Early in June, Steve Jobs previewed several of the new features to be released in Mac OS X 10.5 this October. We were most impressed by how the new Finder has been redesigned to match the way we actually work instead of the other way around. For example, we all end up with lots of files spread all over the Desktop. A new feature called Stacks allows you to continue working that way as your Mac organizes the clutter into browsable stacks of files in your Dock. You can set Safari and Mail for automatic stacks of email attachments and web downloads.
Using iTunes now will prepare you for the new way the Finder browses files. Cover Flow is very similar to the way iTunes allows you to flip through album covers. PDFs, images and Office documents appear with previews that you can flip through and open without launching an application. The same interface allows you to browse files on other computers and servers on your network.
Another feature we think will be a great improvement for our clients is the Time Machine feature. We have been using Retrospect to backup offices for years because of its extensive capabilities. It's been a long time, however, since the last update to improve the functionality of the Retrospect client and correct long standing bugs. Enter Time Machine. Apple is promising a built-in backup solution that will keep snapshots (like Retrospect) of your computer and allow you to visually browse "back through time" for files you may be missing. We forsee putting this in place as an office-wide solution with one large drive keeping incremental backups of the entire office. Backup is vital to every solution we put in place, so having it integrated in the system will be a welcome change!
Also included will be greater collaboration between Mail & iCal and fancy iChat features that are too cool to describe without photos.
The new features show us a direction that is built around how our clients have actually been using their Macs since OS X was released six years ago. Apple has clearly been watching how people interact with their solutions and then innovating in that direction. We feel today that having a Mac-based business gives our clients a competitive edge in the marketplace. Leopard looks to be another giant step in that direction. |
MacWorks Blog 
