New QuickTime Player, Cocoa Desktop in latest Snow Leopard beta

[AppleInsider]

As expected, Apple overnight equipped its vast developer community with a new build of its upcoming Snow Leopard operating system that includes significant changes, such as a redesigned QuickTime Player.

People familiar with the matter confirm the build number to indeed be 10A286, as was predicted by AppleInsider in a software-related news roundup published earlier in the week.

Among the changes developers will see in the latest beta is a completely redesigned QuickTime Player -- believed to be QuickTime X Player -- which sports "a new minimal user interface*focused predominately on playback," those people say.

Also widely distributed outside Apple's walls for the first time is a new Cocoa-based Mac OS X desktop envoirnment featuring updated info windows and contextual menus.

Those people familiar with the software say Apple informed developers about a dozen significant issues which are still plaguing Mac OS X 10.6, and which will need to be ironed out before the software can transition closer to a final candidate stage. Several months of work are believed to remain.

Build 10A286 arrives about four weeks after Apple equipped its developers with build 10A261. Around that time it was reported that Snow Leopard would include Core Location and Multi-Touch frameworks for third-party developers, and also deliver more intuitive printer driver delivery.

Specific to the 10A261 build were a handful of visual tweaks, such as a Put Back option in the Finder and the ability to drill down into stacks via a new grid-view interface, each of which were documented in a series of screenshots.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[teckstud]

Pictures? Pleez?

[nace33]

As a newbie developer, I am really excited to see what the environment will be like for programming.

[ivan.rnn01]

redesigned QT "focused on the playback" mean "FrontRow"

[themoonisdown09]

I'm really looking forward to the release of Snow Leopard. As I've always done in the past, I'll be buying the new OS the day it comes out.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Pictures? Pleez?

I second that. I'd also like to see comparative performance tests between Leopard and SL on the same HW. My comparative testing shows sugnificant gains all around, but I won't be able to DL this new beta for some days, at the very least.

Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01

redesigned QT "focused on the playback" mean "FrontRow"

Front Row was a snazzy interface for QT components and, I think, a precursor to the AppleTV. I doubt that Apple is working on Front Row outside if very minor bug fixes. It's the new Sherlock.

[Snafu]

Would that mean that they are getting the editing tools out of the player?

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Pictures? Pleez?

that would be illegal wouldn't it?

[antiorario]

It's "predominantly," not "predominately."

[fuyutsuki]

Come out and say it: COCOA FINDER!

[markb]

Any info on the state of OpenCL and Grand Central? These are the two main things that intrigue me, yet no mention has been made of them for some time. Are they likely candidates for slippage?

[paxman]

Originally Posted by antiorario

It's "predominantly," not "predominately."

Supposably so.

[JavaCowboy]

Those people familiar with the software say Apple informed developers about a dozen significant issues which are still plaguing Mac OS X 10.6, and which will need to be ironed out before the software can transition closer to a final candidate stage. Several months of work are believed to remain.

That's not a good sign

[amac4me]

Clearly Snow Leopard is lining up to be a central focus at WWDC this summer. My expectations for WWDC:

- Snow Leopard "official" demonstration
- iPhone OS and iPhone updates

Apple will then announce availability for both within weeks following WWDC just in time for ramp up new Macs for the holiday season.

[ivan.rnn01]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I second that. I'd also like to see comparative performance tests between Leopard and SL on the same HW. My comparative testing shows sugnificant gains all around, but I won't be able to DL this new beta for some days, at the very least.
Front Row was a snazzy interface for QT components and, I think, a precursor to the AppleTV. I doubt that Apple is working on Front Row outside if very minor bug fixes. It's the new Sherlock.

Possibly so. Then focus on playback may mean dropping - Ok, stopping to be iMovie's backup - all editing/storing features. Yet, I have a vague feeling of they would actually implement something fading in borderlessly...

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by amac4me

Clearly Snow Leopard is lining up to be a central focus at WWDC this summer. My expectations for WWDC:
- Snow Leopard "official" demonstration
- iPhone OS and iPhone updates
Apple will then announce availability for both within weeks following WWDC just in time for ramp up new Macs for the holiday season.

I agree with this, except that I don't see new iMacs coming with Snow Leoprad when SL will be a big enough performance boost on its own.

Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01

Possibly so. Then focus on playback may mean dropping - Ok, stopping to be iMovie's backup - all editing/storing features. Yet, I have a vague feeling of they would actually implement something fading in borderlessly...

I do like the robustness and simplicity of QT Pro's editing features. They are quite useful, but wouldn't mind them pushed into iMovie.

[jenkman91]

Originally Posted by fuyutsuki

Come out and say it: COCOA FINDER!

QuickTime Player
The new QuickTime Player has a new minimal UI and is focused on playback.

Finder
Finder includes a new Cocoa Desktop, Info Window and Contextual Menu

Safari
Safari 4 beta is included in the seed as the default browser.

** they already said it. macrumors.com

Come on, we all know that Snow Leopard is going to have all features running in full COCOA.

I still think Apple is keeping a secret from us in relation to 10.6

[jimhill]

Originally Posted by paxman

Supposably so.

Aren't they one in the same?

[azaas]

Guys is it possible for someone to explain to me what is the "Put Back" thing in Finder? Sorry but it has not been that long since i switched to Apple as my primary system so if this is common knowledge pardon my ignorance thx in advance

[ivan.rnn01]

Originally Posted by solipsism

I do like the robustness and simplicity of QT Pro's editing features. They are quite useful, but wouldn't mind them pushed into iMovie.

I promise, you will miss that. We will have to launch iMovie to catenate two small clips instead of just dragging-dropping them one onto another. That will be more painful, than restyled safari tabs...

[jenkman91]

Originally Posted by azaas

Guys is it possible for someone to explain to me what is the "Put Back" thing in Finder? Sorry but it has not been that long since i switched to Apple as my primary system so if this is common knowledge pardon my ignorance thx in advance

Its okay. Not a lot of people know about it, yet.

Put Back - Under Mac OS 9, users had the option to restore any “Trashed files (before the Trash is emptied) back to their original locations with a simple “Put Away” command. For some reason, this capability was lost in the transition to Mac OS X. In the latest Snow Leopard builds, it’s back (as “Put Back”).

Two interface changes coming to Snow Leopard have been revealed by those who have access to the developer releases of Apple's upcoming operating system. The trash gained a feature to directly move files back to their original locations, and the stacks feature has been improved by making directories browseable within the stacks themselves. They join ZFS, on-demand printer drivers, and location awareness as new features for Snow Leopard.
Believe it or not, but the Mac OS X trash can did not have the ability to send files back to where they came from; you had to manually copy/paste/drag them back to their original location. In the new Snow Leopard builds, a feature called "Put back" has been added, which will move any selected files from the trash back to where they came from. Users who remember Mac OS 9 and earlier will know this features as "Put away".

The Stacks feature in Leopard has always received many, many criticism for being rather limited in its functionality. One of the most often requested features was the ability to navigate the directory tree from within the stack, without having to open a Finder window. In Leopard, clicking a directory in a stack would simply open a Finder window; in Snow Leopard, it will shrink the original 'window' to a small representation in the top-right corner.

Snow Leopard might be a performance and maintenance release, but that doesn't mean Apple isn't applying some fixes and adding some small features here and there as well.

[ivan.rnn01]

Originally Posted by azaas

Guys is it possible for someone to explain to me what is the "Put Back" thing in Finder? Sorry but it has not been that long since i switched to Apple as my primary system so if this is common knowledge pardon my ignorance thx in advance

Trash will be emptied by single command, but everything in it will be put back to its original location instead of being deleted forever.

There will be option "Put back Securely". It will repeat that operation 7 times

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by jenkman91

I still think Apple is keeping a secret from us in relation to 10.6

Leopard was quite buggy up until the end and they changed a lot of things, at least visually, right before going to Glad Master so they clearly had a lot of separate internal builds going on. I would imagine that it's the same with this version.

[now4real954]

Originally Posted by azaas

Guys is it possible for someone to explain to me what is the "Put Back" thing in Finder? Sorry but it has not been that long since i switched to Apple as my primary system so if this is common knowledge pardon my ignorance thx in advance

OK...well it is very simple to put...like most names of things in OS X...

put back means put something back where it was...first thing it will give you the option (im assuming...not positive) to return an item in the Trash to where it came from...and it could be a universal option to put something back to where it was before you moved it

now...does any of the actual SL developers want to chime in on this feel free

hope that makes you understand what "Put Back" means for Snow Leopard

BTW...thanks for switching...Mac is where its at!...AMEN

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01

I promise, you will miss that. We will have to launch iMovie to catenate two small clips instead of just dragging-dropping them one onto another. That will be more painful, than restyled safari tabs...

You make an excellent point with an excellent example. That would be PITA.

Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01

There will be option "Put back Securely". It will repeat that operation 7 times

[allblue]

Originally Posted by paxman

Supposably so.

I think you will find the word is actually 'supposedly'.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by azaas

Guys is it possible for someone to explain to me what is the "Put Back" thing in Finder? Sorry but it has not been that long since i switched to Apple as my primary system so if this is common knowledge pardon my ignorance thx in advance

Same as Windows Recycle Bin's Restore feature. I tend to find that this omission in OS X is one of the irksome things for switchers.

[Oh-es-Ten]

Good to see progress here. I think SL is shaping up to be a good release. On MR there is mention of the 'known issues' and to be honest I expected the list to be longer, although there is a few pretty big ones like 'No hibernation on machines with NVidia graphics'. Hmmmm!

Would also love to see some pics, especially of contextual menus and Quicktime X - although we are going to have to have someone willing to have a loose grasp of what an NDA is...

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by markb

Any info on the state of OpenCL and Grand Central? These are the two main things that intrigue me, yet no mention has been made of them for some time. Are they likely candidates for slippage?

No. OpenCL has been ratified with amazing speed.

The specification has been published and read if you're into that thing

Grand Central Dispatch resides at such a low level it's not something Apple can slip. It has to work in conjunction with the kernel for management of tasks and of course dispatching tasks to the right compute resource. You don't slip features like this you delay the OS until it works right.

Quicktime X should be nice. Better GPU acceleration and it should be fairly lightweight as it's a playback only affair. Legacy Quicktime will still be there but I rather like the idea of apps using QTX when they need video playback without the resource hit of loading components designed to record.

[ivan.rnn01]

Originally Posted by solipsism

You make an excellent point with an excellent example. That would be PITA.

glad to catch it right. gonna go home now. hope to see you next time...

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by allblue

I think you will find the word is actually 'supposedly'.

That's unpossible.

[teckstud]

2 things I would like:

1.) Full screen monitor mode when recording with a remote digital camera. iMovie is the only way for this?

2.) Too many codecs, so little time. Less codecs. How many vesions of the same movie do I need to create? Presently one ATV does not work in iPhone but does the other way around. Email's too small- etc, etc.

Quicktime pro is great for maniputating a quicktime file but the recording side is not. At this point it's not the worth the extra charge as iMovie can handle the same.
There just seems to be too many overlapping functions- needs to be simplified.

[Daniel B]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Build 10A286 arrives about four weeks after Apple equipped its developers with build 10A261. Around that time it was reported that Snow Leopard would include Core Location and Multi-Touch frameworks for third-party developers, and also deliver more intuitive printer driver delivery.

Interesting that they include the Multi-Touch framework. This could be an indication of plans of a not so distant introduction of a touch based tablet running fill OS X.

Why else include this framework?

Best,

Daniel

PS. I know that this is old news.

[iReality85]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Same as Windows Recycle Bin's Restore feature. I tend to find that this omission in OS X is one of the irksome things for switchers.

I was going to say the same thing. The fact that OS X hasn't provided some kind of function akin to the Restore option in Windows is a little strange.

[MacTel]

Originally Posted by ivan.rnn01

redesigned QT "focused on the playback" mean "FrontRow"

That's one interface to QuickTime, but no I'm sure they mean the QuickTime client itself.

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by Daniel B

Interesting that they include the Multi-Touch framework. This could be an indication of plans and not so distant introduction of a touch based tablet running fill OS X.

Why else include this framework?

For the multi-touch track pads supposedly. Though yeah, you can bet on some form of tablet down the pike.

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by Daniel B

Interesting that they include the Multi-Touch framework. This could be an indication of plans and not so distant introduction of a touch based tablet running fill OS X.

Why else include this framework?

You're Logitech. You want to make a keyboard with a built in multi -touch trackpad.

You make music devices. You wan't midi control on a touchable pad.

You're Wacom..you want touch support for your Cintiq tablets.

Really the sky's the limit. Tablets and more can benefit from multi touch being built right in to the OS.

[iReality85]

Originally Posted by antiorario

It's "predominantly," not "predominately."

Originally Posted by paxman

Supposably so.

Originally Posted by allblue

I think you will find the word is actually 'supposedly'.

Originally Posted by Kickaha

That's unpossible.

How unperfect your grammars are! Go get yourselfs educated.

[allblue]

Originally Posted by Kickaha

That's unpossible.

And that sir, is impassable!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Daniel B

Interesting that they include the Multi-Touch framework. This could be an indication of plans and not so distant introduction of a touch based tablet running fill OS X.

I hope it's something like what is mentioned in the article below. I think it's he natural progression of touchscreens, though many will disagree with me (some simply because I am linking to a RDM article).

• http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/0...-iphone-touch/