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Open Thread: Leopard Preview

Apple - Apple - Mac OS X - Leopard Sneak Peek

Like most of you, I'm keeping an eye on today's previewed features of the upcoming "Leopard" (OS X 10.5) release.

Looks like some interesting ideas -- many of which, as usual, seem inspired by existing third-party products.

I think I'm most intrigued so far by the idea of "to-do" functionality from within Mail.app (thanks for the tip, Matt); let's hope that also means I can deep link to a given email from my iCal task list. I also welcome the concept of built-in email templates -- although I'm kind of bummed that they seem more focused on execrable 1999-style HTML emails than on the kind of functional time-savers found in the peerless MailTemplate.

To be honest, on first blush -- and I'm sure there's much more to come by the time of release -- this feels a bit cute and a little light on really revolutionary stuff (the long overdue promise of something like Time Machine notwithstanding). Stuff like (yet. more.) iLife integration is handy enough for the notional Swithcher and Grandpa Joe, but in general I guess I'm hoping for some serious power-user improvements to the core functionality. Maybe that's just me.

What do you think? What's "Yeah!" and what's "Meh?" Anybody else holding out hope for some really deep Finder rewriting and more functional iCal updates?

Other coverage

Jonathan's picture

I think a lot of...

I think a lot of the features that were showcased emphasized "fun stuff" rather than "would-actually-use everyday-and-could-be-very-valuable stuff".

Apple's design team must have had a field day with Time Machine. The eye candy on the back-up application far exceeds its actual value. Most of us have worked out a back-up system anyway, so it seems kind of obsolete. However, there might be a few instances where it could prove its worth (saving over the wrong file, etc.)

Frankly, I was disappointed with the Mail.app updates. I don't want to send fancy post cards, I just wish they'd address more functional features. (Such as the quoting system, for one). The integration of to-do lists in Mail.app seemed kind of out-of-place. That's not where I'd be managing to-do lists in the first place. But hey, that's maybe just me.

 
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