Leopard
Apple had WWDC, a developer’s conference, today and they unveiled some of the new features in the next version of OS X, also known as Leopard. Not to sound like a complete fanboy, but I’m really looking forward to some of the new features.
The two that I think will be of the most use to me are the new version of Finder, which is taking design cues from iTunes 7 in how it organizes information and devices, and the new application Spaces. Spaces is simply a souped up virtual desktop pager, which probably doesn’t mean anything to you unless you’ve spent time in Unix/Linux GUI environments. I’m sure Apple will add all sorts of neat twists to make it useful.
The really odd thing is that Apple announced they are releasing their web browser, Safari, for Windows. My guess is that they hope people who have grown used to and enjoy using iTunes will give it a try. It will also apparently be the means by which developers target 3rd party applications for the iPhone, which might be the real reason they ported it, i.e., since not all potential iPhone developers are Mac users they need a way to access Safari. Too bad that it, as a Mac application, looks so out of place on XP and Vista.
Not a bad time to be a Mac user.
