Apple Previews Mac OS X Leopard
Time Machine, Spaces, Plus Enhanced Mail & iChat Extend Apple’s
Leadership in Software Innovation
WWDC 2006, SAN FRANCISCO–AUGUST 7, 2006–Apple today previewed Mac
OS X version 10.5 Leopard, the sixth major version of Mac OS X, to
its third party developers. Leopard, scheduled to ship in spring
2007, extends Apple’s leadership in software innovation with
groundbreaking new features, including Time Machine, a revolutionary
new way to automatically back up and restore everything on your Mac,
and Spaces, an entirely new way to instantly switch between groups of
applications required for various tasks. Leopard also includes
industry-first advancements in Mail and iChat, including Stationery,
Notes and To Dos in Mail; and Photo Booth-style effects, the ability
to “place” yourself in any photo or video as the backdrop for your
chat, and live presentations of iPhoto slideshows, Keynote
presentations and videos in iChat.
“Breakthrough features like Time Machine and Spaces are good examples
of how Mac OS X leads the industry in operating system innovation,”
said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “While Microsoft tries to copy the
version of OS X we shipped a few years ago, we’re leaping ahead again
with Leopard.”
With its unique ability to let users travel back in time to find
deleted files, applications, photos or other digital media, Time
Machine is a revolutionary way to protect a consumer’s digital life.
Time Machine automatically backs up everything on the Mac to an
external hard drive or Mac OS X Server. In the event a file is lost,
users can search back through time using an intuitive time-based
visual display to find and then instantly restore the file. With one
click, Time Machine can restore anything from a single file or photo
to everything on a Mac.
Spaces is an intuitive new way to group applications required for a
given task into a “space,” then instantly switch between different
spaces to bring up the specific applications required for that given
task. Users can get a bird’s eye view of all their Spaces and choose
where they want to go next with just one keystroke or click of a
mouse.
With Leopard’s iChat, Apple takes communicating with friends, family
and colleagues to an entirely new level. iChat now makes video chats
more fun with the ability to use Photo Booth effects and put images
and videos in the background. iChat Screen Sharing enables users to
share their desktops with others to work together in real time on an
activity, such as editing an iPhoto book, or helping a buddy get the
most out of their Mac. With iChat Theater, users can share an iPhoto
slide show, a QuickTime movie or a Keynote presentation within an
iChat window.
Leopard’s Mail includes breakthrough new features that have never
been seen before in a Mail application. Mail Stationery includes more
than 30 customizable stationery designs to create stunning emails
enriched with beautiful photos and graphics. Templates include photo
collections, invitations, birthday cards and other greetings that
look great when received on either a Mac or a PC. With Mail Notes,
users can quickly jot down thoughts and ideas, add graphics and
attachments and use the familiar Mail application to manage them like
an email message. In addition, To Dos can be created from any email
message or note and viewed in iCal or sent to friends and colleagues.
RSS news feeds now appear in Mail, allowing users to receive news in
their inboxes, receive notifications when new stories appear and use
Smart Mailboxes to organize news about the same topic in one place.
Additional features in Leopard include:
* full native 64-bit support that allows applications to take
complete advantage of 64-bit processing while maintaining full
performance and compatibility for existing 32-bit Mac OS X
applications and drivers;
* enhancements to Boot Camp, Apple’s innovative technology that was
previewed as a public beta in April 2006, making it possible to run
Windows natively on Intel-based Macs;
* Front Row, now available with all new Macs to play back digital
content, including video Podcasts using the simple Apple remote*;
* Photo Booth, Apple’s fun-to-use application that lets users take
quick snapshots with an iSight video camera, add entertaining visual
effects with the touch of a button, and share them via email;
* iCal 3 with group calendaring capabilities, event drop box, and
standards-based CalDAV support;
* improved Spotlight searching that’s even faster, provides richer
previews, and lets users search across network mounted folders on
other machines;
* a new Movies Dashboard widget for movie times and Web Clip for
clipping any part of a web page as a live widget;
* new parental controls including curfews, time limits and remote
administration;
* Core Animation, a new graphics technology that makes it easy to
create stunning visual effects and animations;
* major enhancements in Universal Access, including improvements in
VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader;
* security enhancements including anti-phishing protection in Mail
and Safari, and an automatic firewall that limits network resources
available to an application; and
* new development tools, including Xcode 3 with full 64-bit support,
DashCode, an easy way to create new Dashboard widgets without writing
a line of code, and Xray, for optimizing application performance.
*Apple Remote sold separately.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the
Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the
Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation
with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating
system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also
spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable
music players and iTunes online music store.