Leopard Spots

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Mac OS X Leopard

I recently saw the keynote speech Steve Jobs gave (you can see it here). All I can say is '...wow...' There are some very cool features coming out in Leopard but the one that blew me away (and from the sound of the crowd, a lot of other people as well) is something called 'Time Machine'. Time Machine is a backup utility built right into the OS. It backs up everything on your Mac -- photos, music, docs, and the entire OS -- automatically. Then, the cool part, is that if you need something that you 'know was in my Documents folder yesterday' (my family is notorious for saying things like this), you click on the Time Machine icon from the Dock and you are transported into outer-space with a series of Finder windows cascading back to 'the beginning'. There is a time line on the right-hand side of the screen where you can just select the day you want to go to, or you can just click on one of the arrows to go back to when the contents changed -- this could be days or weeks or months or years or . . . you get the idea. Then, once you find the file, you 'bring it to the present' by clicking another button. It's that darn easy. Isn't that the way it is with everything that Apple creates? I think so. Just this last week my daughter was asking me how to burn some pics out of iPhoto. I had her jumping through the whole Windows way of doing it -- 'Create a folder on your desktop. Select the pics you want and then export them to that folder . . .' You get the idea. But then I remembered, I was dealing with a Mac. I just knew those engineers had to think about this one. And sure enough, there it was. Right in the iPhoto menu. That is the way it looks with Time Machine. One of those things we all know we should do (backup our computers) but most of us (and I do mean most -- about 4% actually) never do. Leopard will be doing it for us, right out of the box. To see how Time Machine looks, you can go here.

The other cool feature is called 'Spaces'. This looks very similar to the 'multiple desktops' you can have with pretty much every Linux OS out there. However, Apple has 'Aquafied' it to fit into the UI of the Mac. And, it looks limited to just for desktops . . . er . . . spaces. To see how Spaces looks, you can go here.

All in all, I can't wait for this OS. Personally, I think it will make Vista look like a cheap knock-off. And rightly so. BTW, don't think that Macs are more expensive than other computers. According to the latest prices, they are cheaper than Dells (when they are configured the same). The latest Mac, the Mac Pro, is about a grand cheaper than an equivalent Dell. That's right. A Dell costs more than a Mac. It seems to me that Apple is more poised than ever to capture some of the market from Windows. And it's about time.

May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

+OD

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