The next version of Apple's Macintosh operating system - Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - is finally on the loose... and finding its way into the hands of Mac fans across the globe.
The Mac web is awash with fans giving their first impressions, and they're raving over many of the less well-known new features. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), for example, is running a series of features on Ruby on Rails, Core Animation, Hot Spots, iChat screen sharing and Web Clips, among others. Here's a quick overview while we wait for our copy of Leopard to arrive:
More cool Leopard features
David Pogue of the New York Times has also picked of some of his favourite features in Leopard - stuff he didn't have space for the in the review we featured yesterday.
He says its easy to find sometimes deeply buried features in applications using Spotlight - Mac OS X's desktop search tool. While in the application, you simply type the command you're trying to find, and Leopard picks out the nearest match with an arrow to show you where it's hiding.
He also likes the fact that Dictionary words and even a Calculator are also located in Spotlight, saving you the hassle of actually opening the apps. To trigger them press Command-Space and just start typing - if it's a word, the dictionary definition will pop up; if it's a sum, Spotlight will do the calculation for you. How cool is that?
Spotlight can even help you launch applications. Press Command-Space again and start typing the name of the app - bingo! Instant results. Just press Return / Enter to launch the app that pops up.
More Leopard news and analysis coming this way soon.