New QuickTime Player, Cocoa Desktop in latest Snow Leopard beta
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 interfaceÂ*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.
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 interfaceÂ*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.
Comments
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.
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.
Pictures? Pleez?
that would be illegal wouldn't it?
It's "predominantly," not "predominately."
Supposably so.
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
- 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 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...
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.
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.
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
Supposably so.
Aren't they one in the same?
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...
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
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.