Apple to ship Leopard on Oct. 26
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 16, 2007 at 9:34am
Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) will go on sale Friday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. According to Apple, Leopard has more than 300 new features.
“Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press announcement. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.”
Leopard’s new desktop includes the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to organize files for quick access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to maintain a clutter-free desktop, and users can “fan” the contents of this and other Stacks into an arc right from the Dock. Users can also create their own Stacks for quick access to folders, documents or applications. Leopard’s new look extends to all applications, with every window on the desktop offering a consistent design theme and active windows outlined by deeper shadows that make them stand out.
The updated Finder includes Cover Flow and a new sidebar with a simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any Mac or PC on a local network. Content on any computer on a local network can now be searched using Spotlight, browsed using Cover Flow or copied across the network with e drag and drop. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet.
Quick Look is a way for users to look inside files without launching them or even having the application that created them. With Quick Look, users can view full-screen, high-resolution files of virtually anything, even media files, from any view in the Finder.
Spaces gives users a new way to organize their work by creating customized desktops that can contain only those applications or documents needed for each project, with the ability to switch between Spaces with the mouse or keyboard.
Time Machine lets users back up all of the data on their Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac (but you’ll need a separate drive for this). In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then restore the file. If it’s ever necessary, Leopard can also restore an entire system from the Time Machine data on an external drive.
Mail has been updated in Leopard and features more than 30 stationery designs and layouts to help you send personalized emails with graphics and photos. Notes and To Dos are designed to help users stay organized by acting just like emails that can be created, saved as drafts, synced across multiple Macs and stored in Smart Mailboxes. Data detectors automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be added to Address Book or iCal with a few clicks, and users can keep up-to-date by getting the latest news and blog feeds delivered directly to their mailboxes with a built-in RSS reader.
iChat, the video conferencing application, now sports iChat Theater, which lets you show photos, presentations, videos or files in a video conference; screen sharing which lets users remotely view and operate another Mac; and Photo Booth effects for distortions and video backdrops that can instantly make users appear to be anywhere they choose. Other new features in Leopard include:
° Improved Parental Controls, aiding parents in managing their kids’ online activities with automatic identification of unsuitable content before allowing web site access, plus time limits and activity logs that can be accessed from any Mac on a home network;
° The complete Boot Camp release, previously available only as a beta, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs;
° Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget;
° New Photo Booth features, helping users create animated iChat buddy icons or effects and backdrops with still or video images;
° An enhanced Dictionary with Wikipedia built in, allowing users to access up to date information on a variety of subjects;
° An updated iCal with multi-user calendaring based on the new CalDAV standard;
° An updated version of Front Row, making it even easier to play music or watch movies, TV shows and photos on a Mac using the Apple Remote.
Leopard will have a suggested retail price of US$129 for a single user license. The Mac Leopard Family Pack is a single-household, five-user license that will be available for a suggested retail price of $199. Volume and maintenance pricing is available.
The standard Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after Oct.r 1, 2007 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95. Leopard requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and is designed to run on any Mac with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867Mhz or faster) processor. Full system requirements can be found here.
Submissions are being taken for the “Macsimum Macworld San Francisco 2008 Coupon Book.” For details email Dennis at daseller@earthlink.net
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
