Leopard In Release Candidate Cycle, 9A559 Gallery

[MacRumors]

Think Secret has posted a more comprehensive gallery of the improvements in the latest Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" build, seeded to developers last week.

With only two known issues remaining, MacRumors sources are indicating that Leopard is in the release candidate stage of development. Release Candidates are typically chosen amongst builds that have no known major issues and little to no known minor issues. If thorough testing does not produce any show-stopping issue, a Gold Master will be declared and production of media and packaging will commence.

Production times for software can take 2-3 weeks, which means Apple has approximately 2 weeks left for testing of release candidates and certification of a gold master. Yesterday, MacScoop said their sources had indicated a final candidate was near.

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[Eidorian]

I want my Leopard now.

[twoodcc]

Originally Posted by Eidorian

I want my Leopard now.

we all do. hopefully this is a very good sign that Leopard is on time

[dizastor]

Hopefully they'll announce a release date soon.

I can't wait to burn $129 on this.

[BTW]

Originally Posted by dizastor

Hopefully they'll announce a release date soon.

I can't wait to burn $129 on this.

I'd bet by this weekend they'll have a GM.

[CJD2112]

Still missing in build 9A559 are new screen savers that were included in earlier Leopard builds, while ZFS support is still absent from Disk Utility in 9A559. Support for resolution independence, which has rudimentary support in Tiger and had been rumored to be arriving with full support in Leopard, remains no where to be found.

Hmmm, that doesn't make me very happy. As Jobs has been beefing up resolution independence for a long while, not putting into the final release of Leopard is a big disappointment (although I realize it is not the only change Leopard has to offer, there are many huge improvements).

Along with the scrapping of "Fast OS Switching", I'm getting the sense Apple is ditching aspects of Leopard that can't be worked out before the scheduled October release. I'd rather see a slight delay (again) and have those features added, especially as I need Windows Vista quite often to perform AutoCAD work (running Parallels and VMWare doesn't work as AutoCAD needs as much RAM as it can get).

Of note, Front Row has seen a substantial face-lift with 9A559 and along with getting its own icon in the Applications folder, like Dashboard, Expose, and Spaces, the interface now resembles that of AppleTV.

How does this benefit us Mac Pro users who still can't use Front Row due to Apple's lack of IR sensor in the Cinema Display and/or Mac Pro tower?

Some bad news on that. For those on Macrumors that have been keeping up with me on their interest in Front Row and new displays, my friend at Apple wrote me about a few things. First, it appears that Apple has been making an open point in Cupertino to concentrate less on their Pro line. While he said he has been writing code on a new 30" HD Cinema Display that apple has in the works (said it would retail for roughly $2500) that has huge improvements, there will be no IR sensor or built in iSight. Further, he said Apple may scrap the display altogether and mentioned something about tv/monitors as a core product, but those are off by at least a year.

So, it appears Apple will not be revamping the display line any time soon, and if they do it won't address the Mac Pro's inability to use Front Row.

[DanB91]

Originally Posted by CJD2112

Hmmm, that doesn't make me very happy. As Jobs has been beefing up resolution independence for a long while, not putting into the final release of Leopard is a big disappointment (although I realize it is not the only change Leopard has to offer, there are many huge improvements).

Along with the scrapping of "Fast OS Switching", I'm getting the sense Apple is ditching aspects of Leopard that can't be worked out before the scheduled October release. I'd rather see a slight delay (again) and have those features added, especially as I need Windows Vista quite often to perform AutoCAD work (running Parallels and VMWare doesn't work as AutoCAD needs as much RAM as it can get).



How does this benefit us Mac Pro users who still can't use Front Row due to Apple's lack of IR sensor in the Cinema Display and/or Mac Pro tower?

Some bad news on that. For those on Macrumors that have been keeping up with me on their interest in Front Row and new displays, my friend at Apple wrote me about a few things. First, it appears that Apple has been making an open point in Cupertino to concentrate less on their Pro line. While he said he has been writing code on a new 30" HD Cinema Display that apple has in the works (said it would retail for roughly $2500) that has huge improvements, there will be no IR sensor or built in iSight. Further, he said Apple may scrap the display altogether and mentioned something about tv/monitors as a core product, but those are off by at least a year.

So, it appears Apple will not be revamping the display line any time soon, and if they do it won't address the Mac Pro's inability to use Front Row.

command + escape activates front row
and since front row has its own app now any mac can activate it

[Peace]

As far as resolution independence is concerned.jobs himself said at the WWDC that he'd like to see all developers using it by early 2008.That in itself should show you when RI is going to be going full steam.

[rikers_mailbox]

sweeeeet.

I'll pick up a new Mac Mini once Leopard comes pre-installed. That will be my first intel Mac and a huge speed bump over my 12" PB! I guess I like my computers to be small.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by DanB91

command + escape activates front row

Exactly. And with a tower the keyboard's usually right in front of you. I never use the remote with my iMac either. The keyboard's right there!

Really, the laptops are the only ones where the remote is useful. I've set mine up on projectors or just up in front of people and used the remote many times. But on a desktop? Never.

[hotdamn]

Does anyone else agree that Thinksecret is doing Apple a disservice with these poorly compressed images?

[CJD2112]

Originally Posted by DanB91

command + escape activates front row
and since front row has its own app now any mac can activate it

True, but "Front Row" was designed specifically for use with the Apple remote for wireless control (the Mac Pro is the only Mac without an IR sensor). If I'm going to play my music and movies via the keyboard, I might as well just iTunes .

[happydude]

can't wait to get leopard on our new 2.8 imac!!!

[psychofreak]

I can't wait!

[crossifixio]

Cant wait it looks so good. Let the cat out of the cage

[Tampa Tom]

Bugs galore will be found, just like with Tiger. A Leopard with fleas for sure!

[Sbrocket]

Originally Posted by Tampa Tom

Bugs galore will be found, just like with Tiger. A Leopard with fleas for sure!

Bugs are always found in software. That's how the development process works. If dev teams focused on getting every single bug fixed before release, can you imagine how slow software technologies would be progressing? It just doesn't work that way; nothing would ever be released. Plus, I'm betting 10.5.1 will be out much earlier than December.

[Fabio_gsilva]

I don't mindo to be an early adopter of Leopard... with Tiger I don't experienced any bugs to complain about now...

Gold Master Next Tuesday!

[/dev/toaster]

.Mac still doesn't work in the newest seed. There is also some serious lock issues going on. Randomly the entire machine freezes for up to 5 minutes. This does happen a lot if you are using "fast user switch" to switch accounts.

Its getting really close, but I don't feel its close to gold in the current seed.

[InfernoSoul]

Woohoo! Go iPhone! What's leopard? Does it increase the functionality of iPhone? /sarcasm






On a more serious note, I think I might be picking up a new Mac Mini with the release of leopard. Unless I hear a rumour that the mini's might see a upgrade again in the near future.

[psychofreak]

Originally Posted by InfernoSoul

On a more serious note, I think I might be picking up a new Mac Mini with the release of leopard. Unless I hear a rumour that the mini's might see a upgrade again in the near future.

Very unlikely, they just got updated

[InfernoSoul]

Originally Posted by psychofreak

Very unlikely, they just got updated

Yes and a subpar update at that. However if something does come up(highly unlikely) I will hold off. Would be nice if they had a $100 price drop. Are you listening Apple?

[pixlnet]

I think it'll go gold by the weekend or over the weekend. Not sure what kind of hours the engineers are putting into this thing....

They do builds each day right? Then seed the most stable ones?

[kamiboy]

I am not a fan of all the dark greys in Leopard, I like bright whites of Tiger much better.

I wanna be excited for Leopard but I just don't see any new thing in it that I desire. That combined with fear of bugs and lockups for the first few months, diminished performance and the possible need for memory upgrade kind of takes the win out of the bag for me.

I just wish there this one, or even several big new things in Leopard that stood out and screamed gotta get this.

[mountainbiker80]

Originally Posted by Tampa Tom

Bugs galore will be found, just like with Tiger. A Leopard with fleas for sure!

You have no idea how right you are.