Snow Leopard screenshots show interface tweaks
A gallery of screenshots from the latest build of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system showcases a handful of minor design tweaks that have been reported around the web in recent weeks.
The screenshots, published by World of Apple, come from Mac OS X 10.6 build 10A261, which was released to members of Apple's developer connection earlier this month.
New Keyboard Shortcuts Preference Pane
While it's rumored that Apple is keeping some more significant interface changes close to its chest at this time, a handful of subtle refinements have cropped up in versions of the software provided to third party developers, such as a revised Keyboard Shortcuts Preference pane modeled after the Finder, with commands organized into categories displayed in the left-hand column.
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Snow Leopard's Keyboard Shortcuts panel has been redesigned with clarity in mind | Source: World of Apple.
New Put Back function
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Put Back will return items placed in the Trash to their original location in the Mac OS X file system | Source: World of Apple.
Navigating Folders in Stacks
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Snow Leopard will offer an interface for navigating nested folders in Stacks view | Source: World of Apple.
A video demonstrating this functionality has also been published.
Early release unlikely
Meanwhile, rumors of an early release of Snow Leopard are unlikely to come to pass. A presentation slide from one Apple director had raised hopes for a public release sometime during the first quarter of 2009, though developers speaking to both World of Apple and AppleInsider suggest this won't be technically possible given the current state of the software, which still requires considerable refinement.
Another rumor that may not come true, at least in its reported form, is the inclusion of QuickTime Pro features in the complimentary version of QuickTime Player that's due to ship with Snow Leopard. Since reports on the matter first surfaced earlier this month, people familiar with previous Mac OS X beta tests have reported that Apple routinely enabled Pro features in versions of QuickTime Player seeded with builds of both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard to provide developers unfettered access to test those functions.
QuickLook Icons
QuickLook Finder icons, a feature present in some of the first external builds of Snow Leopard, have also disappeared in recent seedings.
The screenshots, published by World of Apple, come from Mac OS X 10.6 build 10A261, which was released to members of Apple's developer connection earlier this month.
New Keyboard Shortcuts Preference Pane
While it's rumored that Apple is keeping some more significant interface changes close to its chest at this time, a handful of subtle refinements have cropped up in versions of the software provided to third party developers, such as a revised Keyboard Shortcuts Preference pane modeled after the Finder, with commands organized into categories displayed in the left-hand column.
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Snow Leopard's Keyboard Shortcuts panel has been redesigned with clarity in mind | Source: World of Apple.
New Put Back function
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Put Back will return items placed in the Trash to their original location in the Mac OS X file system | Source: World of Apple.
Navigating Folders in Stacks
[:: Description redacted at the request of Apple::]
Snow Leopard will offer an interface for navigating nested folders in Stacks view | Source: World of Apple.
A video demonstrating this functionality has also been published.
Early release unlikely
Meanwhile, rumors of an early release of Snow Leopard are unlikely to come to pass. A presentation slide from one Apple director had raised hopes for a public release sometime during the first quarter of 2009, though developers speaking to both World of Apple and AppleInsider suggest this won't be technically possible given the current state of the software, which still requires considerable refinement.
Another rumor that may not come true, at least in its reported form, is the inclusion of QuickTime Pro features in the complimentary version of QuickTime Player that's due to ship with Snow Leopard. Since reports on the matter first surfaced earlier this month, people familiar with previous Mac OS X beta tests have reported that Apple routinely enabled Pro features in versions of QuickTime Player seeded with builds of both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard to provide developers unfettered access to test those functions.
QuickLook Icons
QuickLook Finder icons, a feature present in some of the first external builds of Snow Leopard, have also disappeared in recent seedings.
Comments
The Put Back function is a feature I've wanted to see in prior versions in Mac OS X. With each passing tid bit of Snow Leopard, the OS is looking as though it's going to be a great release.
Trouble is, it's a minor feature. Why not include these improvements for 10.5 in an update? Same with the Stacks feature - that's how Stacks should have worked in the first place.
No Quicktime Pro would be disappointing but expected. They should make it free for Mac users.
Oh, just give me the old drop-down menu from OS9. I'm not impressed with the push to accommodate big icon graphics everywhere. Productivity suffers.
You can always put your applications folder on the dock and ctrl-click and check "View Contact As: List." Then your apps pop up in a list much like the old drop-down menu.
No Quicktime Pro would be disappointing but expected. They should make it free for Mac users.
Let's hope not.
Snow leopard includes QuickTIme X. Why go backward?
"Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone™, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback." http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008...owleopard.html
Now if there is a QuickTime X Pro, I would expect that it is not free. And I would gladly pay the $30 or so for the upgrade if it is as functionally different as the current QuickTime v.s. QuickTime Pro is now.
The Put Back function is a feature I've wanted to see in prior versions in Mac OS X. With each passing tid bit of Snow Leopard, the OS is looking as though it's going to be a great release.
Command Z does a 'put back' now of sorts in Leopard if you need it but presumably it is a fuller functioned version of this. Yes I agree it looks like it will be a worthwhile upgrade.
These features would be really cool, I've missed the limited stacks in Leopard, but I would still like those quick-look icons.
I was wondering when there was going to be a put back feature for the trash. I've used it many times when I was in XP but never saw it in Mac.
And, when are they going to give it a good wallpaper?! I mean dark pink outerspace?!
1.
Will it enable GPU acceleration of video play back on my early 2008 MBP. There are obvious benefits here but I'm concerned that Apple may not support older hardware in this manner.
2.
Closely related is how far back will OpenCL support go?
3.
There are more questions too about the development environment such as what has changed. Specifically will Apple adopt Python 3. A quick move to Python three on Apples part would be huge in my mind.
4.
The issue with networking, via WiFi, on MBP - is it fixed yet? The constant hunting for a connection is still a huge use for it machine making some networks unusable. Worst the last update actually made WiFi worst on my machine. Is there any evidence that they threw in the towel here and implemented something new?
That video acceleration is important because it doesn't look like a replacement Mac will be had this year. As a side not it would be very interesting to know if people have seen GPU acceleration in the various parts of the OS yet. For example has the Finder or PDF rendering been accelerated by the use of GPUs in these prereleases?
It is sad that we have months to go before SL release, but I'm really hoping they focus real hard on quality control this time.
Dave
There are a couple of things I'm very interested in seeing in Snow Leopard listed below.
1.
Will it enable GPU acceleration of video play back on my early 2008 MBP. There are obvious benefits here but I'm concerned that Apple may not support older hardware in this manner.
2.
Closely related is how far back will OpenCL support go?
3.
There are more questions too about the development environment such as what has changed. Specifically will Apple adopt Python 3. A quick move to Python three on Apples part would be huge in my mind.
4.
The issue with networking, via WiFi, on MBP - is it fixed yet? The constant hunting for a connection is still a huge use for it machine making some networks unusable. Worst the last update actually made WiFi worst on my machine. Is there any evidence that they threw in the towel here and implemented something new?
That video acceleration is important because it doesn't look like a replacement Mac will be had this year. As a side not it would be very interesting to know if people have seen GPU acceleration in the various parts of the OS yet. For example has the Finder or PDF rendering been accelerated by the use of GPUs in these prereleases?
It is sad that we have months to go before SL release, but I'm really hoping they focus real hard on quality control this time.
Dave
PDF viewing has always been hardware accelerated, as that's the essence of Quartz Extreme introduced back in OS X 10.2. It's full hardware acceleration of video playback and custom-coded software routines that should be in OS X 10.6 (though newer Macs with the 9400M chipset already do 1080p playback on chip).
Command Z does a 'put back' now of sorts in Leopard if you need it but presumably it is a fuller functioned version of this. Yes I agree it looks like it will be a worthwhile upgrade.
I think the point is that you can "Put Back" an item in the Trash even if you moved it there last week, or last month. That's cool.
Trouble is, it's a minor feature. Why not include these improvements for 10.5 in an update?
I can't figure out why this basic and very useful feature was not included with all versions of OS X. Perhaps their inclusion with SL is to give some user seen features that will get people to pony up the $129 for the update.
Trouble is, it's a minor feature. Why not include these improvements for 10.5 in an update? Same with the Stacks feature - that's how Stacks should have worked in the first place. ...
I don't think you know if it's a "minor feature" or not.
Sure it seems trivial, but the fact that they dropped this popular feature when they moved to OS-X, and haven't implemented it since even though people have been asking for it, kind of argues against the idea that it's a minor feature or easy to do.
Maybe it's hard to do (or to do right). Maybe they had to wait for a Cocoa finder to do it.
Oh, wait, I thought we were still talking about the Mac mini.
Don't have my Mac here at work to check the Leopard icons to see - stuck on Winblows, as usual.
Somebody please tell me that Apple has restored the ability for List-style stacks (i.e. the menus, like we had in earlier versions of Mac OS X) to resolve aliases.
That's the single most annoying lost feature in Leopard for me. If Apple has allowed stacks to follow sub-folders, could it possibly have restored alias functionality in dock menus as well? I do hope so. Perhaps someone with the Snow Leopard beta could say...?
PDF viewing has always been hardware accelerated, as that's the essence of Quartz Extreme introduced back in OS X 10.2.
Interesting! Ive only gotten back into using Macs last year and was under the impression that quartz Extreme only accelerated the lower level primitives. But if the GPU is doing more than that then it is a pleasant surprise.
It's full hardware acceleration of video playback and custom-coded software routines that should be in OS X 10.6 (though newer Macs with the 9400M chipset already do 1080p playback on chip).
Yeah this I understand and I would expect them to support new hardware going forward. What I'm hoping for is that old hardware (relatively new actually) like mine will be supported. I've seen nothing so far indicating how far back OpenCL and video acceleration support will go. I know my video card is capable but that is not the same thing as saying Apple will support OpenCL on it.
Dave
Let's hope not.
Snow leopard includes QuickTIme X. Why go backward?
I have had issues with .Mac syncing. even though I synced, it keeps coming up with conflicts.. but thats the only issue I have come across