Anticipating Tiger

by Hadley Stern Apr 27, 2005

There is something about waiting for a new operating system that I love. I still remember when OS 8 came out. It was seven years since a full number upgrade in Apple’s operating system. OS 8 bought features like, Relative Dates (yesterday and today) in file lists, the platinum appearance, window drawers, and my favorite, spring-loaded folders.

I still remember loading OS 8 and marveling at everything that was new. It was faster, it was better. It was it[/].

And now I find myself with the same, admittedly childlike, anticipation, for Tiger. Panther was the first usable OS X interface. The bugs finally got figured out and things ran at a reasonable speed. Panther was, in a nutshell, parity, in terms of polish, to OS 9.

Now that Apple has built an incredible foundation with Panther I am ready for Tiger. I am ready to have that same feeling that I had when I first installed OS 8. Of course, after a few days I’ll realize that it is just an operating system, but that is besides the point for people like me! I will relish in all the fantabulus details that Apple worked like mad to put into the operating system. So, without further ado, or pontification, here is what I’m looking forward to most in Tiger.

Speed

I want to install Tiger and be shocked at the startup time. I want my 1 GHZ Quicksilver to be, well, quick. The finder should be more responsive and the beach ball should be as rare a sight as a beach ball on an Artic iceberg. Applications should launch faster and there should be less choke time when I switch from one task to another. Servers should mount more adroitly.

Spotlight

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not the most organized user. Unlike Greg, I do not spend my days thinking up (and implementing) arcane organizational models. My typical workflow is to create a new document and save it somewhere. I hope that spotlight will be a godsend to me. With it I will find files faster than the most anal-retentive organization freak. I will be able to search every reference, through multiple documents, to a particular thing I need to find.

iChat AV

I love iChat as it is. But the idea of having multiple video sessions is beyond belief! The current Apple Matters staff spans a few states, and I can’t wait to have meetings where we can all see each other and interact at the same time.

Safari RSS

It goes with saying that RSS has changed the web. Apple Matters receives approximately two thirds of its traffic from its RSS xml file. RSS has also changed the way us power surfers surf. Instead of waking up and checking through our ten favorite sites we can have a program with 100 of those sites and only click on the story that interests us. (Of course, an Apple Matters article is always interesting!). However, adding an RSS feed still can be (depending on your newsreader) a cumbersome task. You have to click on the RSS button on the site, copy the URL, and then paste it into your newsreader.

Safari will make that process much simpler, integrating RSS feeds (and the ability to read them) right into the browser. The News Clipping feature is also exciting, and reminds me of the scrapbook feature in Internet Explorer, albeit a proactive scrapbook.

As much as there is a lot of cool stuff going on over in FireFox land I look forward to continuing to surf with Safari. And Tiger’s version looks like it will continue to be a hoot.

.Mac sync

For some reason I work on a multitude of Macs. My iPod is my trustworthy keeper of all my documents. However, occasionally I do something dumb, like forget my iPod. Luckily, for really important stuff, I keep things backed up on my trust .Mac account. But like anything manual it cannot be relied on. .Mac sync will hopefully let all my machines stay on the same page, syncing my work between multiple Macs.

The Automater

No, its not some bad new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie he’ll make when he is no longer governor (and can’t run for president). It’s a cool new feature of Tiger that promises to make working that much more efficient. For example, for my iPod and iTunes Hacks book (which you all own, correct?!) I had to rename the figures before sending them off to O’Reilly. This involved going through 100’s of files and manually renaming them. Now if I had the wherewithal after the exhausting process of writing a book I could have whipped up a quick AppleScript but let’s face it, who, except the infamous Doug Adams whips up Applescripts?!

The automater would have come to the rescue for me, allowing me to quickly rename a series of files. Or how about scaling a series of images and then emailing them? Very nice.

I haven’t touched on QuickTime or dashboard (mostly because I think Dashboard is a bit of a yawn. Konfabulator is cool and all, but after downloading and installing it I always find the visual mess annoying). But the above are the features I am most excited about. I’m also sure the best is yet to come. Tiger is a foundation which us users and developers can build upon. Think Spotlight linked to Automater? The sky is the limit.

Just like when I installed OS 8 I will feel like Tiger is the best thing ever. And for those few days, it will be. What features are you most excited about?

Comments

  • Great article!  Let me just say that I relate to the childlike feeling you are describing!

    In Tiger, I am excited about Mail 2.0 for the smart mail boxes and the integration with other software (iLife, QT), Safari RSS, Spotlight, iChat 3.0.

    Also, all the little details added that were missing in iCal and adress book.  The new H.264 codec in QuickTime, is also very exciting.

    regards,

    jeff

    J-F had this to say on Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 9
  • As with Arnie’s cyborg, Automator is spelled with an “or” not “er.”  Mail is what I use for my modest email needs, so I’m looking forward to the many enhancements in that tool. Smart Folders, particularly, seem more appealing to me than using rules to route messages to folders.

    Chilstrom had this to say on Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 5
  • The fun part isn’t always playing with the hyped toys in the OS but the “little” things that you see and think “someone ‘was’ thinking about how to make every feature better”

    I’m looking forward to polish in this OS that will bring smiles to my face. Computing should be pleasurable.

    hmurchison had this to say on Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 145
  • I bear witness of child-like anticipation for each and every update. I installed Tiger over the weekend, and am happily satified that it has been the smoothest update since System 8 was to 9.

    A question on RSS tho: is the traffic you count downloads of the feed or actual full article page visits being sourced from a news reader?

    Everytime you launch an RSS reader - it will download your updated feed - but many people may not actually read that feed, or even get to the full text of the article.

    Nathan had this to say on May 03, 2005 Posts: 219
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