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We've got a new system for getting our three news roundups (Mac News Review, The 'Book Review, and iNews Review) posted earlier than usual by doing a quick proofread and link check but leaving out images. We'll add images later in the day as time permits. dk
MacBook, PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing is covered in The 'Book Review. iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV news is covered in The iNews Review.
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As jingle-pundits desperately try to denigrate Snow Leopard as a "Service Pack," Apple's new operating system reference release actually expands the reach of the Mac platform in several important and under-reported new directions. Here's the third in a series looking closer at some of Snow Leopard's well-known, but often misrepresented or misunderstood features.
OpenGL, OpenCL, and Grand Central Dispatch
Apple's support for OpenGL and its introduction of OpenCL as the new standard in GPGPU computing will work together to weaken Microsoft's proprietary push to make DirectX/D3D the primary API supported by GPU hardware developers such as AMD/ATI and NVIDIA.
As other platforms also throw their support exclusively behind OpenGL, from the Wii to the PlayStation 3 to Apple's own considerable iPhone/iPod touch juggernaut in mobile device computing, the market power Microsoft has established in its efforts to kill open GPU standards and substitute them with Windows-only substitutes will continue to fade.
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In June of 2004, during the WWDC keynote address, Steve Jobs revealed Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to developers and the public for the first time. When the finished product arrived in April of 2005, Tiger was the biggest, most important, most feature-packed release in the history of Mac OS X by a wide margin. Apple's marketing campaign reflected this, touting "over 150 new features."
All those new features took time. Since its introduction in 2001, there had been at least one major release of Mac OS X each year. Tiger took over a year and a half to arrive. At the time, it definitely seemed worth the wait. Tiger was a hit with users and developers. Apple took the lesson to heart and quickly set expectations for the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard. Through various channels, Apple communicated its intention to move from a 12-month to an 18-month release cycle for Mac OS X. Leopard was officially scheduled for "spring 2007."
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I was surprised by one line in Walt Mossberg's otherwise predictable review of Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard:
"But here's a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140."
I know Apple's PR people are having a heart attack right now reading that. They don't like it when influential journalists suggest violations of the EULA. In fact, they generally label that stuff as "illegal," and I am sure many lawyers would agree that it is.
So, is this Mossberg ripping open his shirt, tying a bandana around his head and saying, "Ahoy mateys, the rules were meant to be keel-hauled!" Or is this a slip-up he's going to have to apologize for—or at least qualify with an explanation—in the morning? Is it a great tip, or is he telling every Tiger user to steal $140 out of the mouth of Steve Jobs? We'll keep an eye out for the answer.
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Of all of the numerous improvements in Snow Leopard, the biggest might be its miserly use of energy. Snow Leopard doesn't just speed up your Mac, it also makes it a better environmental citizen.
Apple already had good energy saving credentials before Snow Leopard was released, including Energy Star ratings for all of its computers.
After installing Snow Leopard, many have found that their battery drain rates had decreased in Snow Leopard, indicating a lower power draw. I get about 10-20 additional minutes out of my MacBook Pro since upgrading.
I'm not certain where all of the energy saving takes place but Grand Central Dispatch could certainly manage processors more effectively, thereby saving some CPU cycles.
CNET got some hard results by testing a 17-inch MacBook Pro with Leopard and again with Snow Leopard and found that using Snow Leopard would save 10 KWh of energy per year. Sure that is only around a dollar of savings. But Apple is upgrading a lot of Macs.
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The more I play with Snow Leopard, the more it looks like it’s designed to run Apple’s upcoming tablet.
Look at Expose in the Dock — the new feature that reveals all an application’s open windows when you click and hold the application’s icon. It’s tailor-made for fingers. Even more convincing is Stacks in the Dock. Hit a folder icon in the dock, and up pops the folder and all its files. Each icon is a big target for your finger, and the window has a big, fat slider for scrolling up and down (no more fiddly little arrows at the top or bottom). Both of these UI tweaks scream ‘touchscreen.’
And then today I discovered an unheralded feature that the minute I saw it, I thought, “Game over! Here’s rock-solid proof that Snow Leopard is designed for touchscreens. This is a tablet operating system.”
The new UI element s a virtual keyboard, a must-have for a tablet. Snow Leopard includes a big virtual keyboard that looks clearly designed for typing on a touchscreen. It’s a big, bold version of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard with large keys that scream “type me!”
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