Apple's Tiger stalks Longhorn

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Redmond, Start Your Photocopiers

From:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/06/28/
liveupdate/index.php?redirect=1088423307000

Tiger: 150 new features in store for Mac OS X


The next version of Mac OS X, code-named "Tiger," will ship in
the first half of 2005, according to Jobs. "Other people are trying
to copy Panther," he said.


"We're having fun with that in the lobby," said Jobs, referring to
promotional posters located in the Moscone West convention
center that take a swipe at Microsoft's next version of Windows,
code-named "Longhorn." The banners read "Introducing
Longhorn," "Redmond, start your photocopiers," "This should
keep Redmond busy" and "Redmond, we have a problem."


Spotlight on searching


Jobs said that Tiger will debut about 150 new features, including
the ability to fully support 64-bit processes, finally make use of
some of the core architectural improvements introduced last
year with the PowerPC 970 CPU that serves as the heart of the
Power Mac G5 system. Also new is a search technology called
"Spotlight" that Jobs said "is years ahead" of Microsoft's new
operating system -- it works similarly to the song search
technology in iTunes, and can find files and content in standard
formats. What's more, it's extensible, and works with most
current applications. It's integrated into the Finder, Address
Book, Mail and System Preferences.


Apple recently announced plans to roll the new H.264 video
standard into QuickTime, but the company indicated that it
wouldn't be coming until next year. That left some industry
insiders scratching their heads, but now it's a bit clearer --
QuickTime's H.264 support will be a cornerstone technology of
Tiger, according to Jobs. It's a scalable video codec that works
on everything from 3G "smartphones" to high definition DVD.


RSS comes to Safari


RDF Site Summary (RSS) is an increasingly popular method that
online users have of checking updated content on the Web sites
they visit regularly. It's supported by many news sites, Weblogs
(blogs) and others, and it's led to the development of a cottage
industry of shareware and freeware RSS readers. The Tiger
version of Safari, Apple's own home-grown Web browser, will
sport integrated RSS aggregation including a new RSS-based
search feed, according to Jobs.


Core Image and Core Video


Core Image is a new graphics processing library that will be
introduced with Tiger that drew a comparison from Jobs to Core
Audio, Mac OS X technology that enables developers to more
easily manipulate sound and digital signal processing elements.
Core Audio and its companion Core Video technology processes
graphics using the Mac's graphics hardware, using floating-
point precision and the ability to support real-time filters. The
technology was demonstrated performing instant gaussian blurs,
3D effects like bump distortions and more using a demo
application called Funhouse. Core Video was also instrumental in
the development of Motion, the motion graphics design package
that Apple introduced at the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) 2004 trade show in April.


Dashboard, iChat and Automator


Next up was a look at Dashboard, which Jobs described as
"Expos? for Widgets." The software -- unmistakably similar to a
third-party shareware application called Konfabulator -- enables
users to launch special-purpose "widgets" to accomplish a
variety of tasks. Jobs told developers that a Software
Development Kit (SDK) for Dashboard Widgets is on the way.


Automator is a new visual scripting application that enables
users to teach their Macs how to repeat tasks. An on-stage
demonstration showed how Automator can help families create
DVDs containing photo slideshows, Web site images and more.
Jobs said that an SDK for Automator would be released today.


Tiger's implementation of iChat, Apple's popular AIM-compatible
instant messaging service, will support H.264, said Jobs -- that
equates to higher quality video over the same bandwidth, he
added. What's more, Tiger iChat will support the ability for up to
10 people to chat together in audio simultaneously. Up to three
video users can chat, as well.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 06/28/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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