300 new features...... I use about.... eh.... 8

[one1]

The following is what I have used in the Leo update, I count about 8 features or so that I actually use of the 300.

Stacks is a nice addition, but one of my favorite things to use that I access the most has been removed. The ability to drop your HD onto the dock and simply make a click to get to it. You cannot drop it on the apps side, it won't let you. If you drop it on the stacks side it makes you click, then go up, then click. :rolleyes:

Cover flow is a nice treat, but makes things harder to access. You have to scroll through either on bottom or on top through the cover flow. I prefer to simply see a huge screen of things to choose from with big clicky icons. Much faster, less work.

Having the history on the sidebar is nice, I approve.

Notes in mail...... I feel one day I will use this..... eventually. It has potential.

Downloads. It's cool to have a downloads folder for everything all in one, but I just end up having to move it to the documents or pictures folder after it downloads so it makes me do extra work. I may eliminate this feature.

Quick look. Not much quicker than opening the file since you have to click it to open it and click it to close it. Where have I saved a step? Still I use it though, looks good anyway.

Photo booth. Me likey. +1 for Apple.

Time machine. A useful feature that I have acknowledged, but not taken advantage of yet since you have to spend even more money to buy an external HD and it needs to be a big one.

I'm not writing a review or an impression I wanted to see how many of the 300 new features you use. I'm curios as to how useful the 300 features have been to you and how many you actually use.

[bluedoggiant]

trust me, there are more that you use that you don't even notice ;)

[richard.mac]

ok so i just went though the whole 300 features and i like, use & take advantage of 97 features. here they are in code tags so it doesnt take up too much space:

Boot Camp

Microsoft WHQL-Certified Windows Drivers
Convenient Boot Camp Task Bar Shortcut.

Dashboard

Web Clip

Desktop

Stacks
Downloads Stack
Sorting Stacks
Spring-Loaded Dock

Dictionary

Wikipedia in Dictionary

DVD Player

Improved Full-Screen Interface
Image Bar
Time Slider
Chapter Thumbnails

Finder

New Sidebar
Cover Flow
Icon Preview
Path Bar
New Folder of Options
Folder Sharing

Front Row

Apple TV-style Interface
Streaming iTunes Content

Graphics & Media

Multicore Enhanced
EXIF Color Space Support

iCal

Improved iCal Interface
Inline Editing in iCal

Mail

To-Dos
Data Detectors
Photo Browser
Simple Mail Setup
Notes

Networking

New AirPort Menu
Self-Tuning TCP

Parental Controls

Simple Account Setup

Photo Booth

Control Effects
Video Recording
Photo Booth with Burst Mode

Preview

New User Interface for Preview
Smooth Zoom and Scroll
Improved PDF Annotations
Relevancy Ranked PDF Search

Printing

Simplified Printing
Quick Print Preview
Printer Support
CUPS v1.3

Quick Look

Quick Look
Full-Screen Preview
Multi-select

Safari

Fastest Web Browser
Enhanced Find
Movable Tabs
Pull Tab into New Window
Easily Create Tabbed Bookmarks
Merge All Windows
Full History Search
Reopen Windows
Resizable Text Fields
Preview Controls for PDFs
Remove History Items Periodically
Desktop Picture
Warning Before Closing Tabbed Window

Screen Savers

Arabesque Screen Saver
Clock Overlay on any Screen Saver
Mosaic Display for Picture Screen Savers

Security

Application-Based Firewall
Sharing and Collaboration Configuration
Sandboxing
Library Randomization
Windows SMB Packet Signing
Mac OS X Security Tech Brief

Spaces

Advanced Searches
Dictionary Definitions in Spotlight
Calculations in Spotlight
Spotlight Application Launching

System

Icon Mode in Open and Save Panels
iLife Media Browser in Open Panel
Help Menu Search
Guest Login Accounts
Grammar Check
Scroll Non-Active Windows
Empty Trash Button
Eject All Partitions

System Preferences

New Parental Controls Preferences
Improved Network Preferences Interface
Advanced Account Options
Hot Corner for Sleep Display

Terminal

Window Settings
Movable Tabs
Tabbed Windows
Adjusting Window Settings

Text Edit

OpenDocument and Word 2007 Formats

Time Machine

Back Up Everything
Automatic Backup
Go Back In Time
Automatic Stop and Resume
Do Not Back Up List
Manual Backup
Quick Look Before Restoring

Unix

UNIX® Certification
Multicore Optimized


i agree that Apple went a overboard boasting about 300 features as some are hardly a feature and some were already in tiger. for example:

Spotlight - search system files. how is this a feature? searching in the library folders was actually possible in Tiger. Apple took this away in Leopard and added a search attribute. i guess you can now search in the system folder which is good.

Front Row - DVD Playback in Front Row, Movie Previews. this was already in tiger?

[emptyCup]

The following is what I have used in the Leo update, I count about 8 features or so that I actually use of the 300.

The real value of the upgrade is the under-the-hood stuff which makes it easier for developers to create better, more capable programs. The rest is icing. Some of us like icing more than others.

[motulist]

Of course no particular user is going to use all 300 new features, but because there are so many great new diverse features it means every individual user will have plenty of new features that they find really valuable. I bet most users only use somewhere around 25% of the features available in any version of OS X.

So to figure out if any new upgrade is worth it for you as an individual you have to determine if the new features that you in particular will use are worth the asking price. For me, I very much use quicklook, safari 3, ical updates, improved spotlight, mail notes, space and much more. Reviewing my purchase of leopard, to me those features alone were worth the asking price.

In fact, I'd probably have bought quicklook alone for $20 - $40. If you want to see (or hear, or watch) the contents of any file, you just hit the space bar and *poof* the document instantly opens in full detail and scrollability without needing to launch any application! If you want to see a few pictures at once for comparison, just select them and hit the spacebar and you instantly see all the pics side by side. Or if you want to do a slide show of a bunch of pics, just select them, hit spacebar and then click the slide show icon. And all this happens instantly without having to open any application programs!

OS X has a broad user base composed of many different types of users, and they do a great job of offering everyone features that are awesome just for the way they want to use their Mac.

So it's not about how many features you use, they weren't designed to all be used by every user, it's about how useful and awesome you feel about the particular features that you yourself have a reason to take advantage of.

[clevin]

"features" nowadays is a cheap word, slightest change can be called a "feature" in Apple's world. lol

[JML42691]

As several have already said, you use many more that you don't have any knowledge about, like the under the hood stuff.

[Wild-Bill]

What happened to RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE???? Or the other things Steve promised but failed to deliver??

[Techguy172]

Half the Crap they call a feature is not a feature. Maybe things like spaces, Stacks, Time machine. not all that other crap.

[callmemike20]

I bought leopard, not because of the features, but because its new. I simply bought it, and I don't care what I paid for it, because its new. I can't stand having an old operating system on my computer. If I wasn't getting a mac, I would had put vista on my desktop machine. Features are just an added bonus for me.

[Killyp]

RE QuickLook

You do realise you can just hit SPACE to view in QuickLook, and hit SPACE again to close...

[samh004]

What happened to RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE???? Or the other things Steve promised but failed to deliver??

It's there, just not enabled as nothing supports it yet :p

[clevin]

I can't stand having an old operating system on my computer.

linux sounds a great fit for you, windows updates every 5 years, OSX updates every two years, Linux update every 6 months.... no .. Im not trying to convert people.

[Soulstorm]

Actually, I use more than 8 new features. However, much fewer than those were the reasons I bought Leopard. Among them are the new XCode, new ObjC, improved XP support and faster user interface.

[Flowbee]

The following is what I have used in the Leo update, I count about 8 features or so that I actually use of the 300.


Well, that works out to about $16 per feature... not a bad deal overall.