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Apple's Tiger closes some Windows

By David Momphard
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Jun 23, 2005, Page 15

Apple has launched a software salvo and dropped a bomb in the space of a few months. The salvo came in the form of its newest operating system, Tiger, and it's a formidable force. The bomb -- the company's announcement that it would switch to Intel processors in its machines -- isn't as explosive as most Mac addicts would believe.?

Perhaps the most noticeable change to the new operating system is Dashboard and the several hundred widgets available to put there. These are small applications such as "stickies," a unit converter, dictionary or translator, but the cooler of them are simple interfaces for Web feeds, such as live news, online cookbooks or a parcel tracker. One of my favorites is a widget that streams classic movies.

It's updated each week with seven films from the public-domain. This week's include West of the Divide and L'il Abner. Press a button and "dashboard" appears to fly in from overhead. Press again and it flies back. Another couple clicks allow you to swap out widgets and increase your collection from Apple's growing online database.

But already it's easy to see where Dashboard could be improved. Most people will soon realize they don't actually need a blood-alcohol calculator at their fingertips and the problem becomes getting the excess of widgets they've downloaded out of the dock. Users have to dig deep into the nether-regions of their hard drive to fidget with widgets. And even then there is no setting of preferences.

It would be nice, for instance, if holding down the key to access Dashboard scrolled through widget screens that could be ordered according to user preferences. That way users could keep their biz apps on one screen and group their blood-alcohol calculator with a library of cocktails on another.

The packaged upgrade to Safari adds Real Simple Syndication (RSS) to Apple's Web browser. To anyone missing out on RSS, check it out. This is a forehead-slapper of an advance for news-perusers or anyone who wants to know what's on the other side of the door without having to knock. The problem is that Safari puts its RSS links in the main window and the list disappears as soon as an item is selected. A third-party Web browser called Firefox does it better by filing the RSS links on the side like the bookmarks they are.? Clicking on one opens the page in the main window while keeping the remainder of the RSS list visible.

The Spotlight search feature lends greater organization to finding folders, documents, mail messages, bookmarks, contacts,? -- anything on your hard drive. It's straightforward and a huge improvement over previous find features on either Mac or PC because it journals the entire contents of your hard drive -- not just file names, but the contents of the files. You know you've written the term "paleolithic pounding" but don't remember where or when? Type it into Spotlight and the file will appear as you type.?

Spotlight also offers the option of creating Smart Folders, These are basically saved Spotlight searches that will automatically continue to be added to according to the criteria you define. Make a smart folder for "Tiger" and any file your system encounters that mentions "Tiger" will be referenced from that smart folder when you search again.

More significantly, Tiger is a different beast to the bone, debuting a 64-bit architecture that takes better advantage of memory space and adds developer-friendly technologies and programming interfaces.

Anyone who was wondering why Apple CEO Steve Job announced that Macintosh machines will sport Intel processors starting in 2006 will understand that the majority of the world's programmers who write software for Intel-based machines will soon get to expand their horizons.

Does it mean the end of "think different"? I think not. Design is the soul of Macintosh and the company will surely continue to produce top-shelf machinery and an intuitive OS. The only difference will be an increased selection of software that runs faster than the current processor will allow.

There will be a difference, too, for those who do Windows. Apple's official position is that Microsofties will be able to install Windows on a Macintosh machine, though the company almost certainly won't write the drivers necessary to fit Windows to Macs' special hardware. However, Microsoft itself may.?

Tiger comes 18 months on the heel of Panther. Microsoft users have been waiting four years for a significant upgrade to Windows and the planned release, Longhorn, won't be available until next year. Given the fact that the door is finally opening with regards to processor platforms -- and given Apple's reputation for cate-ring to consumers, not corporations -- more people may soon be closing their Windows.
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