At the World Wide Developer’s Conference earlier this week, Apple gave audiences a sneak peek of some of the features that customers and Mac enthusiasts can expect in Apple’s upcoming revision to the Macintosh operating system, Mac OS 10.5, codenamed “Leopard.” Among some of the highlighted features are updates to popular Apple applications, including Mail, iChat, Dashboard, and Spotlight, all of which are planned to add more features and functionality to applications that Mac users have come to know and love.
Mail becomes an RSS aggregator as well as a mail client, and it gets notes and to-dos integrated between Mail and iCal, as well as photos integrated with iPhoto. Additionally, Mail gets HTML mail and stationary for the people who have been scrambling for that. Additionally, iChat gets some impressive functionality now that iSight cameras are standard in most Macintosh models, like moving and custom backgrounds for your videocasts and video sessions, screen features like distortion and filters, as well as the ability to use iChat to share desktops with other computers in a remote management connection or to videocast slideshows and photos from inside iChat.
Dashboard gets the ability to easily create Dashboard widgets from websites, Spotlight gets improved searching functionality, and other updates are epxected to Safari, Parental Controls, Universal Access, Photo Booth, and more.
Among some of the newest features Mac users can expect will be Spaces, which essentially gives the Macintosh easily useful virtual desktops that can be switched between easily, and Time Machine, which offers Mac users a System Restore like ability (only much much better) to go back in time, find files that had been deleted like photos in your iPhoto library, Address Book entries, files in the finder, and more. Time Machine allows for version control as well as finding data and documents that may have been lost, overwritten, or accidentally deleted, all in an easy to use context. Also coming in Leopard is full 64-bit compatibility; finally the OS is completely 64-bit compliant, which will allow the operating system to take real advantage of the raw power under the hood of the 64-bit processors powering Apple machines.
Apple demoed some of these features at the WWDC and claims that even more will be unveiled before Mac OS 10.5 ships. In the process, Apple also demoed Mac OS 10.5 Server, which includes the ability to run iChat Servers, iCal servers, and offers integration with iCal to Microsoft Outlook. You can read more news at MacWorld, and take a look at the Sneak Peek itself over at Apple’s website.
[ MacWorld :: Apple previews Mac OS X Leopard, Leopard Server ]