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Apple today announced that Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" will go on sale Friday, April 29, beginning at 6:00 p.m. during special events at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The next-generation of the Mac OS X operating system has more than 200 new features and innovations including Dashboard, an updated iChat, a new Automator workflow application, Safari with a built-in RSS reader and Spotlight, Apple's new desktop search technology that lets users instantly find anything stored on their Mac. "Mac OS X Tiger is the most innovative and secure desktop operating system ever created," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Tiger's groundbreaking new features like Spotlight and Dashboard will change the way people use their computers, and drive our competitors nuts trying to copy them." It is available for $130 for a single user license or as a family pack for $200 (single-residence, five-user license). Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger features Spotlight, Apple's new lightning fast way for users to find virtually anything stored on their Mac. "Much like users can instantly find songs in iTunes by name, artist or album, Spotlight searches the contents inside documents and information about those documents, or metadata, to find just about anything -- emails, contacts, appointments, images, PDFs, and almost any type of document, including Microsoft Office documents -- then automatically organizes and instantly displays the results."
Apple says that the because Spotlight technology is built into the core of the operating system, it automatically updates results instantly whenever files change; it also enables developers to incorporate Spotlight technology into their applications. Apple says it has incorporated Spotlight search technology into several Tiger applications including Mail, Address Book, Finder and System Preferences. In addition, several third party developers are expected to introduce applications with Spotlight search technology in the coming months.
Dashboard offers a new paradigm for displaying accessory applications on the desktop. The application, which Apple's calls "widgets", appear instantly to give users immediate access to information such as stock quotes, weather forecasts, airline flight tracking, unit of measure, currency conversions and a phone book. "With a single click a user's favorite Dashboard widgets instantly appear with up to the second information; with another click they're instantly gone and the user is right back to where they left off."
Apple says that Mac OS X Tiger ships with 14 widgets and that developers can leverage standard web technologies such as HTML and JavaScript to create new widgets, which users can easily add to their Dashboards.
The new operating system also includes an updated version of iChat, which supports the new H.264 video codec for "dramatically" better picture quality over the same Internet bandwidth. Users can now create audio conferences with up to 10 people and video conferences with up to four people in a 3D virtual conference room, which simulates seating in a conference board room. In addition, contacts on a Buddy List can now see which iTunes song a user is playing and view it in the iTunes Music Store with just one click.
Tiger's new Automator workflow application lets users easily automate repetitive tasks without complex programming. Users can select from a library of more than a hundred customizable actions and drag and drop them to create an automated workflow, specifically tailored to suit their requirements. Once created, workflows can be saved and even shared with friends and colleagues.
The updated version of Safari also sports a built-in RSS reader to provide instant access to the most current information from leading news organizations, community web sites and even personal weblogs (blogs) directly from the browser. Multiple RSS feeds can be merged into one easy-to-read interface to create a user's own personal news clipping service, according to Apple.
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