AppleInsider has got info about a new build of Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” seeded to a few select developers. Screenshots show iChatJabber support, new “Family Controls,” and advanced Safari RSS features.
New Mac OS X “Tiger” Build
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Adam Scheinberg
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Really cool that apple has decided to add jabber into iChat. This does not seem Apple as they normally limit choices to maintain simplicity. Way to go!
Now, if only they could add MSN, Yahoo and ICQ too…. That might be asking too much
Normally I buy every upgrade I can. I bought 8.1, 8.6, 9. I bought a new computer with 10.1 and bought 10.2 and 10.3. I just do not see any great reason to buy the new Mac OS this time. Every OS has brought some kind of great change to the table, but I do not see it this time.
If you don’t see it with Tiger, then you don’t see anything. The Spotlight engine alone worth its money alone.
Excellent, and AI said they haven’t posted all the new features/screenshots yet. I knew the development cycle for OS X was slowing down, but not having one build since June made me think Apple had forgotten about it!
Did anyone else notice the last build was 8A171 and this is 8A2xx? Not a massive number change but it’s implied there’s a significant feature change…which is nice
madsenj,
Don’t judge Tiger until it’s gone GM. New features are being added as new builds arrive. For me at least, Spotlight is a great change.
Matt
kudos to OSNews for posting this almost the second AI did.
Well, there are alot of nice features that i like in Panther. Will probably not buy it until i get my next computer (iMac G5?), or thru ADC Membership, but i think it will be a fantastic release. With 64-bit pointers, New spotlight seaching and CoreImage and CoreVideo, H.264, Safari 2, XCode 2… i think this release gives developer’s more reason to upgrade and develop 10.4 specific software.
Apple should also take a page from Longhorn and add restriced/controlled access to any I/O device to make OS X more viable for businesses.
Unfortunately, i think apple will do what they did with Panther, not backport system apps (Safari, iChat, Widget) for previous OSs, well at least not for free. People will complaint but eventually realise that they will need to fork out the 129 bucks if they want to have all the new features. It’s a bctih, but hey software ain’t develped for free.
Look forward to next suit if iLife apps that will make use of G5, CoreImage and Video. And Photoshop with CoreImage!!!! Cut the rendering time by half!!!!
Well, we’ll see what happens. i think it’s gonna be great!!
Normally I don’t buy upgrade. Next time I’ll buy Tiger.
I will wait till the next OS Bobcat or whatever they name it.
Personally, I wait a week or three to hear some feedback before I decide to get the next update.
My iBook arrived with 10.1 and not until a good friend of mine pointed out a few places were Jag was nicer did I upgrade to 10.2
Jaguar did everything I needed but the sheer speed of Panther, plus Fast User Switching, and Expose convinced me to shell out for it.
Spotlight search looks interesting, but I don’t know if that’s worth the price of admission for me. I want to see a better, more complete list of features and improvements, and I also want to go play around with it a bit at my local Apple Store before I buy.
I chose to buy Panther, but I know several people still using Jaguar, and even one person who finds that 10.1.5 is fine for them.
One thing these shots show is the different approach to open/standard formats (as well as security).
On one hand, M$ is all about creating their own and shunning anything open. On the other, Apple does both. This could very well be because they don’t have a near-monopoly on the desktop as M$ does.
But the fact remains – I’m talking servers now – that M$ does not distribute Apache, JBoss, Java, Postmaster/Sendmail/Imap (?), MySQL, Tomcat *standard* on their server installs. Instead, it’s all of M$’s propreitary apps that are tied into the OS. So when, say, IIS has a security error, it can be much more damaging than if Apache had one.
Anyway, I think Apple’s got the sweet spot. Now let’s just see how long it takes for more and more to jump on board. More access to apps that play with open/free standards will only be one reason on a long list to switch.
Personally I really don’t wait for an upgrade from Apple. Thus far with the 10.x releases Apple has brought something new to the table. This is just the same with Tiger. I mean the new Spotlight feature alone is well worth the upgrade.
Having folders do the orginizing for you, is beyond what Apple needed to do. Bringing in the smart folders (apart of Spotlight) is a foot in the right direction. Plus the new search . . . . why on earth would you want to wait!
Even though Dashboard is a copy, I’m still excited with having this feature better tide with the operating system rather than a seperate application.
10.4 maybe getting a little bloated, I believe they are border line. Thankfully they will be cutting back on the upgrade releases after Tiger. They really need to give consumers more breathing room between OS releases.
But again, I’m excited about 10.4, and probably will be waiting in line the day it ships!
if you haven’t heard about tiger yet, you can find information here:
http://mammals.org/macosx/tiger/
>> Now, if only they could add MSN, Yahoo and ICQ too…. That might be asking too much
You never know… Justin Wood, who was the original creator of Proteus (multi-protocol IM) for the Mac recently handed over the software to another maintainer so that he could go to work for Apple in their iTunes division…
does that mean that perhaps Apple will run their own Jabber system?
I used 10.3(something) today at school and it was so snappy compared to what they had last year.
I also went into single user mode and look at the root………..shhhhrrr..
10.3 – 10.4 wont be nearly as big an upgrade as 10.2 – 10.3. The new features are way cool, but I’d only recommend Tiger to a G5 owner, unless they specifically needed the new features.
Gak.. I’m so incredibly ready to pay for tiger it hurts. I thought I’d get one over on the man and skip the 10.3 upgrade but boy did the man get one over on me. Every day more software comes out that requires 10.3. Even the open source stuff is harder to get as tracking down certain things (X11 beta after apple released the 10.3 only 1.0 x11 release among them), is terribly hard. That and the upgraded gcc and such have made my cheapo early adopter’s existence a veritable hell on mac.
Don’t get me wrong, 10.2.8 is great and all, but it’s not the _greatest_ and I neeeeed the newest stuff. I want cvs/svn/tla access to the latest mac os x. Gimmee gimmee gimmee the oh so juicy sweet ripedness that is 10.4!
some good points are made here. you dont have to buy every new OS, unlike many a troll will tell you about having to spend 129 a year, i am skipping 10.3 at home, but will definitely purchase tiger.
spotlight, not so exciting for me (except for smart folders, that will be awesome)
dashboard, again, something i dont need but i may find a use for.
along with many of the other features..
but, the new API’s, core* and who knows what else, the app’s that developers create taking advantage of these, i can hardly wait..
Some people tend to forget that Tiger also promises a 64bit OS.
Yeah, that’ll be good.
The most impressive thing from the WWDC video to me, was Core Image and Core Video. I guess we’ll have to wait for apps to take advantage of it (with the exception of Motion), but that was some amazing stuff.
For those with capable hardware, that would be reason to upgrade to Tiger right there.
I predict 10.4 will be a quantum leap. CoreAudio and Core Video will make everything faster.
Consumers tend to look at screenshots only. People wrote off expose as eye candy until they used it. The core tech changes in 10.4 and the apps that support it will revolutionize the way we use our Macs. Well, maybe not revolutionize, but take it to the next level.
I want to interact with the Finder å la Dashboard…. wouldn’t that be cool?
Spotlight and Dashboard are two very cool features. The site or screenshots wont give good idea of what Spotlight really is, watch WWDC video for it, its REALLY cool, much more than I first expected by reading the webpage. I am definetly moving to Tiger, it really is worth of money. And I pay it happily, that money really goes for R & D, unlike with Windows.
(and again btw: this commenting thingy really sucks. it would take about 5 minutes max. to code reply button to get easier replying)
The inclusion of Jabber is very cool! Since some (at least mine) ISP’s are running Jabber proxies to forward MSN, Yahoo etc. to Jabber. The addition of Jabber now allows me to have all IM protocols in iChat! How cool!!!
(My ISP is xs4all in the Netherlands btw.)
I think it might be better to get a new computer with Tiger rather than upgrade. I think the current crop of graphic cards in the installed base of g4 and g3 machines is too weak to get all the effects in Tiger.
umm, then get a new GFX card. it will be much cheaper than getting a new computer (well if you are a G3 owner, yes, get a new computer, but G4 owners can get a new GFX card and Proc….most of them anyway)
“Even though Dashboard is a copy”
It isn’t right at all. Dashboard is a copy of Konfabulator, but Konfabulator is a copy of an application shipped with Mac OS 7.x since 1991, if I remember right. And the Konfabulator’s authors was software engineers of Apple. In fact, Apple has copied itself.
That would be interesting…
But it’s most likely included because Tiger Server has an iChat server that’s based on Jabber…
Yup the New API Core audio, and Core video will be the reason I upgrade and also upgrade to a powermac G5.
So far, I don’t see any negative feedback on this story – none of the usual “macs are too expensive” or “I’ll only be interested when they port OS X to intel” etc. Its good to see Apple’s mindshare on the up and up, it’s needed to combat the anti mac FUD that is still prevalent.
I see more examples of this everyday. Slashdot for example is virtually a mac fanboy site these days.
Apple is making all the right moves at the moment.
Last time I tried OSX, I remember the lack of write access in FTP in the Finder. I’m womdering if they finally are getting proper FTP access built in there?
Oh yes, that would be very wondrous to be able to mount my webhost and just drop files to upload without the aid of a third party client. Hopefully apple will add this.
There are new screenshots and features at
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=650
Nice features like address book sharing, ical groups, etc.
Looking good.