Detailed Review of Mac OS X Tiger's New Features 101
sammykrupa writes "I have just posted my detailed review of Mac OS X Tiger's new features. The review covers Dashboard, Spotlight, Grapher (Mac OS X's new graphing calculator), QuickTime Player 7, Automator, Safari RSS (2), that cool RSS visualizer, and all that eye candy (iCandy)."
Re:Graphing Calculator (Score:2)
Re:Graphing Calculator (Score:2)
Now beat that Paperweight!
This just in! (Score:4, Funny)
Shameless copying, indeed.
Re:This just in! (Score:3, Funny)
Shouldn't that be "XPoseur"?
Re:Graphing Calculator (Score:2, Informative)
Not very in depth.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not very in depth.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. Here's how he sums up Mail 2.0:
"It does not appear much has changed in it since the previous version except for Smart Folders, Spotlight Search, and a bit of a slicker interface."
Not true to anyone who's pokes around even a little in Mail. I looked through the preferences for a few minutes this morning, and there's lots of new stuff.
I think what we have here is the owner of a new web site trying to rush out a review while Tiger is still hot in order to get a headline and drive traffic to his young web site.
Re:Not very in depth.. (Score:1)
NEWS FLASH! (Score:1, Funny)
Yet another nobody who bought the newest version of OS X has jotted down his opinions on the new features and published them on a World Wide Web which is already brimming over with thousands of nobodies expressing thousands of reactions on thousands of web sites and blogs about the very same topic.
No word yet on why his opinion is any more worth scrutiny than any other.
More on this shocking news as the story develops...
Re:NEWS FLASH! (Score:1)
Obligatory Kottke Troll (Score:2)
In addition, during this file tr
Looks nicer than I expected (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:4, Funny)
Heh, I suppose I can't talk. I'm buying it for the RSS Screensaver.
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:1)
Maybe time for an upgrade.
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:2)
On the other hand, there were some movie trailers that did seem "crisper" in QT7. Having read the Ars article, which explains the differences under the hood, it is probably not just my imagination.
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:1)
$199.89 after tax and 10% discount (purchased during Tiger Rollout) for Tiger family pack, which is 5 copies of Tiger.
About $40.00 a seat for Tiger. You can't get a better (and legal) deal than that.
Grapher was Curvus Pro before (Score:3, Informative)
I think I mentioned this here at the time, but presumably as a rank-epsilon anonymous coward
Curvus was already excellent at the time (I am a registered user), and it seems Apple has added some honest improvements, at least a couple of extra buttons that are really useful in the GUI and other features that I didn't try in detail ye
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:3, Informative)
I went to their website a few months ago and they have a Carbonized version -- looks pretty much the same as it always did. I didn't buy the commercial one, just played around with the free one. But it still exists if you're in the market.
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:1)
Dawg, it was 7.
And there's a story there. The guy who developed it got laid off, in the middle, but no one bothered to take away his badge. He kept working there, and all sorts of people conspired to help him... He got it on the gold master, and everything.
http://www.pacifict.com/Story/
Re:Looks nicer than I expected (Score:2)
Man, that was 1994? Makes me feel old.
Not detailed (Score:2)
here's a few things I've noticed. even with these minor issues, OS X is the most perfect thing associated with computers that I've ever known.
1. iTunes widget playlist support very poor
2. list of dashboard widgets only updated when you change page then change back
3. I can't give my bluetooth keyboard/mouse names as long as under Panther
4. when I use spotlight to search for 'dashboard' it lists a PDF that doesn't c
Re:Not detailed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not detailed (Score:2)
Re:Not detailed (Score:2)
Spotlight doesn't just look at file names. Spotlight can search through meta data and content even if in pdf format. Open the file, you should find "dashboard" in it.
Re:Not detailed (Score:2)
If by detailed... (Score:5, Insightful)
5. New interface sounds. Now when you drop something into a folder you hear a cool new sound! Ding!
I can not think of any reason not to buy Tiger for the $129 it costs. You should just make sure that all the Mac OS X applications you rely on are Tiger compatible.
There's nothing at ALL wrong with it? Nothing he would improve? No reason at all not to buy?
Man. I really wish we could get critical reviews.
Re:If by detailed... (Score:5, Informative)
Man. I really wish we could get critical reviews.
Try this one [arstechnica.com] from ars technica, if you haven't already. It's fairly detailed, and not as amateurish, nor is it worshipful.
Meaty goodness.
Re:If by detailed... (Score:5, Informative)
There's no review you need for a new OS X release except for John Siracusa's work--I don't know how this joke of a review got recommended on the front page instead. There should have just been another article on Siracusa's review, even if it was a dupe--it's that good.
Re:If by detailed... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not all completely positive, either. This is my favorite:
I was hoping for a better review. (Score:3, Insightful)
One or two spelling errors is not a big deal, but I proofread my Slashdot posts more carefully than his article was.
One thing he doesn't touch on that I've seen in other sites is that HTML files are not indexed using Spotlight. This was a rude shock to me since most of my documents are written in HTML. (I don't have Tiger yet so that comment is not yet based on experience, but the warning seemed pretty definitive).
I think Tiger looks pretty cool and I'm looking forward to receiving my copy. But this review is not a credible information source.
D
Re:I was hoping for a better review. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I was hoping for a better review. (Score:2)
Re:I was hoping for a better review. (Score:2)
I'm a little surprised they would get this wrong, but it was surprising that they wouldn't have accounted for HTML files. I apologize for spreading inaccurate information.
D
Re:I was hoping for a better review. (Score:2)
Quartz Composer? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Quartz Composer? (Score:2)
Ive been busy playing around with automater to see how much of a replacment it can be for my perl and shell scripting.. so far im fairly impresed with it
I too would love to hear of any Quartz composer posibilitys as i really look forward to trying a few things with it (too much to play with , too little time).
Re:Quartz Composer? (Score:2)
I currently use a custom patch made in Pixelshox when I'm doing live visuals and I'll be converting my patch to Quartz Composer over time and maybe even adding some "real code" to do a proper interface for it.
My patch lets me play two quicktimes, at a time triggering them from banks, and mix effects over the top controlled by midi.
Unfortunately while Quartz Composer has a ton o
Re:Quartz Composer? (Score:1)
what really interests me about QC is the MIDI control. i'm still pretty MIDI-lovin', surrounded by synths, so to have video acting as just another MIDI destination is a new step in the adventure. i guess i just need a couple LCD^H^H^HLED projectors, and i'll have my sounds on the wall, so to speak
Unfortunately while Quartz Com
Re:Quartz Composer? (Score:2)
here:
http://www.eskatonia.com/visuals/technical.html [eskatonia.com]
I'll be sharing some QC stuff when I've had time to play with it more.
Qc can use all the core image filters plus some simple geometric transforms. At the moment there is no API for adding new patches to QC but it seems to be pretty heavily requested so I'm guessing it's only a matter of time.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Quartz Composer? (Score:1)
(.. incidentally
Re: (Score:2)
Are you sure about Quicktime?? (Score:5, Informative)
The boys at Ars Technica seem to think differently. See what's really changed [arstechnica.com] with Quicktime.
Maybe the editors. . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Come on! We can do it! [ctrl-click] . . . [clrl-click] . . . [ctrl-click]
Command-click? (Score:2, Funny)
LOL (Score:2)
Some points missing.... (Score:5, Funny)
psst... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:psst... (Score:3)
For a more meaningful review, see AnandTech (Score:5, Interesting)
Anand, the PC guru who has been extremely positive toward Apple products since becoming a dual-user, beta-tested Tiger throughout its development.
This week his lengthy review praises features, but finds the release version to be buggy and rushed. Performance is also a mixed bag. http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2404&p=1 [anandtech.com]
Two quotes:
Re:For a more meaningful review, see AnandTech (Score:3, Insightful)
Experiences... (Score:3, Informative)
Other than that -
My Tiger notes/annoyances (Score:1)
-Spotlight icon unremovable from menu bar
And probably my biggest annoyance of all:
-Spotlight does not index hidden folders. I've got this great desktop search app, yet it won't index ~/.xchat2/xchatlogs, even if I sym or hardlink it.
-Mail.app looks like shit, can't mailboxes/folders on the right-hand side like the old Mail.app, and didn't import any of my old mailboxes/accounts.
-The neat-looking RSS visualizer screensaver has to pull
Re:My Tiger notes/annoyances (Score:2)
Re:My Tiger notes/annoyances (Score:2)
You can't remove the Apple menu either.
I do get what you're saying though, it's just that Spotlight is an integral part of Mac OS now (just like the Apple menu).
-Spotlight does not index hidden folders. I've got this great desktop search app, yet it won't index ~/.xchat2/xchatlogs, even if I sym or hardlink it.
Slight correction: Spotlight does index hidden folders (the "hidden" flag on HFS). It does not index dot files/folders.
Two solutions for you:
1. Move x
Re:My Tiger notes/annoyances (Score:2)
-While not Tiger-specific, Quicksilver doesn't have a calculator plugin.
It does [blacktree.com], although it's really basic. Interestingly, it's called "Calculator Module," and serves as a Quicksilver-style frontend for UNIX (or POSIX?) commands bc or dc - you get to choose. It runs in the bezel. Press "." (dot) to enter input mode, write your math, tab to the right quadrant and get your result.
Of course, it uses command line-style syntax, and it outputs to the very basic stdout();.
Re:My Tiger notes/annoyances (Score:2)
cd ~
mv
ln -s !$
Detailed? (Score:5, Insightful)
The treatment of Automator is particularly disappointing: the author basically says he doesn't understand the feature. Ouch.
There's little mention of Tiger's under-the-hood improvements, and the author doesn't seem familiar with the complete overhaul of Quicktime.
Other posters have cited Ars Technica's Tiger overview by way of comparison. I think the folks at Ars have shown us how an OS review is to be done. We don't see much of that quality at Slashdot or over at the hapless OS News.
Mac True Reality (Score:1, Interesting)
It doesn't matter which way you look at it; whatever excuses you may hear about Desk Accessories and what not; the fact that in the eyes of the Law Konfabulator devs have no real recourse, really you have to ask if it had been the other way round what wou
Re:Mac True Reality (Score:1)
So, making software that has a similar function to other software is "robbery" now? I guess that must mean that almost every Open Source developer is a thief. That GIMP shamelessly steals from Photoshop. That Firefox shamelessly steals from every previous
Re:Mac True Reality (Score:1)
Re:Mac True Reality (Score:1)
modern day internet (Score:1, Insightful)
Just look at the ridiculuous amount of Tiger reviews on http://www.macsurfer.com/ [macsurfer.com]
Not a professional review but still interesting (Score:1)
Cute minigolf for Mac: http://www.funpause.com/gardengolf/ [funpause.com]
Detailed review (Score:1)
Another More Subjective Review (Score:1)
Also, Dashboard is great!
I dont think It counts as a review (Score:1)
Re:Pirated Copy of Tiger? (Score:2)
As far as reviews go (Score:2)
One of the weirdest that I've noti
Re:As far as reviews go (Score:2)
Hmm, works for me. I did a Spotlight search for 'kitten' and got the pictures I took a couple weeks ago of my brother's kitten, for which I had entered 'kitten' in the photos' comment boxes.
I have iLife '05... perhaps that makes a difference.
Re:As far as reviews go (Score:2)
Dashboard Gap!! (Score:1, Insightful)
-- SYSTEM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
I mean WTF! What is a dashboard if it doesn't tell you how well the engine is running. I was amazed that it was not included as a default widget.
This should come with Tiger. What a shame.
Re:Dashboard Gap!! (Score:2)
~Philly
Re:Dashboard Gap!! (Score:1)
In the systems management world, or IT world for that matter.
I assumed that it would come with a systems performance widget.
Stupid it doesn't, regardless of what Activity Monitor does or does not do.
POC (Score:1)