Apple's WWDC Big Announcements

For anyone interested in computers and the direction things are going at Apple the WWDC keynote address shed some great light on where Apple is heading with the new OS X Leopard, Safari for Windows and the iPhone. View the Apple Keynote Address.

Below is a breakdown of some of the topics discussed in the keynote address from Steve Jobs and others.

Exclusive Intel Processors: Intel processors will continue to be the exclusive processor used in Mac computers on into the future.

Game Developers Returning to Apple: EA Games will be releasing titles on the Mac:

• Command and Conquer 3
• Battle Field
• Harry Potter
• Madden Football
• Tiger Woods Golf

John Carmack from Id speaks on developments in his limitless texturing of entire worlds within Id’s games with no drawback on performance.

The main topic of discussion was 10 of the 200 new and enhanced features in Mac OS X Leopard to be shipping October 21st, the 6th release of Mac OS X.

1. The New Desktop: 
   
   • Grass background instead of the common blue
   • New 3D Dock
   • Cleanup desktop tools
   • Stacks which allow quick views of folder contents from the dock
   • Downloads folder on the dock with stacked functionality
   • A consistent new look
   • More prominent active window
    
2. New Finder:
   
   • New sidebar search of other Macs & servers, shared computers
   • Back to my Mac allows you to grab or search for files on computers in other locations that are connected to .mac, even Windows machines.
   • Cover flow first seen in iTunes is a more visual way of cycling through documents, or files and interact with them more dynamically right in the finder.
   
   
3. Quick Look:
   Extension of Cover flow allows live file previews of text, images, pdfs, file, documents, movies to full screen in preview mode.
   
   
4. Leopard will be the first mainstream PC 64 Bit OS from top to bottom with the ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications side by side. 64 bit applications will speed up processing of larger documents, files, graphics, and video about 4 times by not having to access the hard drive as often. High end animators and graphic artists will find this very exciting.
   
   
5. Core Animation will allow for tremendous functionality for applications automatically streaming video in simpler, more dynamic, and faster methods; text, images, video, OpenGL, GPU acceleration.
   
   
6. Boot Camp - Built-in to Mac OS X Leopard allowing Windows XP and Vista to run natively with complete compatibility.
   
   
7. Spaces organizes your windows for grouping applications in window spaces allowing for faster multi tasking and switch to different active application groups.
   
   
8. Enhanced Dashboard Widget organizer with Web Clip widget so you can scissor any feed on the net and make it a widget on your computer. These widgets updates instantly from the web feed. Movie Widget added to allow you to search for movies, preview, and buy tickets from the widget.
   
   
9. The new iChat video conferencing looks very cool. New enhancements with better audio, tabbed chats, photo booth effects that allows you to show photos, video, pdfs, keynote presentations, applications or anything else you want someone you are conferencing with to see through iChat theater. Use special effects and backdrops to spice up the video chat with photo booth – very cool and fun tool!
   
   
10. Time Machine digital backup library allows you to automatically back up with one click. Back up to an external drive and then search back in time for lost files and preview them with quick look and quickly restore the file or your entire Mac with a couple clicks.

Mac OS Leopard will ship October 21^st for $129. Only one version available with everything in it. Take a look at the presentation and I’m sure you will be as impressed I was.

 
Apple is releasing Safari 3 onto Windows XP and Vista. “The fastest, most innovative browser” according to Steve Jobs. Releasing free beta at apple.com/safari

I’ve never been impressed with Safari but maybe they will come out with something soon that will make it worthwhile – who knows. I already run multiple browsers for different functionality and each one has its shortcomings. I guess we’ll see where this one goes.
 

The new iPhone release is June 29th with Web 2.0, AJAX applications, and the Safari browser built into the phone.
 

Apple once again has set some great standards that I’m sure Microsoft and other competitors will have to catch up to. The total 64-bit OS is very exciting for users who tend to bring their computers to its knees. The 64-bit core will speed up everything done on the Mac and increase work flow.

After watching this video and seeing the built Windows OS, the ease of use in the OS and knowing the increasing cross compatibility of applications I am thinking of getting a new Mac with this OS.

Windows Vista, from what I have seen runs slow, is very ponderous and I don’t plan on getting a Windows Vista machine in the near or distant future. I am happy right now with XP but the features of OS X Leopard look very cool.

Watch the Video