Inside Mac OS X Tiger build 8A323
Earlier this week, Apple Computer provided its developers with Mac OS X Tiger build 8A323, the third widely distributed pre-release version of its next-generation operating system.
In a five-page seed note accompanying the build, Apple lists over two dozen known issues with the system, in addition to some fixes and improvements over previous builds.
Some fixes delivered in the latest build cover iSight recognition by iChat, font activation, archive installs, SMB filesharing, Finder item locking, Classic, Workgroup Manager, and Login Window.
To compliment the notes, developer sources have provided a pictorial of other known, but undocumented changes to the Tiger OS since build 8A294 was seeded last month:
Spotlight now deactivates itself while indexing is in progress. The Spotlight menu displays a notice to the user, along with a time estimate and progress bar.
A tutorial on Automator, Apple's new automated workflow assistant, confirms reports of an upcoming Automator website from Apple. The document also notes that Automator scripts can be activated through iCal alarms.
QuickTime 6.6 now automatically determines a user's connection speed. With the new version, Apple has also returned fine-tune audio and video settings to the free version of QuickTime player. These controls were previously reserved for paid "Pro" license holders. Meanwhile, Pro users now have access to record audio and video through the QuickTime player.
The fast user switch menu is now operational, sporting shortcuts to the Mac OS X Login Window and Account Preferences.
TextEdit now supports tables and organized lists in addition to page breaks, line breaks, improved text selection, and a beefier 'Find' function.
Apple has added a 'Fax and Print' menu that lets the user toggle fax receiving on or off.
The Mac OS X 'Grab' functions are now accessible from within the Preview application.
The upcoming Apple Hot News screen saver has seen modifications in recent builds. This saver now sports a liquid blue motif.
Address Book has gained support for importing contact information from tab-delimited and comma separated values (CSV) files. The update application will also be capable of printing envelopes and 'mini' pocket-sized versions of a user's address book.
An updated Universal Access preference pane contains controls to increase the size of the mouse cursor.
The Mac OS X Calculator application sports dozens of currency rate updates.
According to sources close to Apple, the operating system is now in the late stages of development. Its expected that within the next 30 days Apple will announce favorable update on Tiger's expected release.
The company continues this month to distribute Tiger solely on DVD, further suggesting the shipping product may also require a DVD drive for installation.
In a five-page seed note accompanying the build, Apple lists over two dozen known issues with the system, in addition to some fixes and improvements over previous builds.
Some fixes delivered in the latest build cover iSight recognition by iChat, font activation, archive installs, SMB filesharing, Finder item locking, Classic, Workgroup Manager, and Login Window.
To compliment the notes, developer sources have provided a pictorial of other known, but undocumented changes to the Tiger OS since build 8A294 was seeded last month:
Spotlight now deactivates itself while indexing is in progress. The Spotlight menu displays a notice to the user, along with a time estimate and progress bar.
A tutorial on Automator, Apple's new automated workflow assistant, confirms reports of an upcoming Automator website from Apple. The document also notes that Automator scripts can be activated through iCal alarms.
QuickTime 6.6 now automatically determines a user's connection speed. With the new version, Apple has also returned fine-tune audio and video settings to the free version of QuickTime player. These controls were previously reserved for paid "Pro" license holders. Meanwhile, Pro users now have access to record audio and video through the QuickTime player.
The fast user switch menu is now operational, sporting shortcuts to the Mac OS X Login Window and Account Preferences.
TextEdit now supports tables and organized lists in addition to page breaks, line breaks, improved text selection, and a beefier 'Find' function.
Apple has added a 'Fax and Print' menu that lets the user toggle fax receiving on or off.
The Mac OS X 'Grab' functions are now accessible from within the Preview application.
The upcoming Apple Hot News screen saver has seen modifications in recent builds. This saver now sports a liquid blue motif.
Address Book has gained support for importing contact information from tab-delimited and comma separated values (CSV) files. The update application will also be capable of printing envelopes and 'mini' pocket-sized versions of a user's address book.
An updated Universal Access preference pane contains controls to increase the size of the mouse cursor.
The Mac OS X Calculator application sports dozens of currency rate updates.
According to sources close to Apple, the operating system is now in the late stages of development. Its expected that within the next 30 days Apple will announce favorable update on Tiger's expected release.
The company continues this month to distribute Tiger solely on DVD, further suggesting the shipping product may also require a DVD drive for installation.
Comments
Originally posted by AppleInsider
According to sources close to Apple, the operating system is now in the late stages of development. Its expected that within the next 30 days Apple will announce favorable update on Tiger's expected release.
Wow. If true, maybe we are looking at a March release date, not June/July-ish? I'd be pleasantly surprised.
So the input menu went back to the country-specific flag? That's a bit disappointing.
Everything else looks nifty.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
Wow. If true, maybe we are looking at a March release date, not June/July-ish? I'd be pleasantly surprised.
I would think a March release date is all but set. Based on history but also progress they have made. A summer release date would mean this would have had an insanely long development cycle.
It is shaping up to be a beautiful release. I'm a bit dissapointed that we haven't seen them attempt any significant breakthroughs yet though. I keep waiting for that one killer advanced feature no one has thought of yet that will change how we work. Tiger has many improvements that will do so to some but I think the next big breakthrough is a change in the finder. It seems to be the weakest link to me. The entire heirarchy thing just seems tedious. Spotlight changes this in ways but doesn't address the finder as much as makes you avoid it
Also, I think the one feature from Panther that is still fresh is Exposé. It has not gotten old. It is really useful. I think that this update is all about expanding Mac OS X outwards, with features like Dashboard and Automator, whereas previous updates were about building Mac OS X upwards, such as getting the Finder/Dock to the current state and almost everything in 10.1 and some of 10.2. Although, Spotlight does extend Mac OS X upwards to where it is heading, a completely meta-data based file system (with the exception of the Sites folder).
Maybe we won't see any other revolutionary kind of changes to the OS until we start using different hardware, touchscreens anyone?
By far the best thing about Tiger for me, will be the fact that it is 64 bit and so should show considerable difference to the speed ( I hope).
Originally posted by Hobbes
So the input menu went back to the country-specific flag? That's a bit disappointing.
That's the only reason why I currently display the input menu. I like having the flag of the USA on my menu bar.
I'm glad Apple switched this back...I would've hated to have seen the terrorists win.
Originally posted by oceanzen
By far the best thing about Tiger for me, will be the fact that it is 64 bit and so should show considerable difference to the speed ( I hope).
Don't expect speedups as a result of 64 bit.
Originally posted by macslut
I'm glad Apple switched this back...I would've hated to have seen the terrorists win.
Yes, because the latest front in the war on "terror" is the OS X menu bar. Watch out! Osama might be lurking just behind the Fast User Switching menuitem!
Originally posted by AppleInsider
Address Book has gained support for importing contact information from tab-delimited and comma separated values (CVS) files.
I think you meant CSV. CVS is something else entirely...
Mike
Preview's Grab would only work within Preview, is my guess, unless they make it into a Service, and eliminate the Grab Service/App that way.
Originally posted by oceanzen
By far the best thing about Tiger for me, will be the fact that it is 64 bit and so should show considerable difference to the speed ( I hope). [/B]
lol ;-)
don't expect anything with 64bits, it's just marketing, totally useless if you don't use more than 8Go of memory and terrabyte of data ;-).
you will not see any differences !!!
IMO there are not reason to change to Tiger, i'd tried the last release and i prefer a rack stable panther (now) than change for some useless gadgets.
i will probably wait 10.5
Originally posted by MCQ
Don't expect speedups as a result of 64 bit.
Are 64-bit Binaries Really Slower than 32-bit Binaries? discusses that topic, altho' the author's testing was limited to a Sun Ultra-5.
Originally posted by fredouil
IMO there are not reason to change to Tiger
Meaning that you have no reason to change.
Anyway, Tiger does seems more targeted towards developers than end users.
Originally posted by AppleInsider
QuickTime 6.6 now automatically determines a user's connection speed. With the new version, Apple has also returned fine-tune audio and video settings to the free version of QuickTime player. These controls were previously reserved for paid "Pro" license holders. Meanwhile, Pro users now have access to record audio and video through the QuickTime player.
Ah now that's excellent news. The audio and movie recording will be very useful indeed. Surely this'll be QT7 eventually, it's the only thing holding me back from a Mac Pro license.
Originally posted by macslut
I would've hated to have seen the terrorists win.
Bush is President so they already did win
Originally posted by fredouil
don't expect anything with 64bits, it's just marketing, totally useless if you don't use more than 8Go of memory and terrabyte of data
Your sentiment is correct but your facts are a bit off. Without any special work arounds the 32bit limit actually tops out at 2GB (2^32 -1 = 2GB). I remember a time on other Unix platforms (not that long ago really) when it wasn't possible to address more than 2GBs of memory in a system, or create file sizes greater than 2GB. Linux, prior to the 2.4.0test7 kernel used to suffer from this without the LFS (Large File Size) patches.
IMO there are not reason to change to Tiger, i'd tried the last release and i prefer a rack stable panther (now) than change for some useless gadgets.
You don't think that Spotlight on its own is good enough reason to upgrade? I'm surprised. I'm really looking forward to that, as I think it's going to give me a huge boost to my productivity.
Originally posted by neondiet
You don't think that Spotlight on its own is good enough reason to upgrade? I'm surprised. I'm really looking forward to that, as I think it's going to give me a huge boost to my productivity.
Spotlight and smart-folders will completely change the way you work. You will no longer care where things are on you HD because thanks to Spotlight they are instantly findable/launchable!