What Spots Does OS X Leopard This Way Bring?

It’s about time. I was sooooo getting tired of Tiger this, and Tiger that, and Tiger only. Now we get to think about the spots Leopard will bring.

Apple will let developers take a peak at Leopard in August? What kind of spots shall we see? Here’s my guess. Of course, a guess is all this is because Apple’s Secrecy Army is in Full Metal Jacket these days.

If you haven’t figured it out, you’re probably a long-time Windows sufferer. Mac OS X is made of cats, with at least one more generation of jungle dwellers before we hit Mac OS X Garfield.

Puma, Cheetah, Jaguar, Panther, and Leopard sometime next year. This morning I received my email invitation from Apple for the World Wide Developers conference in August.

The message headline is “See Leopard Before It Springs Into Action: Preview Mac OS X Leopard at WWDC.”

Apple will let us see a few of the Leopard spots starting in August. Wouldn’t you know it? Apple is playing a little game of cat and mouse with Microsoft. Who’s toying with whom?

My money is on Apple. Why? Apple’s switch to Intel chips in Macs is a full six months, perhaps a year, ahead of expectations. Most of the new Intel chips in Macs will let users run both Mac OS X and Windows.

Shortly after Microsoft announces yet another delay in Windows Vista, this time to early 2007, Apple launches the beta of Boot Camp, thereby endorsing Windows on Mac hardware.

Boot Camp, or whatever it will be called when Leopard is finally released next year, is to be integrated into the next full version of OS X. My money also says Leopard will have full on virtualization.

That means Macs and Leopard would be capable of running Windows on a Mac or inside Mac OS X.

Get out your pencil and paper, jot down a few notes, it’s pre-prediction time at Mac360. Leopard is coming and about all we know of it is, well, um, uh, ah, it’s have nifty new features, and Boot Camp built in.

What else do we know about the new and upcoming features of Mac OS X Leopard? Not much, with all the undercover members of Apple’s Secrecy Members.

Let the games begin. What will show up in Mac OS X Leopard?

Uh, some version of Boot Camp which allows Windows to run, in some form or another, on new Macs.

How about 64-bit? Intel is launching 64-bit chips this year and I fully expect OS X Leopard to be 64-bit ready, and even more optimized to take advantage of the features in newer chips.

Most Mac and Windows users don’t care much, if at all, about 64-bit technology. Users want applications that perform appropriate functions well. 64-bit will help, but it’s more technology under the hood, so to speak.

What else? More Widgets in the Dashboard? Come on, there must be more to Leopard than Boot Camp, virtualization, and 64-bit, right? See what I mean? Apple can keep secrets.

Apple’s developer pages, highlighting all that will be displayed at WWDC, including Leopard, are typically, uh, um, well, nondescript. From the web site:

“...you’ll find highly practical sessions — delivered by Apple’s best engineers — that show how to take advantage of current technologies in Tiger, and how to get ready for what’s coming in Leopard.”

See what I mean? Apple will tout QuickTime, Cocoa, Xcode, and other developer tools. After all, it’s a developer’s conference, right?

About all we’ve gleaned so far are the five major areas under discussion during WWDC’s Sessions: Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Information Technologies, and OS Foundations.

Yep. There are plenty of clues about what’s in Leopard’s spots from that list.

One item close to heart for Mac users is the Finder, and many long-time Mac OS watchers are expecting a major revamp to the famed Finder.

If Tera can go on record and predict that the iBook name will change to MacBook, then I’m predicting a major overhaul of the Finder.

I’ve been using Cocoatech’s Path Finder for a few weeks. Path Finder is familiar, works well, but is loaded with all the features you wished Apple would stuff into the Finder.

Leopard will give us a new Finder. I’m also expecting Apple to provide greater integration of the core applications of AddressBook, iSync, iCal, and Mail. All have matured and work well together and with other applications, but I suspect that Apple has found a way to enhance, improve, and simplify usage without destroying what’s already doing well.

Backup is an area where Apple could get involved. .Mac’s Backup works well, but is an extra cost option, though users need a good way to back up Home directory files.

Speaking of Home directory, there is one area where Leopard could take the lead because few Mac applications do this well—synchronize files between Macs.

The Mac360 approved method of backing up with SuperDuper! and synchronizing with ChronoSync works well, but is sufficiently complex, especially synchronization, that the average Mac user just won’t go there.

Worse, the files that need to be synchronized between Macs are scattered all over the Home directory. Have you looked inside the /Library/Preferences folder? Mac applications throw their support files and preferences all over the place.

The end result is that synchronization between Macs is a painful chore. Leopard could change that, should change that.

What else do you want to see in Mac OS X Leopard? What new technologies would make your life better? Finder? Synchronization? Backups? Running Windows and Linux in Mac OS X? Share your thoughts, perspectives, pains, with other Mac360 readers.