Mac Pro goes right to the top of my "must buy" list. Time to retire all of the PC hardware. ;)
Monday, August 07, 2006 - 02:52 PM EDT
Apple today previewed Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard, the sixth major version of Mac OS X, to its third party developers. Leopard, scheduled to ship in spring 2007, extends Apples leadership in software innovation with groundbreaking new features, including Time Machine, a revolutionary new way to automatically back up and restore everything on your Mac, and Spaces, an entirely new way to instantly switch between groups of applications required for various tasks. Leopard also includes industry-first advancements in Mail and iChat, including Stationery, Notes and To Dos in Mail; and Photo Booth-style effects, the ability to place yourself in any photo or video as the backdrop for your chat, and live presentations of iPhoto slideshows, Keynote presentations and videos in iChat.
Breakthrough features like Time Machine and Spaces are good examples of how Mac OS X leads the industry in operating system innovation, said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO, in the press release. While Microsoft tries to copy the version of OS X we shipped a few years ago, were leaping ahead again with Leopard.
With its unique ability to let users travel back in time to find deleted files, applications, photos or other digital media, Time Machine is a revolutionary way to protect a consumers digital life. Time Machine automatically backs up everything on the Mac to an external hard drive or Mac OS X Server. In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time using an intuitive time-based visual display to find and then instantly restore the file. With one click, Time Machine can restore anything from a single file or photo to everything on a Mac.
Spaces is an intuitive new way to group applications required for a given task into a space, then instantly switch between different spaces to bring up the specific applications required for that given task. Users can get a birds eye view of all their Spaces and choose where they want to go next with just one keystroke or click of a mouse.
With Leopards iChat, Apple takes communicating with friends, family and colleagues to an entirely new level. iChat now makes video chats more fun with the ability to use Photo Booth effects and put images and videos in the background. iChat Screen Sharing enables users to share their desktops with others to work together in real time on an activity, such as editing an iPhoto book, or helping a buddy get the most out of their Mac. With iChat Theater, users can share an iPhoto slide show, a QuickTime movie or a Keynote presentation within an iChat window.
Leopards Mail includes breakthrough new features that have never been seen before in a Mail application. Mail Stationery includes more than 30 customizable stationery designs to create email messages enriched with beautiful photos and graphics. Templates include photo collections, invitations, birthday cards and other greetings that look great when received on either a Mac or a PC. With Mail Notes, users can quickly jot down thoughts and ideas, add graphics and attachments and use the familiar Mail application to manage them like an email message. In addition, To Dos can be created from any email message or note and viewed in iCal or sent to friends and colleagues. RSS news feeds now appear in Mail, allowing users to receive news in their inboxes, receive notifications when new stories appear and use Smart Mailboxes to organize news about the same topic in one place.
Additional features in Leopard include:
New Mac Pro a bargain?
The base price of the new Apple Mac Pro Quad Desktop ($2,499) might have some people reeling from sticker shock. But during the keynote speech today at WWDC, Apple compared the Mac Pro to an equivalent Dell workstation and found the Mac to be much cheaper. We figured wed check their math, and sure enough, when compared to a similarly-equipped Dell system, the Mac Pro comes out looking like an absolute bargain.
Take the Dell Precision Workstation 690, for instance. When kitted out with two Intel Xeon 5150 2.66GHz dual-core processors, 250GB hard drive, 2GB of 667MHz RAM, and 16x DVD burner, youll end up paying $3,637. Thats over $1,100 more than the base Mac Pro, which has a similar configuration. And unlike the Mac Pro, which can run Windows XP via Boot Camp, I wouldnt expect to see Mac OS X supported on this Dell any time in the near future.
Jeff C., Editor
August 7th, 2006 | Jeff