Monday, October 29, 2007
Apple's Leopard hits the street:
The next major upgrade to Apple's Mac OS X is here. Apple just released Mac OS 10.5 a.k.a. "Leopard." Apple's upgrade promises more than 300 improvements to its venerable Mac OS X operating system.
Leopard is leaping but should you pounce?:
No doubt every Mac user will want to buy this upgrade. However, as with any major upgrade there are going to be bugs to iron out.
Some Leopard early adopters found this out the hard way with the so-called Blue Screen of Death. This upgrade glitch is being blamed on third-party software that some users had installed on their Macs. Most upgraders, though, are not reporting any major headaches yet.
Many software developers have already released versions of their products that are advertised to work under Leopard. However, a vast majority are still behind the eight ball. Even Apple Inc. subsidiary Filemaker Inc., maker of top-selling relational database software Filemaker Pro, is still not compatible with Leopard. Leopard-compatible beta versions of software now abound and, as always, early adopters serve as software guinea pigs.
Look but don't leap:
LA MACTECH's advice is simple: Let us do the heavy-lifting with Leopard for now. As with any system update or major upgrade, we will put Mac OS 10.5 through its paces.
When we are sure that Leopard works with the software our clients use, and developers have released Leopard-compatible updates, we will certainly recommend migrating to this feature-rich OS.
Leopard in a nutshell:
It's no secret that Apple has high hopes for Leopard. But will the more than 300 new features benefit you? Let's take a look at what Leopard has to offer:
Desktop: More vibrant colors and a new 3D Dock make Leopard more user-friendly, organized and cleaner looking than Tiger. The Dock can be customized with Stacks, giving you fast access to folders and files.
- LA MACTECH's Take: Stacks is a major advance in organizing, finding and, most importantly, launching your most frequently used, or important documents. 3D is great eye candy (especially for us geeks) but it is, after all, just eye candy.
Finder: Like in iTunes, you can browse your documents like album cover flows, making it easy to see what you seek. You can also easily find your files by keywords or by date.
- LA MACTECH's Take: Searching for documents can be a frustrating exercise. Making that search visual, thus visceral, is a major step forward in computing.
Quick Look: View the contents of a file without even opening it.
- LA MACTECH's Take: The advantage here is obvious: Why open another application just to find that the document in question is not the one you were seeking?
Time Machine: Apple's breakthrough automatic backup that’s built right into Leopard. It keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac. Now, if you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything.- LA MACTECH's Take: Techmuscle's mantra is: Back up your data! But do our clients heed that warning...? Some do. Most don't. Clients don't back up because it takes effort and is not automatic. Time Machine takes no effort and is completely automatic. If nothing else about Leopard makes you want to upgrade, than Time Machine should!
Mail: Leopard transforms email into personalized stationery with notes you can access anywhere, To-dos that change as your errands do, and of course, everything you do with email.
- LA MACTECH's Take: Apple's Mail application is already a great, free email client. With the addition of notes and stationery, we are hoping that Mail gains all the functionality of the industry-standard Microsoft Outlook. The jury, however, remains out.
Spaces: Use Spaces to group your application windows and banish clutter completely. It's like having multiple virtual Desktops.- LA MACTECH's Take: Desktop clutter is a computer user's nightmare. Virtual Desktops are a new way to control the mess. Advanced computer users relied on 3-rd party software to accomplish this. We are glad that Apple has added this feature to Mac OS X.
Other features Apple hopes users will appreciate include:
- iChat: Now easier than ever to chat with friends, colleagues and family.
- Safari: It is now the fastest browser on the Mac with page load speeds that outperform every other major browser.
- Parental Controls: As a parent, you want your kids to have a safe and happy experience on the computer. Leopard keeps an eye out even when you can’t. With a simple setup, you can manage, monitor, and control the time your kids spend on the Mac, the sites they visit, and the people they chat with.
There are plenty new undocumented features too. AppleInsider's great series "Road to Mac OS X Leopard" not only provides insight into Leopard but gives users a visual timeline of the Mac OS from the earliest systems to now. Check out the latest in their series, "System Preferences."
Leopard Redux:
Even at a retail price of $129, Leopard promises to be a worthy investment. Nonetheless, Techmuscle will test Mac OS 10.5 to make sure that this upgrade works for our clients without a significant interruption of workflow.
How to get Support from LA MACTECH:
LA MACTECH is introducing a smarter and faster way to get support. Our new Web-based Trouble Ticket system alerts us to your support issues immediately and keeps track of your request from start to finish. You can even upload screen shots of alerts you receive, just by clicking a button.
Click "Support" on the menu bar of our Website or visit lamactech.com/support to create a Trouble Ticket (see screen shot below):
Then Click "Click Here to Create a Trouble Ticket Now" and fill in the form (see next screen shot below):
When you are finished with the Trouble Ticket form, click "Submit."
Our Trouble Ticket system is simple, fast and efficient -- it even remembers you from visit to visit! Please let us know if you have any questions or difficulties using this system.