Apple's Leopard: The Reviews Are In
One could fault Apple (AAPL) for once again handing out advance copies of its new operating system upgrade only to journalists who depend on good relations with Steve Jobs to supplement their income, but let's skip all that and go straight to the reviews:
Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal (The D Conference)
- Headline: Leopard: Faster, Easier than Vista. Upgrade of Apple's OS Isn't Revolutionary, But It Beats Microsoft's
- Favorite features: For me, the marquee features in Leopard are a new function called Time Machine that automatically backs up your entire computer in the background; two new methods, called Cover Flow and Quick Look, for rapidly viewing the contents of files without opening any programs; and new techniques that allow you to access the files in, and to remotely control, other computers on your network or connected over the Internet with a few clicks and no technical expertise.
- Drawbacks: The menu bar is now translucent, which can make it hard to see the items it contains if your desktop picture has dark areas at the top. The new folder icons are dull and flat and less attractive than Vista's or their predecessors on the Mac. While Time Machine can perform backups over a network, the backup destination can only be a hard disk connected to a Mac running Leopard. And, on the Web, I ran into one site where the fonts on part of the page were illegible, a problem Apple says is known and rare and that I expect it will fix.
- Bottom line: Leopard isn't a must-have for current Mac owners, but it adds a lot of value. For new Mac buyers, it makes switching even more attractive.
David Pogue, New York Times: (Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual)
- Headline: Apple Offers New Goodies in Leopard System
- Favorite features: Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, parental controls, more polished Boot Camp, screen sharing, Web Clips, Wikipedia in the Dictionary, blue-screen iChat, invisibility mode
- Drawbacks: Stacks falls short when there are too many files; see-through menus hard to read; occasional glitches with Spaces
- Bottom line: Leopard is powerful, polished and carefully conceived. Happy surprises, and very few disappointments, lie around every corner.
Edward C. Baig, USA Today: (Macs for Dummies)
- Headline: Leopard, Apple's New Operating System, Hits All the Right Spots
- Favorite features: Time Machine, cool video chat, pretty e-mail, a dandy desktop, clipping widgets
- Drawbacks: Boot Camp still doesn't let you run Windows and OS X simutaneously; it took many hours, and at least one hiccup, to back up a packed iMac.
- Bottom line: Leopard is one cool cat
Simson Garfinkel: Technology Review (NeXTSTEP Programming)
- Headline: MacOS 10.5 offers easy file recovery, effective parental controls, and a host of clever, smaller features.
- Favorite features: Time Machine, Parental Controls, smart folders, Back to My Mac even works behind firewalls, file previews, synced notes, to-do lists, Stacks.
- Drawback: No way to remove a file from a Time Machine backup
- Bottom line: Worth the money if you value having a computer that's fast and easy to use … But people who are thriftier than I would probably do better to hold off on this update.
Newsweek's Steve Levy (Insanely Great, The Perfect Thing) did his review as a web video. You can see it here.
Leopard goes on sale Friday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. local time. It's available online and at Apple's retail stores for $129.
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First impressions: The new iMac, and iWork '08
After the Steve Jobs announcement at Apple (AAPL) headquarters on Tuesday, Apple let the crowd spend a little time with the new iMacs and iLife '08 software. Here are my early impressions:
The iPhone's secret sauce? Software.
It felt nice. An AT&T (T) spokesman let me babysit his iPhone overnight, and I couldn't get over how nice it felt in my hand. Much like the iPod nano it is tightly put together, with just enough weight to feel like a tool, not a toy. Since I only had it for a few hours, I decided to focus my analysis on what Apple's (AAPL) hype-driven gadget does best: Software.
Logitech's Wave ergonomic keyboard: a new kind of comfort
A few weeks ago, folks from Logitech (LOGI) stopped by my office to show off some upcoming products. They had innovative computer mice, laptop stands and the like, but the item that impressed me most was the Cordless Desktop Wave keyboard ($49 corded, $89 cordless, available in August).
Logitech's Air Mouse for TV that moves like the Wii
Cost: $150
Availability: August
Of course I had to add my two cents about Logitech’s (LOGI) innovative new MX Air Mouse. Rather than drag this mouse along a flat surface, you wave it through the air to move a cursor and make selections; think of it as a Wii-mote for non-game console entertainment.
Backup power helps in gadget emergencies
I usually remember to charge my phone. Plugging it into the charging cord beside the bed is one of my essential daily gadget routines, along with recharging the laptop for the day's commute. But occasionally a late night or some other anomaly will derail my ritual, and I'll start the day with a weak charge on my Palm (PALM) Treo 700p.
Microsoft's maps gaining on Google's
I have become a fan of Google's (GOOG) online tools for the same reason I'm fond of Apple's devices; they're well designed and easy to use, even though they don't have all the features that some competitors offer. In the world of Web services, Google has learned that an extra second of load time can mean the difference between me using its tool or a competitor's, and one "Wow"-inducing feature is enough to tempt the crowds to try a service.
So I'm surprised at myself this morning, because I'm tempted to switch to Microsoft (MSFT) Live Maps.
Microsoft Live Maps launched with some fanfare a few months ago, but I didn't really care. I have been using online maps for years, starting with those from Yahoo (YHOO); I switched to Google Maps for the quicker load times and the AJAX-fueled dragging tools. I didn't see any reason to jump to Microsoft.
