Although Apple's new Leopard operating system won't be released until October, Steve Jobs is scheduled to give a sneak peek at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday June 11.
He's promised some top-secret features, which may or may not be an important new 3-D interface, but here's what we know about Mac OS X 10.5 so far.
Leopard's New Apps
One of Leopard's most anticipated new features is Time Machine, an automatic backup system that makes periodic hard-drive backups. Unlike most backup systems which restore the whole disk to a fixed state, Time Machine can be used to pick and choose specific files to restore.
Time Machine is essentially a dressed up version-control system, something programmers have long relied on for tracking changes to files. However, thanks to Apple's penchant for visual flair, it looks totally unique. Time Machine has a stunning 3-D interface that lets users move forward and backward through time visually.
Another brand-new feature for Leopard is Spaces, Apple's take on virtual desktops. With Spaces, users can swap between dedicated virtual workspaces -- keep a web browser, e-mail client and iTunes on one desktop, then flip to a work desktop containing Photoshop and Illustrator documents. As with Time Machine, Spaces has an animated interface.
Tidy Up Around the Office
Apple's desktop Mail program will be enhanced by a notes-to-self feature, to-do lists, an RSS reader and new templates for sending e-mail with embedded images.
While Apple claims the revamped Mail has "breakthrough new features that have never been seen before in a Mail application," that's really stretching it. Nearly everything "new" in Apple Mail is already available to Outlook and Entourage users, and to users of specialty applications like EverNote. But Mail users should be happy that Apple's e-mail software is now up to speed with the competition.
The Notes feature allows users to store personal reminders in the form of text, graphics, photos, web clippings and attachments. According to Apple, Notes can be stored in mailboxes accessible from any computer, but the company hasn't provided any details about how that connectivity will work. It may be limited to users with .mac accounts.
To-dos can be created on the fly from Notes or in an e-mail. Newly created lists automatically sync with Apple's iCal calendar app. Lists will also be accessible systemwide, much like Mac Address Book data, and will theoretically be available to apps created by third-party developers wishing to leverage them.
Mail for Leopard will ship with rich HTML templates for e-mail and newsletters called Stationary. Mail will also get its own embedded media browser for quick access to iPhoto libraries, making it easy for users to drag snapshots into e-mails.
The last new feature for Mail in Leopard is a built-in RSS feed reader. Apple's Safari browser already handles RSS feeds, and so far Apple hasn't given any hint as to how the two will work together, if at all.
OMG! New iChat!
The video and sharing features in Apple's iChat instant messaging will get a boost when Leopard is released. While video chatting, users will be able to add custom background images or tweak the feed with effects like Photo Booth's ever-popular "funhouse mirror" treatment. Additionally, iChat users will be able to stream videos, photo slideshows and Keynote presentations to each other. There's also a new collaboration feature that lets users give each other remote desktop access during chats. Turn it on and let your friend at the other end of the line "take the wheel" to show you how to perform a specific task on your machine.
Browsable Widgets
Mac OS X's Dashboard widget manager is rumored to be getting a major overhaul, but other than hints of a new 3-D interface, details remain largely unknown. The only official new feature Apple has revealed is Web Clip, a Dashboard tool that allows users to clip any part of a web page and turn it into a "live widget" -- really just a browser window embedded on the Mac OS X Dashboard.
More Power Under the Hood
Leopard will be the first version of OS X to fully support 64-bit systems. For the time being, this will really only help users with the latest Intel hardware -- namely the Xserve, Mac Pro and the most recent Core 2 Duo notebooks.
Spotlight gets more powerful, too. Apple's systemwide search mechanism will gain the ability to show previews of documents inside searches. Spotlight will also support common Boolean search operators like not and or.
One More Thing...
Steve Jobs has promised that Leopard has a few more tricks up its sleeve, and the Apple rumor mills continue to speculate wildly.
One notable rumor is that Apple's Bootcamp (which will ship with Leopard) may include some virtualization features and will offer full support for running Windows Vista on Intel-based Mac hardware. If true, this will be a tough blow to current virtualization offerings from VMware and Parallels.
Others claim that Safari and Mail will gain phishing protection and greater Ajax support for webapps like Gmail. This is likely, as these features are already available in nightly builds of WebKit, Apple's open-source code base for web-enabled applications.
Finally, media-hoarding geeks are abuzz about Leopard's rumored support for Sun Microsystems' Zettabyte File system, or ZFS, which eliminates file-size limits and improves hard-drive reliability.