Geek Speak: Random Mac Stuff You Need to Know

http://www.macfanatic.net/blog/ Copyright © 2007 Matt Brewer

Leopard and Beyond

by Matt Brewer

I’m sure that by the time we finally see Leopard on our Macs, all of us will be sick of reading about it. However, I feel like I should touch on a few topics since Leopard has made the news in the last few weeks, so just bare with me.

Apple Sends Mac Users a Message

I like to consider myself a special type of customer for Apple. I own an iPod Nano, but only use it sporadically. I don’t own an Airport or ?TV. I’m pretty much a Mac user without all the extras that go with it. With the introduction of the iPhone this past January, it suddenly became apparent that Apple was adding something else in the lineup that would change the balance in the world.

By announcing that Leopard will ship in October instead of “Spring” as originally planned, Apple has sent the dedicated Mac users a message: You’re not the most important thing anymore. Now to be fair, I think that the decision was a most difficult one and probably for the best. Allow me to elaborate.

Apple publicly admitted to reallocating resources (read: human beings) to work on the iPhone instead of Leopard. This action alone best speaks for Apple’s direction. By actively deciding to promote development of the iPhone over Leopard, Apple has created a precedent and sent the community a message.

As I mentioned, the delay is not necessarily a bad thing. While I’m now unable to defend myself against the jabs from Vista users who taunt with phrases such as: You were always teasing me about Vista being late. Haha, now Leopard is late too! I still believe that in the end Leopard’s delay will be for the best. The couple extra months can seem like a long time to someone waiting to upgrade hardware, but for the rest of us, Tiger is pretty darn good right now. With the extra time, Apple should be able to release a more stable and mature product initially, something that will benefit us all. And if the delay is because of some super-crazy top-secret features, then I’m even more in favor.

End rant.

What’s After Leopard?

It’s still a little early in the game to be asking this question since there are a very select few (and I’m not one of them) who really know what features Leopard will have. That doesn’t mean we can’t all speculate!

Advanced Interface. This term is left open to broad interpretation. However, in this sense I’m referring more to a new way to interact with your computer. Speech recognition is not a new concept, but one that is slowly and steadily evolving. I’d like to see this integrated more tightly into the OS and improved upon. I’d also like to add here that the visual aspects of the interface should increase as well. Stuff like “stacks” (originally touted as a feature of Leopard. Almost like a folder, you stack your files in a neat pile) and more liquid, 3D interface elements would be nice to see. Maybe even support for iPhone-like interaction with your new Mac laptop. And because we’re talking about Apple, I think we’re likely to see it.

Better support for web-services. Cocoa is by no means a poor mans language. It is very powerful and mature and I love working in it. However, with the introduction of features such as garbage collection, properties and fast enumeration, I feel like Apple should look to integrate more tightly with web-services the next go around. If web applications are the future, then make it easier for developers to cash in on that and provide that to Mac users.

Abolition of Mail Templates. Mail 3.0 hasn’t even been released yet, but I just cringe to think of all the horrid HTML email that will be on the net with Leopard’s release.

Kill dot Mac. iTools was something amazing in its day. Free web space and tons of cool features and services. Then Apple got greedy. It’s never been the same. Apple either needs to seriously (I mean ground-up) rework the .Mac service, or scrap it.

That’s a very short list of features I’d like to see for OS X after Leopard, but it’s hard to predict a feature set some two years or more in advance. If you’d like to chime in with your two-cents, you can drop me a line at mbrewer@maccompanion.com.

Google Released Cocoa-API

Google released a Cocoa framework for accessing their web-services this past week. I find this pretty cool for a few reasons. First, anything to make my life easier is awesome. Continuing on that note, I have typically found working with anything web related in my adventures to be pretty scary. However, Google has created a framework that seems at a casual glance to be stable and intuitive to use and integrate in a seemingly limitless number of applications. Enough said about Google’s new framework. Check the release of Google Data API here. http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2007/04/google-data-apis-connect-cocoa.html

Mac Fanatic Software Giveaway

I’m now going to entertain you with this thought: hundreds of dollars worth of free and amazing Mac software. Do I have your attention? I feel like a car salesman these last few weeks, trying to sell my site to several prominent software developers and working hard to implement the actual contest and iron out details with everyone involved.

All of that hard work can pay off for you. I have a long list of software available including titles such as Rapidweaver, Tangerine, CSSEdit, Billings 2.5, Cha-Ching, Parallels, Disco and several more. And some of those are more than just one copy.

I’m not asking much of you either. If you’re interested, then you can head on over to the Mac Fanatic site and read the brief contest details and learn more about each application. Maybe even take the time to listen to a review of that app for more info. And then you can enter to win a copy of one title of your choice.

If you’re interested in sharing the word with the rest of the world, and I wish you would, then go ahead and make some noise. Talk about it on your podcast. Blog it. Digg it. Tell your dog. Just let people know that there is a lot of free and awesome Mac software available and people need to enter to win it!

Contest entries will be accepted between April 23 and June 1. That is well over a month and should give everyone plenty of time to enter. By all means, see the contact info below if you have questions or concerns. Artwork for the giveaway available for your use free of charge as well.

Contact Info

You can always send me an email at mbrewer at macCompanion.com or visit my website at http://www.macfanatic.net/blog/ for more information about me and my ramblings. I also produce a weekly audio podcast taking an in-depth review of cool and new Mac applications, along with tips, developer interviews, tutorials, and the occasional contest.