As expected Steve Jobs introduced the new Mac OS X Leopard at the WWDC keynote. You could read about its features in advance, so nothing really new here. Apple gets rid of the brushed metal look; Apple’s website appears in the new design now. To me the most important feature is Time Machine, a kind of version control system with a nice GUI integrated in the operating system. The other features like Spaces or the integration of computers outside the local network are important, but nothing really new. To me Leopard looks rounder - the new features seem to be useful and thoughtfully integrated within the OS. New inside features are a full 64bit implementation of the OS and the new core animation library. Of course also included are a lot of face liftings and other minor goodies. Again this shows that Apple is not only adding goodies just for the looks but for easier usability of large amounts of data, like the new desktop features. Nothing thrilling new but the best operation system made even better. Unfortunately we have to wait until October before Leopard is going to be released.
Also introduced was a new version of Safari, not only for Mac OS X but also for Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista. Steve showed a benchmark were Safari performs much better than the Internet Explorer or even Firefox.
Last but not least, developers are allowed to write their own AJAX applications for the upcoming iPhone. All the programs can also be executed in Safari. Steve demonstrated a small AJAX application that accesses an address database via LDAP.
Actually I was hoping for one more thing, something really exciting new nobody was expecting, but unfortunately we have to wait until the next keynote.
