Spotlight, wireless, RAW enhancements due in Mac OS X 10.4.4
Improvements to Spotlight searches, AirPort, Bluetooth, and RAW camera support are a few enhancements Apple reportedly has planned for an early winter release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update, a routine maintenance update to the Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system.
Earlier this week, Apple provided developers with the third external pre-release build of the update, according to sources and reports present on the Internet. With the build, reportedly labeled Mac OS X 10.4.4 build 8G14, Apple expanded developer testing areas to cover AirPort, iSync, Disk Utility, and others.
Mac OS X 10.4.4 is scheduled to deliver fixes for AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access, Spotlight indexing and searching, and RAW camera support. Sources also say the update will correct bugs in Software Update, Sync Services, Core Audio, Core Image, and several default Dashboard widgets.
As is customary with the majority of Apple's Mac OS X Updates, Core Graphics will see improvements along with new versions of ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers. New versions of AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications are also expected.
Meanwhile, Apple continues to tweak USB and FireWire devices compatibility, and SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services.
It appears that Mac OS X 10.4.4 is on track for a release before the holiday break. The software update reportedly weighs in at 46MB in Delta form, or 113MB as a Combo updater.
Earlier this week, Apple provided developers with the third external pre-release build of the update, according to sources and reports present on the Internet. With the build, reportedly labeled Mac OS X 10.4.4 build 8G14, Apple expanded developer testing areas to cover AirPort, iSync, Disk Utility, and others.
Mac OS X 10.4.4 is scheduled to deliver fixes for AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access, Spotlight indexing and searching, and RAW camera support. Sources also say the update will correct bugs in Software Update, Sync Services, Core Audio, Core Image, and several default Dashboard widgets.
As is customary with the majority of Apple's Mac OS X Updates, Core Graphics will see improvements along with new versions of ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers. New versions of AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications are also expected.
Meanwhile, Apple continues to tweak USB and FireWire devices compatibility, and SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services.
It appears that Mac OS X 10.4.4 is on track for a release before the holiday break. The software update reportedly weighs in at 46MB in Delta form, or 113MB as a Combo updater.
Comments
Now just imagine Leopard in early 2007, with a new Finder, fully res-independent scalable UI, and the various window themes finally made consistent (which I think there's good evidence to suggest they will be).
Originally posted by nagromme
They're really polishing Tiger, aren't they?
"Polishing"? Tiger was barely acceptable before 10.4.3 because of all the serious bugs. Now they're finally delivering on their promises...
New versions of AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications are also expected.
Not that I don't like updates ... but every time DVD Player is updated I have to get a new patch to make it region free again! I'm glad the same's not true for VLC
Tiger is a sweet OS, and with my old 867MHz PowerBook I miss out on most of the bugs. I'm really looking forward to Leopard of course ... res independency at last! They'd better not exclude the non-Core Image'd from it!
Of course, this talk of a Media Centre Tivo-killing Intel powered Mac Mini is giving me ideas about upgrading before Leopard. I wonder which will come first though for that model, Blu-Ray writers or 10.5?
Originally posted by fuyutsuki
Tiger is a sweet OS, and with my old 867MHz PowerBook I miss out on most of the bugs. I'm really looking forward to Leopard of course ... res independency at last! They'd better not exclude the non-Core Image'd from it!
I don't see how Core Image would have anything to do with it. Quartz 2D Extreme might, which your PowerBook won't do either, but then what's the point on your laptop anyway? The resolution you have is far too low to make a res-ind UI truly interesting.
Originally posted by nagromme
They're really polishing Tiger, aren't they?
Now just imagine Leopard in early 2007, with a new Finder, fully res-independent scalable UI, and the various window themes finally made consistent (which I think there's good evidence to suggest they will be).
And just imagine early 2008 when all of that becomes stable with 10.5.4...
Problems do happen of course (in any product), but online forums would make a person think they were more common and more intrusive than they really are: the motivation to post when you have a problem is high. Not so high when you have nothing that needs solving.
Originally posted by ficino
"Polishing"? Tiger was barely acceptable before 10.4.3 because of all the serious bugs. Now they're finally delivering on their promises...
Sure...when 10.4.4 is out the argument will be that Tiger was 'barely acceptable before 10.4.4'...when 10.4.5 is out...10.4.6...
Originally posted by nagromme
Considering that nobody I know has had a problem with Tiger--not even the ones using the very first release--I'm afraid I can't share the pessimism about OS X
Problems do happen of course (in any product), but online forums would make a person think they were more common and more intrusive than they really are: the motivation to post when you have a problem is high. Not so high when you have nothing that needs solving.
True, nagromme.
One time, my PS2's disc drive was so screwed up, and it would not read a single PS2 game. I was considering a new PS2, but I couldn't find any good prices. I would also go on forums for them and everyone was saying that they were made of terrible quality parts.
pessimistic, i know, but true.
but i still buy each upgrade, because i want to know how to fix things for friends/family/co-workers when they inevitably run into the problems. could be worse... windows is just going to heap 6 years of development into one os and hope they can troubleshoot the bugs once it's out of the gate. not going to be pretty.
Originally posted by nagromme
They're really polishing Tiger, aren't they?
Now just imagine Leopard in early 2007, with a new Finder, fully res-independent scalable UI, and the various window themes finally made consistent (which I think there's good evidence to suggest they will be).
Woohoo! A new finder! Just what we need, Apple re-designing everything again! More UI inconsistencies! More bloated software, spinning beachballs, wasted space, inconsistent usage, lots of glitz to make demos look good, removal of one UI element to add another one, for no reason then the sake of change (you know, the way they tossed the useful toolbar in System Preferences and replaced it with the near useless search box).
This when all most people want is a Finder whose settings would actually stick. You know, if you turn on "Calculate all sizes", it would actually hold longer then a day. Or allow users to actually figure out how to change the column sizes for the "all folders" view, or just mount an iDisk without locking up the Finder...
Originally posted by Louzer
Woohoo! A new finder! Just what we need, Apple re-designing everything again! More UI inconsistencies! More bloated software, spinning beachballs, wasted space, inconsistent usage, lots of glitz to make demos look good, removal of one UI element to add another one, for no reason then the sake of change (you know, the way they tossed the useful toolbar in System Preferences and replaced it with the near useless search box).
This when all most people want is a Finder whose settings would actually stick. You know, if you turn on "Calculate all sizes", it would actually hold longer then a day. Or allow users to actually figure out how to change the column sizes for the "all folders" view, or just mount an iDisk without locking up the Finder...
Apple should fire the current Finder team and replace it with the Aperture team.
Originally posted by kim kap sol
Sure...when 10.4.4 is out the argument will be that Tiger was 'barely acceptable before 10.4.4'...when 10.4.5 is out...10.4.6...
Tiger has been good to me.
Originally posted by Louzer
Woohoo! A new finder! Just what we need, Apple re-designing everything again! More UI inconsistencies! More bloated software, spinning beachballs, wasted space, inconsistent usage, lots of glitz to make demos look good, removal of one UI element to add another one, for no reason then the sake of change (you know, the way they tossed the useful toolbar in System Preferences and replaced it with the near useless search box).
This when all most people want is a Finder whose settings would actually stick. You know, if you turn on "Calculate all sizes", it would actually hold longer then a day. Or allow users to actually figure out how to change the column sizes for the "all folders" view, or just mount an iDisk without locking up the Finder...
Spotlight Search really does have to be fixed NOW.
But we really do need a rez independent finder. With screen displays getting higher and higher in rez, this is really needed.
It's not as though the current one is all that great.
This is about 2 years off on my list.
Originally posted by melgross
Spotlight Search really does have to be fixed NOW.
But we really do need a rez independent finder. With screen displays getting higher and higher in rez, this is really needed.
It's not as though the current one is all that great.
Originally posted by ficino
"Polishing"? Tiger was barely acceptable before 10.4.3 because of all the serious bugs. Now they're finally delivering on their promises...
It?s a good job you don?t use Windows?otherwise, you could be in for a very long wait?
Originally posted by Louzer
Woohoo! A new finder! Just what we need, Apple re-designing everything again! More UI inconsistencies! More bloated software, spinning beachballs, wasted space, inconsistent usage, lots of glitz to make demos look good, removal of one UI element to add another one, for no reason then the sake of change (you know, the way they tossed the useful toolbar in System Preferences and replaced it with the near useless search box).
Every kind of change will always be unappealing to some. That's life. For instance I really, really like Spotlight in System Preferences. But not everyone has to like what I like.
However, if you're assuming the new Finder will throw out all the good and familiar, I suspect you're wrong. I think it will be like the current Finder, but improved. Which is needed! Less buggy, LESS bloated and wasteful... and MORE--not less--consistent. These are the benefits of rewriting the Finder. The bloat and beachballs you fear are more likely to result from NOT re-doing the Finder.
Now, as for a res-independent UI: yes, it will be vital when displays go into the hundreds of DPI. But it's VERY useful right now--for the same reason it's useful to be able to change the res of a CRT: it gives each user the CHOICE of readability vs. workspace. And the ability to change that choice for different tasks.
I find most text and menus on most modern screens is too small for comfort. After long hours, it becomes a strain. Boost them up to 150% and they'll be sharper than ever! I'd love that.
And yet for some tasks (like Director and Flash) I want all the workspace I can get. I might well drop the scaling down to 75% or so in those cases.
It's a big feature--and one that requires redrawing all the UI elements at bigger sizes (and/or vectors). And THAT, in turn means more UI consistency in OS X! Why spend the time re-drawing four different versions of the metal theme and two different versions of white? I would expect them to re-draw just one of each. (iTunes 5 is probably a sneak peek.)
And this is not mere speculation: res-independence IS coming. Maybe not until Leopard, but it's already hidden in Tiger for developers to enable:
http://developer.apple.com/releaseno...pendentUI.html
Originally posted by webmail
You need resolution independence for what now? Do you have a 300dpi or even 200dpi display? Do you have a graphics card that can drive this? Hell we don't even have a processor that can drive this sorta thing.
This is about 2 years off on my list.
Since January a Powerbook can drive a 2560x1600 resolution, the 30" screen. If you squeezed this number of pixels into 15" screen, you would a have PPIs close to 200.
Graphic card power is not a limitation.
The highest resolution screen I could find was 15.4", 1920 x 1200, which comes out at 147 ppi. I guess resolution independence on such a screen would be no luxury.
Originally posted by noirdesir
Since January a Powerbook can drive a 2560x1600 resolution, the 30" screen.
Which is 101 ppi.
If you squeezed this number of pixels into 15" screen, you would a have PPIs close to 200.
Um, there's a few problems with that.
1) that resolution is 16:10. The 15-inch PowerBook, however, is 3:2 (or 15:10).
2) You can't exactly use a higher resolution on a TFT than the one it was designed for, unless you want to fake the user into thinking there's higher detail than there actually is.
3) If you're suggesting for Apple to offer this much higher resolution during a redesign, you're being unrealistic. Even if Apple were to consider doing that, they would be heavily hindered by the fact that there are most likely no current panels of this extreme density. If someone were to produce them (or if one existed), it would be at outrageous prices that people would not be willing to pay for a laptop.
I don't see 200 ppi happening any time soon.
Graphic card power is not a limitation.
It very much is, although the 128 MB of VRAM a PowerBook currently has are certainly enough to handle that resolution while maintaining QE, Q2DE and GPU-accel'd CI/CV.
The highest resolution screen I could find was 15.4", 1920 x 1200, which comes out at 147 ppi. I guess resolution independence on such a screen would be no luxury.
It would be quite essential, in fact, to reasonably drive such displays, yes.
Originally posted by AppleInsider
Improvements to Spotlight searches, AirPort, Bluetooth, and RAW camera support are a few enhancements Apple reportedly has planned for an early winter release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update, a routine maintenance update to the Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system.
Mac OS X 10.4.4 is scheduled to deliver fixes for AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access, Spotlight indexing and searching, and RAW camera support.
Any rumors of new camera support, such as Pentax raw?
When the hell is Apple going to FIX the slooooooow down of their OS on my dang dual 2ghz G5 instead of bloating their os with useless crap that makes even the most simple of tasks tedious! Like freaking opening windows and applications! C'mon!!