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Leopard Release In Mid/Late April?
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What are you talking about? When Apple announces the release date, that means we can begin our pre-orders. How could they sell something without giving us the full feature list? It's like selling an iPod but not telling us that you can put videos on it.
I personally think that Leopard should see a release date of late April or early May. Having it released at WWDC doesn't make sense unless we are told ahead of time (which would be unlikely). If it's suddenly released at WWDC, then how would we pre-order? And there will definitely 100% be pre-ordering. That's how they maximize their sales. Having pre-orders also gives them more time to produce additional copies. So having Leopard late April makes perfect sense. We've also seen 10.4.9 so that could be a sign that it's near.
Maybe we should start betting on this, someone could really win a lot of money considering of how certain some people are about their predictions (like me).
The developer builds have no secret features... Surprise Surprise. They wouldnt be secret if the developers had them.
However....
something that struck me is that a completed leopard with all or selected features could be in the hands of a selected few developers and testers, such as Adobe (or even Microsoft MacBU), but the NDA terms of them having these versions could be very strict with major penalties if any information is disclosed. By giving different features to different testers you can soon tell who has leaked info.
Its a possibility.
However....
something that struck me is that a completed leopard with all or selected features could be in the hands of a selected few developers and testers, such as Adobe (or even Microsoft MacBU), but the NDA terms of them having these versions could be very strict with major penalties if any information is disclosed. By giving different features to different testers you can soon tell who has leaked info.
Its a possibility.
I guess that's not as awful as I'd thought before. Still, I'm hoping that they at least show us those secret features sooner than that... that's the only thing I really care about. I can wait for leopard until I go off to school, but I'm really curious about the features.
Why would Microsoft have it? Wasn't the supposed point of not releasing the secret features to keep Microsoft from stealing them? (I'm not saying that I actually believe this. It's possible, but it's more likely that they weren't ready. However, I can't imagine that Apple would let Microsoft of all companies know of these features before telling the world.)
1) Microsoft has an entire Macintosh Business Unit which creates software for Mac OS X (mainly Office).
2) Microsoft has already released Vista, so it will be at least another 5 years before we see another Windows OS update, so I wouldn't worry about them stealing any of Leopard's features any time soon.
It means that Apple wants all the kinks worked out by 2008--Leopard itself will feature resolution independence, but Apple can make no guarantees about third party software. It's very clear from the language that Apple wants developers to take care of those particular details this year and not let them linger. It's also a less-than-subtle reminder in the industry, whenever a transition is mentioned, that you should already be working on it. Fortunately, most software is fairly simple to fix.
I did; I was merely pointing out that annual releases of any kind are no longer certain. The release date doesn't have to "move" anywhere consistently--it could come in November or February or July next year. Maybe there will not be any iLife 2008 at all. The only reason we get such frequent updates is because the suite has been heretofore incomplete.
I think the killer hidden-feature in Leopard is going to be groundbreaking voice to text that will also be part of iPhone. Apple has several unused patents on this technology and I think it's no coincidence that Dragon Naturally Speaking is not ported to OS X ... Apple's going to bring out a superior product within the OS.
Wwdc
Apple may announce Leopard in the next 30 days or so, but I wouldn't expect the release before WWDC. It might even come right after WWDC, but I expect by WWDC Leopard will have gone GM and will be available at the conference to the developers.
As for the super secret features, since they have been MIA in the developers builds, you can deduce the following:
1: They are not a new technology like Core Animation or Core Video. The point of those technologies is to help developers create better apps. If this new feature was developer centric, Apple would have previewed it at WWDC last year along all the other developer centric features.
2: The features won't drastically alter 3rd party apps. This is why I am not so sure now that the new features include a new interface to replace Aqua. A complete new set of widgets that are completely different from Aqua would definitely require many third party apps to tweak their UIs. Unless this new UI is a completely new set of widgets that can be called in addition to the Aqua widgets (and not instead of), this looks very unlikely now.
3: A tie-in with the iPhone seems pretty likely. Apple will most likely want to use the iPhone halo to attract more users to the Mac (like it did with the iPod).
My guess is a completely new Finder (it can be replaced without much impact on third party apps), and iLife inclusion/integration. I wouldn't be surprised to see iLife become part of Mac OS X officially, and Apple increase the price to $199.
Apple may announce Leopard in the next 30 days or so, but I wouldn't expect the release before WWDC. It might even come right after WWDC, but I expect by WWDC Leopard will have gone GM and will be available at the conference to the developers.
As for the super secret features, since they have been MIA in the developers builds, you can deduce the following:
1: They are not a new technology like Core Animation or Core Video. The point of those technologies is to help developers create better apps. If this new feature was developer centric, Apple would have previewed it at WWDC last year along all the other developer centric features.
2: The features won't drastically alter 3rd party apps. This is why I am not so sure now that the new features include a new interface to replace Aqua. A complete new set of widgets that are completely different from Aqua would definitely require many third party apps to tweak their UIs. Unless this new UI is a completely new set of widgets that can be called in addition to the Aqua widgets (and not instead of), this looks very unlikely now.
3: A tie-in with the iPhone seems pretty likely. Apple will most likely want to use the iPhone halo to attract more users to the Mac (like it did with the iPod).
My guess is a completely new Finder (it can be replaced without much impact on third party apps), and iLife inclusion/integration. I wouldn't be surprised to see iLife become part of Mac OS X officially, and Apple increase the price to $199.
YAY. I cant wait for leopard. Also, does any1 know if apple will release a new laptop in 2007, if so , when are the speculations
I believe you are right
. This would work well with maps and driving directions on the iPhone. What i want to see from this, is a free way to export text files to audio files. This way i can take my study guides or any letter i don't have time to read and just listen to it from my ipod while i drive. this would be a great application of this new technology. 1) Microsoft has an entire Macintosh Business Unit which creates software for Mac OS X (mainly Office).
2) Microsoft has already released Vista, so it will be at least another 5 years before we see another Windows OS update, so I wouldn't worry about them stealing any of Leopard's features any time soon.
I know they have the MacBU, but it's not like the people at the MacBU can't share info with the rest of the company. Also I'm pretty sure the people at Apple realize that nothing could have been changed in Vista. I'm pretty sure they were thinking about Vienna or whatever it will be called (If that was even the real reason.)
PS- I think we might see a greatly updated UI. Not like going from Platinum to Aqua, but maybe glassier or something and I'm betting there will probably be tons of CoverFlow-like animations using Core animation. Maybe all windows will zoom open, not just Finder windows.
1) Microsoft has an entire Macintosh Business Unit which creates software for Mac OS X (mainly Office).
2) Microsoft has already released Vista, so it will be at least another 5 years before we see another Windows OS update, so I wouldn't worry about them stealing any of Leopard's features any time soon.
Actually we will see a pretty important Vista update pretty soon. The update that should have been the actual OS but Microsoft wanted to get it out to the public before they all switched to Apple products (haha)
Well, the MacBU at MS does write Mac software you know
and Office 2008 for Mac is due soon. Its not beyond reason that the MacBU has an advanced beta, possibly with certain features not included, to test against Office 2008 and other products. Also an NDA could restrict the product to a department, or even specified people.
I also think that the "Killer App" that was referred to is the iPhone. They couldnt reveal it, but the hint of something special was given. Back in Jan, didnt Steve did say that the real killer app was the phone?.
Look, guys, Amazon has a partners program where you get discounts based on the click throughs and purchases you bring to them ... they don't police what the partners say ... so if someone wants to promise Leopard tomorrow and it drives traffic to Amazon's site, they don't particularly care and don't know that someone's making that promise.
So don't put any faith in that link, it's meaningless. Any of us could create a similar link in five minutes.
You have to keep in mind that this site is getting kickbacks from amazon for referrals... Get impatient leopard waiting people like most of us here, say "THIS MONTH!", link gets clicked, and then we sign up for notifications...
While it may be true that amazon might have it available for pre-order sooner than anywhere else, we haven't gotten to that point yet... Amazon will not put it up before the release date is announced (unless they get insider info, and leak it, which has happened in the past with other things like anime titles). The march date listed there is just MacUpdate's way of getting a few extra bucks.