Thanks to Ars Technica, we've got some Snow Leopard goodness for you. As always, Apple is quite secretive about its upcoming operating system, so even though test builds are released every now and then, information is scarce. An Ars reader has given some more insights into the latest Snow Leopard build, released on Friday.
Post a Comment
Member since:
2008-06-26
Off topic, but I really really really hate that behavior. The should let you do whatever the hell you want with files, open or not open. I routinely course at work on Windows because the thing won't let me touch opened files (and sometimes the concept of "opened" on Windows is quite nonsensical).
Member since:
2005-11-16
"The QuickTime player has gotten a new minimal user interface, following in the footsteps of Windows 7's Windows Media Player, which also introduced a minimal user interface."
What? The new quicktime is Snow Leopard follows the path of the implementation made in the version running on the iPhone, Apple clearly is developing Quicktime X from what it did with the iphone. Why a hell the crappy windows media player is coming in the discussion here? Apple is following the footsteps of what it with the iPhone not windows 7 which has nothing to do with the direction that Apple is taking with Quicktime X. Nothing!
"The Services thing is pretty much like the "Activities" we have in IE8."
IE 8? Are you serious? Services have existed in Mac OS X since the first version of the OS, in fact they have existed back to NextStep. What Apple is doing with Snow Leopard is making them more obvious to use for the user, but they have existed (and some third party applications use them, they have been open to third party developers since the first version of Mac OS X) for many years now. So what IE 8 has anything to do with Services?
And by the way, Activities (now called Accelerators) in IE 8 have little in common with OS X Services anyway, from Microsoft description
"The new Accelerators in Internet Explorer 8 help you quickly perform your everyday browsing tasks without navigating to other websites to get things done. Simply highlight text from any webpage, and then click on the blue Accelerator icon that appears above your selection to obtain driving directions, translate and define words, email content to others, search with ease, and more. "
This is basically limited to IE 8. And Safari also already supports several basic actions like search in Spotlight, in Google, or the definition in a dictionary. This has been for few years already.
OS X services are
"Services allows a user to access the functionality of one application from within another application. An application that provides a service advertises the operations it can perform on a particular type of data—for example, encryption of text, optical character recognition of a bitmapped image, or generating text such as a message of the day. When the user is manipulating that particular type of data in some application, the user can choose the appropriate item in the Services menu to operate on the current data selection (or merely insert new data into the document)."
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServic...
Quite much more advanced and powerful. Next time please inform yourself.....
Member since:
2006-05-18
Oh, come on ... Now I've seen everything - someone supporting this. If you take a close look at your keyboard you might notice that on the Delete key it's written DELETE. Guess what it should do? How is Cmd+Backspace obvious? And what about the big oddly shaped key people refer to as Enter, what should its function be? I don't know ... maybe OPEN? No, Apple has to be different and guess what it does ... wait for it, wait for it ... RENAME!!!
And how might one go about opening a file? Well how about the obvious combination Cmd+O or Cmd+Down? That's what I call user friendliness.
Want to hear more about why Finder sucks? Here you go:
What about the lack of Cut in Finder? If I want to move something I have to drag it around like a drunken monkey, but God forbid I drag it on another volume, because then the retarded Finder will copy it. That's consistency right there for you.
How about the lack of the "New File" option in the context menu?
How about the lack of an Up button (like go to parent directory)?
How about an easy way to show/hide hidden files?
How about when you want to find out the combined size of a few directories. In Windows I select them all, right click and select Properties. In OS X if I select Get Info I get a shitload of Info windows.
And let's not forget ... a way to show folders first? You know, like every other file manager in the world.
Yes, Finder is a half-baked retarded piece of crap designed by brain-dead idiots. The worst (and sadly the most used) application on OS X. Anyone who says otherwise either doesn't know what he's talking about or is trolling.
Probably because they are too busy padding themselves on the back for the fine fashion accessory they've purchased.
Examples? I never had that problem.
How about the Shutdown one? It's true you can press Ctrl+F7 and then you can Tab through the options, but why should I?
Because of stuff like this I'm contemplating completely wiping OS X from my Macbook and installing Vista or XP. I hate the fact that Apple wants you to do all things only one way ... their way. I just wish I could turn back time and not spend 1000eur on a laptop that I have to struggle with every day to do what I want.
Excuse the language but I'm so f*cking frustrated by this f*cking piece of f*cking s*it.
Edited 2009-03-08 13:59 UTC
Member since:
2006-04-30
Even so there are times when you cannot navigate around easily only with keyboard. For example, there's a menu item named "Disable Caches" in the Develop menu of Safari (4 Beta).
In order to press that menu with keyboard you have to:
Press Ctrl+F2, Left Arrow (3 times), Down Arrow (9 times), Enter
Compare this to Windows:
Press Alt+D, the mnemonic character for that menu item.
It is really a shame that there are certain actions that cannot be carried out in OS X as smoothly as Windows, Gnome, KDE, and other desktop environments...
Edited 2009-03-08 14:16 UTC
Member since:
2006-08-09
When I used OS X I found that annoying too. I figured it was just me who was so stupid not to be able to find the place where I could change that behaviour.
As for your other point, I still use rsync for any transfer from filesystem to filesystem.
Member since:
2006-08-09
Hehe.. I agree with a lot of what you said re. the Finder. I was never frustrated though, I sold the thing (well, to trade PCC for an x86 Linux device).
What you could do without having to install a different OS, is installing (over the Darwin ports) KDE or Gnome on your present OS X. Nautilus to the rescue. :-)
Member since:
2008-11-16
I believe the "Path" icon will do the job for you. Or press Command + Up Arrow.
Just press Option + Command + I after selecting folders.
I'm not sure which view option you are using. If you are in the List view, there is a column called "Kind" and you can order folders (not first though). You can do the same thing in the Icon view but not in the Column view.
You don't have to use Tab. In the Shutdown dialog, press R to restart your computer. Press S to sleep. Press Enter to shutdown. Press Esc (or Command + .) to close the dialog.
Edited 2009-03-08 15:14 UTC
Member since:
2006-05-18
Sure, you can use the Path Icon, you can press Alt+Cmd+I, you can sort by kind in the list view after you put a space before the "Folder" word in English.lproj/InfoPlist.string, you can learn a bunch of shortcuts to operate a simple dialog and this just for the stuff that you can do. Where's the famous Apple ease of use?
It's easy to use as long as you do things precisely the way Apple engineers want you to do.
After my Macbook adventure I swear I won't buy anything Apple ever again. And to think I wanted to buy an Apple TV. Luckily I've looked a little on the internet and saw that you have to open the damn thing up and do some command line voodoo just to play DivX. This is ridiculous!
Edited 2009-03-08 15:18 UTC
Member since:
2005-11-16
Not you won't get Blue Ray on you mini. You'll spend a Grand CAD for the better version. Get dinged another $100 or so for a Snow update. Ya I for one could live Happily with 720P , darn Sony and the BR. Don't believe much in the Stream Dream either.
Might as well wait for the latest Frisbee from ACER and Frak a Hack on it you have to, run with the Cats. They
'll be lots of more small form factor to come.
Member since:
2005-11-21
Member since:
2006-02-15
Just to pop in here, no matter if no one cares:
Just press Option + Command + I after selecting folders.
That's not in any way obvious to the user, and when Apple seems to like to encourage users to use mouse how does one get the same result without resorting to keyboard shortcuts?
I'm not sure which view option you are using. If you are in the List view, there is a column called "Kind" and you can order folders (not first though). You can do the same thing in the Icon view but not in the Column view.
That's one of the biggest reasons I hate Finder. Folders are used for navigating through the filesystem so it makes sense to have them at the top for faster navigation. And files are still files, directly useable, no matter what kind of files they are. So, it makes sense to group them all together and then sort them by their file type.
Indeed, OSX is pretty but I just hate Finder so much that I very rarely touch the whole thing. I'd install Linux on it, but it's a PPC Mac and the open-source nVidia drivers aren't yet too shabby... :<
Member since:
2008-07-15
Wrong. You've obviously not used OS X's menus via keyboard extensively. Ctrl+f2, d, down arrow, d. Much simpler, isn't it? Keyboard navigation in menus operates like it does everywhere else in OS X, that is, you type in as much of the menu or item name as you need in order to jump to it. The practical upshot of this is you need not remember odd menu shortcuts when you remember the item you're looking for, and you don't end up with menu items that can't be navigated to by letters like you sometimes do in Windows when the app developer has not assigned an accelerator.
Member since:
2006-01-18
Indeed, OSX is pretty but I just hate Finder so much that I very rarely touch the whole thing. I'd install Linux on it, but it's a PPC Mac and the open-source nVidia drivers aren't yet too shabby... :
Well I just shelled out a few bucks for pathfinder, I am much more happy now...
If you dont like to pay, get yourself muCommander.
But finder still is way better than the shit gnome calls filemanager!
My personal favorites are TotalCommander (which is the best no matter which platform, unfortunately Windows only) second, Konqueror, once you have mastered kio:fish and the shortcuts the thing is one of the most powerful filemanagers ever done and then probably pathfinder is distant third it just misses a bunch of things, like total keyboard navigation and virtual filesystems for sftp, ftp and webdav...
Member since:
2006-01-18
Blu-Ray is significantly better than DVD. People don't buy a Mac because they want a cheap good enough solution, they buy them because they want the best experience.
I assume the quote jobs did regarding blue ray was sort of a lame excuse for having set on the wrong horse. But seriously, supporting blue ray legally in an operating system has very serious impact on every layer of IO, Vista suffered through it and paid for everything with absymal performance. I am rather sure we will see blue ray once snow leopard has hit the streets, it is just not as simple as adding yet another codec! My personal guess is Apple didn´t support it because they haven´t had the codebase for now!
Member since:
2006-01-18
The Finder is one of the most maligned parts of the Mac OS. Even in Leopard, it is still a very cumbersome and limited file manager, which is why it receives so much ire from most reviewers.
I agree mostly but it is still better than most other free filemanagers out there.
Windows Explorer, utter joke, Nautilus, this one is even worse than explorer. I only would rate konqueror high, as for Dolphin, I cannot get warm to it.
To sum it up, if you want something decent either learn and that seriously means learn, konqueror, or shell out some money for the better alternatives!
Member since:
2005-06-29
Wait, what? Vista was slow because of Blu-Ray? That one's new. Do tell!
Well, Vista was slow in its early days, but I had no idea this was due to Blu-Ray! *cough*
Edited 2009-03-08 18:41 UTC
Member since:
2006-01-18
Wait, what? Vista was slow because of Blu-Ray? That one's new. Do tell!
Well, Vista was slow in its early days, but I had no idea this was due to Blu-Ray! *cough* "
Vista still is slow in many aspects, but the filetransfer performance clearly was an issue of the blue ray layer/aka enforced drm layer. In the early days even the transfer of a simple textfile touched the RSA libs integrated in vista several times.
So yes Blue Ray inclusion (drm inclusion) definitely was an issue here. Microsoft probably shot over the top pushing everything through the DRM layer.
But the problem with Blue Ray simply is the encryption touches basically every part of the operating system so that it becomes as hard as possible to tap the data unencryped! And that means huge overhauls to the OS logic!
Member since:
2008-12-16
Every command under OS X has to be done with the Cmd modifier. So if I want to open a file, guess what will I try? Cmd+O[pen]. That's what I call user friendliness.
It's not retarded, it's just that you are used to other file managers that copy Windows Explorer. If you drag a file to the same volume, Finder moves it. If you drag a file to another volume, Finder copies it. How is that inconsistent or retarded? You can use Cmd while you drag the file to reverse the behavior anyway.
Because you use apps to create these files. It's not Finder's job.
Right click on title bar, or enable the path bar.
Cmd-Option-I.
Way to not be taken seriously.
How about enabling full keyboard access in System Preferences?
Member since:
2008-07-15
Hmm, if you take a close look at your Mac keyboard, you'll notice that what is labeled "backspace" on the PC keyboard is labeled as delete. I'll be darned, guess what command-delete does? Seems pretty obvious to me. Apple has always treated delete this way, even in the Apple II days. It's different from the PC, but that doesn't make it wrong.
I'm of two minds on return (it's labeled return, not enter on Apple keyboards, enter is the numpad enter only and they do have different functions) being used to rename a file. On one hand, I see why it's frustrating. Everywhere else in the os, return basically means process this action. Highlight a menu item, for example, and press return and it activates. In that regard, the Finder's behavior is very odd indeed, particularly since numpad enter is used to rename items in a good number of apps. Perhaps they should move it to numpad enter only, and allow return to open the current item. On the other hand, pressing command+o to open the current item makes a good deal of sense also. I guess return to rename really doesn't bother me, but I can see why it would bother some others.
Now, I have to put in my $.02 about Finder's paste behavior. I, personally, agree with the way Finder does it. I use column view, so here's how it makes sense to me. I highlight a folder and paste. When you highlight text in a wordprocessor, then paste over it, what happens? It replaces it, it doesn't append to it. I look at it the same way in Finder, paste and replace doesn't mean replace and merge. Replace means replace. Perhaps they should add a merge button so the users can choose what they want to happen in this circumstance.
Member since:
2005-06-29