Some of Leopard's 300+ New Features

[chrisgeleven]

Hasn't MS Word had a grammar check for 5 or 10 years already? Do other apps really need a grammar check? Seems like an odd one to bundle with an OS.

That is definitely a feature that would be nice to have when writing e-mails, posting on blogs, posting on forums, etc.

I still can't believe Windows doesn't have built-in inline spell checking so other apps can take advantage of it. This is 2007. Word has had the feature since what, Office 97? Maybe even Office 95?

 

[Nightkrawler]

on another note... how did u get the google icon in the search bar of your safari? of is that firefox with a wannabe safari theme?

it is
I just cannot surf without my addons

 

[flopticalcube]

Hmmm. Sync with Yahoo! is cool but Time Machine isn't?

 

[longofest]

Self-tuning TCP.. sweet. I guess now I'll be able to see if my 15Mbps FiOS internet is really near 15Mbps. So far it seems too slow. Though perception is different than hard numbers when calculating net speed.

When you have those huge pipes coming into your home, sometimes the bottleneck actually begins being somewhere other than the last mile. For instance, the servers you're connecting to may only allow serving at a certain bitrate to each client to prevent one client from eating too much of its resources.

However, downloading from iTunes or someone that uses Alkami (spelling??) should be blazing fast.

 

[nagromme]

We don't have the iChat hologram effect shown here:

The 300 list is still not ALL the features of Leopard Date-sorting of Column view is also not listed, but I believe Leopard has that option.

I think the hologram effect is covered by "or other video effects"

 

[raftr]

What about A2DP?

One feature is missing in the news, I wonder if they kept it in the production version: A2DP audio over bluetooth protocol - it's something that's been in windows and linuxes for years, but never in OSX. Until Leopard betas that is.

Why didn't Apple implement it before? Seems simple: allowing you to stream music to your stereo via bluetooth would render Airtunes via Airport useless.
Actually, A2DP is the main reason I am interested in upgrading to Leopard.
Why aren't they advertising it among the 300 features? Did it not make it to the final version or they just don't want to hurt airport sales?

 

[indie1982]

OK can anyone confirm that Leopard has support for playback of commercial HD-DVD or Bluray?

I thought it would have been one of the major selling points if it did!

 

[chrisgeleven]

One feature is missing in the news, I wonder if they kept it in the production version: A2DP audio over bluetooth protocol - it's something that's been in windows and linuxes for years, but never in OSX. Until Leopard betas that is.

Why didn't Apple implement it before? Seems simple: allowing you to stream music to your stereo via bluetooth would render Airtunes via Airport useless.
Actually, A2DP is the main reason I am interested in upgrading to Leopard.
Why aren't they advertising it among the 300 features? Did it not make it to the final version or they just don't want to hurt airport sales?

Could also be they just didn't think of it as one of the top 300 new features.

We will find out in just over a week.

 

[samh004]

• .Mac Sync for System Preferences

I wasn't even aware this was a new .Mac feature, sounds useful.

• Grammar Check

Looking forward to this to stop me making silly grammar errors like the have/of issue the other day.

• Scroll Non-Active Windows

I'm pretty sure you used to be able to control the iTunes volume slider when you weren't in the iTunes window, however that's no longer possible, but I hope this brings that back too.

• Printer Drivers via Software Update

Useful if you have a manufacturer that releases frequent updates.

• SMS Forwarding

Only US ?

Those lesser-known features look quite good to me. Just bought a RAID dual-drive for my Airport today, in preparation for Leopard's Time Machine.

I still can't believe Windows doesn't have built-in inline spell checking so other apps can take advantage of it. This is 2007. Word has had the feature since what, Office 97? Maybe even Office 95?

That's one of the things I hate about Windows when I use it, suddenly spell checking is no longer apparent system wide, because it's a Word-only feature. Seems really silly, and all too easy to implement.

 

[DavidLeblond]

Hmmm. Sync with Yahoo! is cool but Time Machine isn't?

This is the top 16 least known coolest features. I think we all know Time Machine is part of Leopard.

 

[Frisco]

OS X is really evolving nicely!

 

[flopticalcube]

One feature is missing in the news, I wonder if they kept it in the production version: A2DP audio over bluetooth protocol - it's something that's been in windows and linuxes for years, but never in OSX. Until Leopard betas that is.

Why didn't Apple implement it before? Seems simple: allowing you to stream music to your stereo via bluetooth would render Airtunes via Airport useless.
Actually, A2DP is the main reason I am interested in upgrading to Leopard.
Why aren't they advertising it among the 300 features? Did it not make it to the final version or they just don't want to hurt airport sales?

I agree. I would love to have a pair of BT headphones. Apple is behind the curve here. Maybe we need to wait for a new Airport Express before they allow A2DP.

 

[flopticalcube]

This is the top 16 least known coolest features. I think we all know Time Machine is part of Leopard.

Ahh. I get it now.

 

[Fotek2001]

We don't have the iChat hologram effect shown here:

Yes we do. It's in there. I've tried it and it works great!

 

[DavidLeblond]

The 300 list is still not ALL the features of Leopard Date-sorting of Column view is also not listed, but I believe Leopard has that option.

I think the hologram effect is covered by "or other video effects"

I think he was making mention of an interview with an Apple employee that suggested the hologram effect may have been axed last minute.

EDIT: Of course the guy was unsure, and furthermore it is a Gizmodo story so... grain of salt.

 

[notjustjay]

I'm looking forward to the new text-to-speech engine. The "Alex" demo that Steve showed off earlier (and was once on the website) sounded pretty amazing.

 

[p0intblank]

I went over the list last night and I definitely had several "holy crap!" moments. I had no idea about some of them until now and I can't wait even more!

 

[dogtanian]

I'm looking forward to the new text-to-speech engine. The "Alex" demo that Steve showed off earlier (and was once on the website) sounded pretty amazing.

Huh!? This is news to me! I'd love to know more about this 'Alex' gent if anyone knows anything...

 

[Le Big Mac]

perhaps paving they way while testing the waters, after all it is not for general public use being on the server page.

So you'd need server first, and then still to be in the server environment, right? Because Server 10.4 allows putting a home directory on the server and then syncing to each mac connected to the server based on login. This seems to add only that you could use an external drive, which I don't see quite what that adds . . .

 

[xUKHCx]

Huh!? This is news to me! I'd love to know more about this 'Alex' gent if anyone knows anything...

Here (last 15 seconds) and ...

Alex — A New Voice
Give yourself a new voice. Meet Alex — a new English male voice that uses advanced, patented Apple technologies to deliver natural breathing and intonation, even at fast speaking rates.

 

[elppa]

Hasn't MS Word had a grammar check for 5 or 10 years already? Do other apps really need a grammar check? Seems like an odd one to bundle with an OS.

Not really, it system wide, so it's one less thing for developers to write and the users get a consistent experience.

It works really well in Dictionary, if you add a word to the Dictionary in Mail, when you spell that same word in Safari it will recognise it and won't flag it as an error.

If you use Office and Firefox (for example), they each have there own incompatible dictionary, so you would have to add the same word twice.

 

[MrMoore]

I like the PDF manipulation in Preview. I scan all my monthly bills and invoice with my HP Photsmart, but it only allows one scanned page per PDF file. When my bills has two or more pages, I need to combine the PDFs. I was able to create a menu option through Automator to combine PDF files, but it does not allow much control. Hopefully the preview option allow finer control like sorting or ordering the pages in a PDF.

 

[paddykev]

One of the more fun features on leopard will be using the new back drops on ichat. Just feel it’s a shame that there is still no support for msn or yahoo accounts 'out of the box' and people will still be forced to use alternatives like skype etc when conversing with pc users who don't use aim.

Just curious if flash will run smoother in leopard than tiger instead of making my mbp fans spin up to full speed and heat my lap

So many new features though, I think there are going to be features that appeal to everyone in this release. Anyone else want the apple countdown timer as a dashboard widget?

 

[La Porta]

OK can anyone confirm that Leopard has support for playback of commercial HD-DVD or Bluray?

I thought it would have been one of the major selling points if it did!

It wouldn't, not yet anyhows: what good is it if none of our computers have any built-in drives for the discs themselves?

 

[hayesk]

Also, I'm sick of being asked to set-up & fix Windoze PCs belonging to friends, family and colleagues. If they all just switched to Mac then my life would be way easier, and so would theirs.

I stopped helping people with PCs. They asked me what kind of computer to buy and I told them. They ignored my purchase advice, so they're on their own.