WWDC, Photos and More on Tiger

[MacRumors]

WWDC kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco. Unfortunately, MacMinute confirms that there will be no Satellite Broadcast and will not be broadcast to Apple Stores.

Photos of Apple's WWDC Tiger banners, however, were posted in one blog entry.

Meanwhile, the same source (GNAA) as the original Tiger screenshots provides the following additional details from Mac OS X 10.4:

1) Smart Folders in Finder - these virtual folders allow you save specific search criteria for files and present matching files. Similar to iTunes' Smart Playlists.

2) Mail.app - Smart folders, account specific signatures, and a connection doctor.

3) Search field in the top right of the Mac OS X menu bar which allows you to search files in Finder.

MacRumors will attempt to provide a feed if at all possible. If you will have access to the keynote and are willing to assist, please contact the webmaster.

[nsb3000]

Smart Folders!

This will be cool. Glad to know there is more to 10.4 than had previously been leaked. Now I am a little more confident this will be a worth while release.

[frequeniquity]

This should keep Redmond busy indeed!

[danbalsh]

Smart Folders in Finder - these virtual folders allow you save specific search criteria for files and present matching files. Similar to iTunes' Smart Playlists.

Surely this must mean a new(er) FileSystem, something with proper META-Data? otherwise that kinda feature would bring the system to it's Knees!

[arn]

Additional tidbit...

it seems Arlo Rose (Konfab author) is hinting that Apple is capable of creating a Konfabulator-alike (and isn't happy about it)

http://www2.konfabulator.com/forums/...pic.php?t=3903

[mj_1903]

Originally Posted by arn

Additional tidbit...

it seems Arlo Rose is hinting that Apple is capable of creating a Konfabulator-alike

http://www2.konfabulator.com/forums/...pic.php?t=3903

Ouch. Harsh words from Arlo.

[jtquick2001]

No webcast?? How dare you apple!!!

[Squareball]

So do we finally get SSL WebDav in finder in Tiger???

Windows and Linux's Nautilus and Konqueror have had this ability for years!!! i know I can use Goliath but it's such a pain! Please oh please... SSL WebDav in Tiger!!!

[dstorey]

Notice now its now called Tiger Mac OS X and not OS X Tiger...or has it always been written like that? I'm not sure i like the logo with the stripes behind the metal X, which i never really liked the shape of in panther...but I love the catch phrases..they're g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-reat...

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by dstorey

Notice now its now called Tiger Mac OS X and not OS X Tiger...or has it always been written like that? I'm not sure i like the logo with the stripes behind the metal X, which i never really liked the shape of in panther...but I love the catch phrases..they're g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-reat...

What do you think this means? Maybe this is because there is not supposed to be another update for quite some time?

[puckhead193]

Well that sucks if there's no broadcast...What am i gonna do tomarrow...sit and wounder what's happening?

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by danbalsh

Surely this must mean a new(er) FileSystem, something with proper META-Data? otherwise that kinda feature would bring the system to it's Knees!

I had not even thought of this. Perhaps this is the result of the supposed "Apple Metadata project" ? That would be really cool..

10.4 is looking better and better as the hours go by...

Also, I am surprised Apple has not squashed the leaker yet. You would have thought they would have by now..

[titaniumducky]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

I had not even thought of this. Perhaps this is the result of the supposed "Apple Metadata project" ? That would be really cool..

10.4 is looking better and better as the hours go by...

Also, I am surprised Apple has not squashed the leaker yet. You would have thought they would have by now..

Apple itself is often times the leaker. They're trying to generate public interest. In past years, they've given away too much; this year, I think they got it right.

[RogerQ]

Originally Posted by danbalsh

Surely this must mean a new(er) FileSystem, something with proper META-Data? otherwise that kinda feature would bring the system to it's Knees!

Not only that, it means a folder no longer corresponds to a directory or a location on disk. It also means that a file can live in more than one folder. This pretty much destroys the last vestiges of the spatial Finder, whose destruction began with OS X's multiple Finder windows of the same folder and accelerated with the addition of the sidebar.

This is a Good Thing. Spatial Finder nice for small disk, BAAAD for 100GB+

The new version of Filemaker has a completely revamped database engine; it also supports the linking of almost any kind of file into a container. One so inclined could easily create a Finder repleacement with all sorts of cool "metadata-ish" features rather easily. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is leveraging this tech for Tiger. Supposing they had...

When you save a file in Tiger and pick a folder to place it in, the file isn't actually saved in the folder. Rather, the folder's name (and the names of any parent folders) are added as keywords attached to the file.

Clicking on a folder in the Finder doesn't actually open the folder, but rather performs a keyword search with that folder's name, and presents the results in a Finder window. In addition, if 2 or more of the found files contain the same keyword, a folder labelled with that keyword is presented. Clicking on this folder will perform a search with that folder's name as a subset of the previously found set, and display those files in a window.

With this system, business types don't have to decide whether they should organize their folders by project with subfolders for budget, schedule, and contracts, or by budget with a subfolder for each project, etc. Subfolders are dynamically created as you browse, in the order that you browse. So if you need to grab all the budgets, you open the budgets folder; if you want to go by project, you open the projects folder first (this also makes organizing certain photo collections easier--you know who you are).

Organizing the interface for the top level folders is the tricky part, since essentially, all folders could be top-level. This is where Apple's expertise will be needed. Maybe each Finder window will be able to have unique sidebar contents; perhaps you can select from multiple sidebar collections from a pulldown. There are a lot of possibilites.

Whether Tiger makes the leap to this sort of interface in one jump (how far do tigers jump?), or whether it sticks with the most basic version of "Smart Folders" is up in the air.

But I'll bet Steve wants Apple to be the one that comes up with the GUI that finally puts the 1984 desktop to bed.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by RogerQ

Not only that, it means a folder no longer corresponds to a directory or a location on disk. It also means that a file can live in more than one folder. This pretty much destroys the last vestiges of the spatial Finder, whose destruction began with OS X's multiple Finder windows of the same folder and accelerated with the addition of the sidebar.

This is a Good Thing. Spatial Finder nice for small disk, BAAAD for 100GB+

While there is some really cool stuff you can do with Database based file systems, I don't think you can get rid of the Spatial finder, at least not yet. It would confuse million of users who had spent upwards of 20 years associating files and folders with hard coded location that the created. And more importantly, there is no reason why a Spatial interface can't be combined with a database driven "smart" interface that you discuss. They are not mutely exclusive.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. I recommend that everybody take a look at John Siracusa's article on this topic. He has thought about this way more than most of us have, and offers some useful insights.

[iMeowbot]

(on smart folders)

Originally Posted by danbalsh

Surely this must mean a new(er) FileSystem, something with proper META-Data? otherwise that kinda feature would bring the system to it's Knees!

Nah. Panther's file find already has most of this capability, it's just undocumented and buggy (or perhaps incomplete would be a better way to put it).

1. Have a normal Finder windows open.

2. File->Find..., and do a search as usual.

3. When the results window pops up and the clock icon thingy stops spinning, press command-T. Your search result gets added to the Finder sidebar. Don't close your search results window yet.

4. Go to the regular Finder window and click on the ".Search Results...." icon you just added.

5. Now you can close the search windows and the search is still available in the regular Finder window. You'll have the little curveed arrow icon at the bottom of the windows to update the search. The bug is that if you close that finder window, your saved search folders stop working because those folders are temporary files.

Even if the feature is changed in Tiger to be persistent and update automatically, it shouldn't be too bad. You might have noticed that regular Finder views don't update constantly, only periodically as needed, and there's no need to do most of the work if the search isn't visible in a window. Also, full-text searches already have a caching database thingy available.

[GrannySmith_G5]

2 of the pictures in the blog (hate that word) won't load. drats.

[aswitcher]

I just hope Apple get the quicktime copy of the keynote up fast given the blackout they are having. Guess they want to mac attendance at WWDC more attractive so no live feeds...

[phillymjs]

Nice to see Apple taking more overt jabs at Microsoft and their "innovation."

~Philly

[ChrisH3677]

Originally Posted by phillymjs

Nice to see Apple taking more overt jabs at Microsoft and their "innovation."

~Philly

oh yes - of course - Apple are innovators unlike MS. Try and tell Arlo that when the K clone Dashboard comes out tomorrow. Seems maybe Arlo should be saying "Apple, start your photocopiers"

[musicpyrite]

Does anybody know when Apple.com updates their site? I think I'm gonna do what I did back at the keynote speach back in January: Pull an all nighter, hitting the 'refresh' button in Safari every 30 seconds.


Does anybody know when Apple.com updates their site?

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Photos of Apple's WWDC Tiger banners, however, were posted in one blog entry.

Just in case anyone has not checked out the Banners yet, (at the link in the quote) they are really cool.

They read "Introducing Longhorn" , "Redmond, we have a problem" , "This should keep redmond busy" and (My personal favorite) "Redmond, start your photocopiers" .

[cr2sh]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

They read "Introducing Longhorn" , "Redmond, we have a problem" , "This should keep redmond busy" and (My personal favorite) "Redmond, start your photocopiers" .

Holy crap those are great!

[iChan]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Just in case anyone has not checked out the Banners yet, (at the link in the quote) they are really cool.

They read "Introducing Longhorn" , "Redmond, we have a problem" , "This should keep redmond busy" and (My personal favorite) "Redmond, start your photocopiers" .

those banners are the coolest things i have ever seen... bar none.

[joeboy_45101]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Just in case anyone has not checked out the Banners yet, (at the link in the quote) they are really cool.

They read "Introducing Longhorn" , "Redmond, we have a problem" , "This should keep redmond busy" and (My personal favorite) "Redmond, start your photocopiers" .

You know these posters could hint at something very shocking. I do believe that Apple has mentioned in the past that they have a "backup" version of Mac OS X running on the x86 platform. Could "Tiger" run on my PC? If true this will be hotter than Satan's Balls in July. Think of it, Apple hasn't been allowing third party Mac hardware for a long time. Given all the grief it is to use Windows, this could be the answer.

Something else though, "Tiger" might be able to run Windows Apps natively and so eliminating the need for Virtual PC. That definitely would give Redmond a problem.