Apple to launch Tiger April 29th

[kelley]

Finally Apple has announced that Tiger will come out on April 29th for the typical Apple OS price of $129. Can't wait to try out Spotlight.

[Josh]

Finally Apple has announced that Tiger will come out on April 29th for the typical Apple OS price of $129. Can't wait to try out Spotlight.

 

Ordered. $35 rebate at Amazon.com.

[iainl]

Can I start the whingeing about how much Apple charge for service packs? Or should I just wait until Tiger discs come as standard with a new iBook?

[kelley]

Can I start the whingeing about how much Apple charge for service packs? Or should I just wait until Tiger discs come as standard with a new iBook?

Usually from this point on Apple systems will qualify for their Up-to-Date program, which allows you to purchase the software for~ $30USD Shipping and Handling. That is if it is not already installed or the disc is not already in with the system. When my dad bought his iMac G4 it had 10.2 loaded but it had a 10.3 CD in the box as 10.3 had just came out.

[Josh]

Usually from this point on Apple systems will qualify for their Up-to-Date program, which allows you to purchase the software for~ $30USD Shipping and Handling.

 

Purchases of hardware as of 4/12 will get free upgrades.

 

As for "service pack", 10.4 is much more than a service pack. The "service packs" you speak of were dot releases that came out about every month since 10.3 was released 1.5 years ago (October 25, 2003).

 

I'm happy to pay for it. Each OSX release makes my system run faster (imagine that! I don't need to buy new hardware to use it!) and has tons of new features and toys.

 

To name a few:

Spotlight :tu

Dashboard :rock

RSS support built-in

[kelley]

10.4 is far from a "service pack".

[foogledricks]

I read on a Windows forum that OS X.4 essentials makes a Mac look and run like Windows 3.1. Is this true? Because if so, I am totally getting a Mac... I loved 3.1's access to the command prompt.

[Robot Monkey]

Keith, I believe you can access a full-blown terminal in OSX. Pretty powerful stuff to be able to access.

 

Can you Apple-philes tell me what Spotlight is?

[rustyjaw]

Can I start the whingeing about how much Apple charge for service packs? Or should I just wait until Tiger discs come as standard with a new iBook?

 

A lot of people have this impression, which stems from Apple's numbering scheme. Ever since OS X was released, the "10" part is fixed, but the first decimal place actually denotes a major release. so Tiger (10.4) is the 4th major release of OS X since 10.0.

[rustyjaw]

Keith' date=' I believe you can access a full-blown terminal in OSX. Pretty powerful stuff to be able to access.

 

Can you Apple-philes tell me what Spotlight is?[/quote']

 

Spotlight is a kind of universal search for the whole OS. A search field lives in the upper right of the screen, when you enter a term, it searches progressively (as you type) through everything, including inside of documents, your email, MP3 tags, image tags, etc...and groups the results smartly. It is also extensible by developers, so they can add their own search categories (meta data).

 

EDIT: I forgot, it also allows you to save search criteria as folders (Smart Folders), so that the contents of that folder are determined by the search parameters. So if you add a file later that conforms to the search criteria of your Smart Folder, it will (or an alias of it, I presume) show up inside of it.

 

Along with Spotlight, I'm really looking forward to the new graphics system, which offloads even more of the UI to the GPU. In pervious OS X releases, all windows are 3D objects textured with the contents of the window...which is how they can do real-time shadow, window transparency, and window morphing without hitting the CPU. But now they have moved almost everything graphical onto the GPU, including scrolling, text rendering, window resizing.

 

This is one of the reasons I sprung for a Radeon X800 a couple months ago, because Tiger should really fly with a high-performance card.

 

I'm also excited about Automator, which is a graphical scripting engine for the OS itself. Every day at work I do so many repetitive tasks that could be scripted instead (technically, you can do this now with Applescript, but it's all code-based, and too complex for me).

 

I think this is the most worthwhile upgrade, by a thin margin over Panther, since OSX was released.

[kelley]

Along with that new graphics system comes much improved OpenGL code and greater support for games. Rumormills are really running rampant with the fact that Apple plans to re-up support for games and possibly even get into the games business also, be it doing PC game port jobs or new custom titles is yet unknown.

[Josh]

EDIT: I forgot, it also allows you to save search criteria as folders (Smart Folders), so that the contents of that folder are determined by the search parameters. So if you add a file later that conforms to the search criteria of your Smart Folder, it will (or an alias of it, I presume) show up inside of it.

 

This is huge - think of it as smart playlists in iTunes. You can set a folder to always show .doc files, or all files added since the past two weeks, or all files larger than 5MB.

[Robot Monkey]

Spotlight is a kind of universal search for the whole OS ... I forgot, it also allows you to save search criteria as folders (Smart Folders), so that the contents of that folder are determined by the search parameters.

 

OMG, that's like Google Desktop on 'roids. :rock I hope someone in the MS universe is paying attention.

[Ryan FB]

Microsoft was actually planning similar functionality on the filesystem level with WinFS. They had originally slated it to come out with Longhorn, but now they seem to be all over the place in terms of how committed they are to it. At the current rate, it looks like it would be 2008 at the earliest.

 

And Linux isn't out in the cold either - Beagle is a project aimed at powerful desktop searching for Linux, based around the snazzy new inotify device interface.

[foogledricks]

it also allows you to save search criteria as folders (Smart Folders)

Finally an OS is treating its data as if it is in a database. I'm really growing tired of the folder/file metaphor. My company uses a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system called Documentum, which is theoretically metadata driven, yet everyone in our company treats it like a file server, replicating the file/folder way of organizing content, and instead of applying metadata, people give really long names to files and folders. :eh It took people so long to understand the file/folder metaphor that they are afraid to let go of it. It is horribly inefficient and I'll be glad to see it fade (hopefully) sometime in the future.

[rustyjaw]

Finally an OS is treating its data as if it is in a database.

 

The BeOS did this a long time ago with the BeFS, actually the BeFS is still more advanced than Tiger's FS in this respect, which is kind of tacking on DB features. It's no coincidence that the guy that wrote the BeFS now works for Apple, they have slowly been adding in metadata/DB features, though this is the first serious move in that direction.

 

I don't think file/folders will ever go away entirely, nor should they. Folders mimic real things for a good reason, human beings evolved in a world with real objects that took up space and stayed where you put them unless moved by you or something else...there's a whole set of cognitive tools we evolved based on those 'rules'. It's a good metaphor to stick with for that reason.

 

But that doesn't mean that people who prefer/are able to think and manage more abstractly shouldn't be able to, which is what you are saying, I think.

[kelley]

I just wanted to chime in here and say that the BeOS is fucking awesome and I was absolutely heart broken the day it died.

[foogledricks]

But that doesn't mean that people who prefer/are able to think and manage more abstractly shouldn't be able to, which is what you are saying, I think.

Right, I am overstating a little bit. I just see the efficiencies in organizing digital assets wrapped in meta data, to facilitate flexible search views (or smartfolders), and it kills me that my company is using this expensive tool the way they do. It would be like spending all day with Charlize Theron at a nude resort and playing ping pong all day with her, rather than going to the beach, where you know you'd have to rub tanning oil on her.

[Angry the Clown]

May I hijack this thread briefly to cheer Apple software prices? I highlight specifically the boxed 'Final Cut Studio' package one can obtain from them, the latest version of which consists of Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2 and DVD Studio Pro 4 all for the handsome sum of ?899 here in the UK, and $1299 in the US. I think that is remarkable value for money, not to mention Tiger retailing for ?89 next week.

 

This is certainly the year I finally plan to go Apple crazy as far as work matters are concerned. I think I am glad I had to wait that little bit longer as the Powerbooks got their recent update, as did Ipod minis, Tiger is here and the post-production software has had its updates too... There couldn't be a better time for me to start playing around with this stuff. I'm very excited by it all.

 

Daniel

[rustyjaw]

I wish I had the money to spend, that is a very good deal but video is a hobby for me...well, less of a hobby than music which is where most of my software budget goes. I do plan to pick up Motion 2, though, and I will upgrade Final Cut Express when they incorporate FCP5 features into it.

[Angry the Clown]

Well there's now an apple product under my roof, a second generation 4GB Ipod Mini and it's not even for me. It was purchased for my brother in celebration of his running the London Marathon last weekend. I must admit I?m fascinated to have a play with it before I get one for myself. I'm trying to hunt down the USB mains charger for it for him too and they?re proving rather hard to find. I may have to pop to the Apple store in London next week and hold them to their ?every product in stock? boast.

 

Daniel

[iainl]

They are gorgeous, aren't they. I'm inseperable from my 1st-gen mini, particularly now it gets Fighting Talk delivered to it every Saturday.

[Angry the Clown]

Yes absolutely. Got him a shiny blue one and I must admit that's probably going to be the colour I go for as well (I?m planning to grab one myself for my birthday next month). I honestly think a 4GB one will do me just fine given I'm likely to rip a variety of songs and score cues from it from various sources, rather than entire albums... Even for full albums you're looking at the thing holding at least what, 70 albums at 128kbps AAC? It's really all I need I think. I wonder just how many buy Ipods and find they?ve more space left to spare and going unused than they expected.

 

Dan

[iainl]

If you're at all unsure, but do know you're going down the Apple route (having tried a variety of the competition, and sworn at all of their rubbish user interfaces, I'd definitely recommend staying in the Apple camp), then I'd suggest you just install iTunes, convert some music, and see what (a) you think of the sound quality, and if you're going to want to do the rest at 160k, then ( how much what you'd want to put on comes to. I've filled my 4Gb easily, but I've yet to get through more than ~1Gb or so between instances of sticking it back the home PC again, at which point rearranging things would be easy enough.

[Angry the Clown]

Itunes is already on here. I played with it recently mastering at various AAC rates including the standard 128 and higher, and the lossless encoding. I?ve got to say I was more than pleased with the 128 (I was surprised, though still frown upon it being the kbps rate for charged Itunes downloads). Were I conforming files for a music server, certainly I'd go with a higher rate, but 128 seemed excellent for music on the move.

 

The final decision I guess will be made in a few weeks nearer my birthday as to whether I grab a 4GB or 6GB then, but I know I wont been needing anything beyond the capacity that the 6GB mini offers. 1000 to 1500 songs is more than enough to fuel my trips to Scotland and abroad, and the gadget will get its most use on train rides into London and trips to the gym for the most part.

 

Dan