safari to the space number 1 and Mail to space number 2. When both programs are running the user could switch back and forth between the two programs without having to move windows around.
  It's also possible to drag windows from one space to another by pointing to the title bar of a window and dragging it to the top, left, right or bottom of the screen and holding it there for several seconds. If there is an allocated space in the the direction the window is being dragged then the system will move the window over to the space in that direction. So if a user is working on several Word documents the windows for those documents can be dragged to several spaces so they're all in "front" and accessible by a simple keystroke.
  For more information please look at Spaces on the Apple webpage.
• iChat: iChat has several new features. First it allows users who are doing video chats to create their own personalized backdrop. The backdrop can either be a picture or a movie. Users can also apply one or more effects to the video being sent out via the camera during a chat.
  Users can also display documents, movies, PowerPoint and Keynote presentations and photo slideshows via a special presentation mode.
  Users can also enter into a collaboration mode which allows them to link their computers together and share the same desktop. This allows them to create and modify documents when they're not physically in the same room.
  For more information please look at iChat on the Apple webpage.
• Safari: Safari has several new features. Users can select areas in a webpage and can create a widget which will contain the contents of that area. The contents of that widget are updated automatically. This allows users who view web pages on a regular basis to create a widget of the important information on that webpage and view it at anytime via Dashboard.
  User who used tabbed browsing can now reorder the tabs by dragging the webpage tab. The other tabs will move out of the way to accommodate the tab in it's new position.
  Doing searchings of the contents of a displayed webpage has been improved. As the search word or phrase is being typed into the search field Safari will dim the contents of the webpage and highlight the matches on the webpage. This makes it users to see the word(s) being searched for on the page.
  Users who display PDF files within a web browser window will now be able to zoom in or out or save the PDF file using on-screen controls which will appear in the window along with the PDF file.
  Text fields can now be resized on the fly by merely dragging the resize button at the bottom right side of the field. The contents of the web page will be rearranged in order to accommodate the resized field.
  For more information please look at Safari on the Apple webpage.
• Quick Look: Quick Look is a new technology incorporated into several Mac OS 10.5 applications. It allows users to quickly view the contents of file without having to actually open the file. Quick Look can be found in the Finder and Time Machine.
  For more information please look at Quick Look on the Apple webpage.
• Network System Preference: Apple has combined the Internet Connect application with Network Preferences. The layout of the Network Preferences has been changed in order to accommodate the change and make the presentation of network information clearer than it was in the past. The list of network connects now appears in a column on the left side of the window. Clicking on an network connection from that column will present the user with f the network connection status, such as whether it's connected, the computer's IP address if it has one plus other related information. The user would click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the network status window in order to change the configuration of the selected network connection. In most cases the setup is similar to the way network setups were done in Mac OS 10.4 with the notable exception of wifi connections. The wifi setup has an additional tab 802.1X, which is where users would go to enter configuration information which had been entered into Internet Connect in Mac OS 10.3.x and 10.4.x .
• Boot Camp: Boot Camp is now officially part of the Mac OS. It allows the user who owns an Intel-based Macintosh to partition their internal hard drive and install either Windows XP or Vista onto one of the partitions. The user can run WIndows on their Macintosh by holding down the Optionkey at the beginning of system startup and then selecting the Windows partition in the screen which appears. The system will boot into Windows and the user will have access to the full Windows experience without having to worry about the loss of speed which users have who run Windows in an emulator such as Parallels.
  For more information please look at BootCamp on the Apple webpage.
• Mail: Mail has several new features. Users can send HTML-formatted email messages using the Stationary feature. Users can also take advantage of the new Notes feature, which allows users to create short writings which can either be saved or forwarded onto other users. It also allows users to create To-Do lists which can automatically updated when specified email is received. Finally, it has an auto-setup feature which allows it to recognize certain types of accounts and automatically fill in the account details.
  For more information please look at Mail on the Apple webpage.
• Classic: Users who upgrade to Mac OS 10.5 will no longer be able to use Classic applications. Classic applications will appear in directories overlaid by a circle with a diagonal line in it, which means it can't be run. If a user clicks on it an error message will appear on the screen saying Classic is not supported in Mac OS 10.5.
• Finder: Finder has several new features. First, there is a new directory view, Quick Look, which allows users to view the contents of a folder using the same CoverFlow technology used in iTunes. When viewing the contents of a folder in this view the contents of the folder are displayed in the top part of the window, revealing the beginning of the contents of each file. Users can view the complete of the contents of most files which makes finding files much easier.
  The sidebar of each directory window has been changed to incorporate some standard file searches as well as grouping the contents of the sidebar into several groups: Devices, Shared, Places and Search for. Each group has a disclosure triangle to the left of the group name which allows users to hide the contents of each group.