Today Apple announced Leopard would be pouncing onto computers in 10 days, on Friday, October 26, 2007. Even though I solely use Windows on my home and work computers, I decided to check out the list of features added since the prior Tiger release. After reading these, I’ve realized I’m 75% excited for the features and 25% convinced simply by Apple’s first-rate marketing and design choices. Here are some of the enhancements that caught my eye:
Google Map Addresses
View a detailed map of any address in Address Book. Just hold down the Control key while clicking any address and select “Map of” and Safari will show you its location in Google Maps.
Everything I own should give me one click access to a map; ala iPhone.
UI Recording and Playback
Add even more capabilities to your workflows. Use a new action called Watch Me Do that lets you record a user action (like pressing a button or controlling an application without built-in Automator support) and replay as an action in a workflow.
Imagine an OS that packages in macros. I can finally level up my fishing skill in WoW.
Dashcode IDE
Quickly design, code, and deploy your Dashboard widget. Dashcode is a completely integrated development environment.
A visual IDE built specifically so I can create little widgets that make my life easier; yes, please.
Automatic Packaging and Deployment
Deploy your widget in one click. Dashcode organizes all the files that make up your widget, including images, stylesheets, and JavaScript. Adding new files is handled automatically by the project manager.
Automagic packaging and deployment so I don’t have to spend 4 days figuring out I forgot to make a __config.xml file.
Wikipedia in Dictionary
Harness the power of Wikipedia when you’re connected to the Internet — built right into it’s Dictionary. You get a great Mac OS X user interface with super-fast searching and beautifully laid out-results.
Easy access to information from Wikipedia. I wonder if they could have optionally stored a copy on disk and update periodically so it didn’t require an internet connection. I can’t wait until they forget to renew the domain and a search for book reports on Abe Lincoln(NSFW) returns TMI.
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