Leopard Thoughts

January 28, 2007
16 comments

Bit by bit new screenshots of Apple's upcoming release of Mac OS 10.5 Leopard find their way to the web. Recently I found a couple of nice ones at BabyGotMac, which have unfortunately been removed from the site, due to a DMCA notice served by Apple.

Anyway creative as I am I posted one of them on my Flickr account. At a first glance there is nothing special about this particular screenshot - it’s basically just a simple “open” dialog. However if you look at it in more detail you will notice those three buttons next to the back and forward buttons: music, photos, movies.

Mac OS Leopard Media Bar

Media - tightly integrated

Since I don’t have any Leopard builds, I can just speculate - but from my point of view those buttons provide quick access to all your media on your Mac. Once again: nothing special. But wait… does this mean that you can easily access your iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie library from any application? That would be great. I always appreciated the well thought-out integration of the iLife suite. However it was a pain in the ass to access content from other applications.

A system-wide iLife access would be a great deal. However in order to make this work, iLife must be thightly integrated into the operating system. So if you ask me, I suppose that there won’t be a separately sold iLife 07 suite at all - which may also be the reason why Steve Jobs didn’t lose a single word about iLife at MacWorld. So maybe the most innovative feature of Mac OS 10.5 Leopard - besides the hopefully improved user interface - will be its integrated media related functionality. So what’s your guess? :)

 

16 comments

Very interesting — I'm eager to get Leopard for my Mac and the iPhone to replace my mobile ;-)

Julian Schrader

Given the AppleTV, more media features in the iPhone and probably more media related stuff to come, I think it's very likely. Besides, I know how glad I will be if this makes it into the final Leopard version. Countless times I had to dig through the filesystem when I wanted to upload a song from iTunes or a photo from iPhoto. This simple dialog will do much to improve usability.

Alexander Graf

I would like it, if Apple won't sell iLife 07 seperately - saving 70€ is a good thing :-)

Martin

About a year ago, I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be nice if every OS X open dialog had a media section on the sidebar so you could select iPhoto photos, iTunes music, etc.)" I didn't just leave it at that, I filed a request through Apple.com's bug report system that they add that. Bingo!

Paul D.

pimpalicious! - obwohl ich auf nen iphoto und imovie spielkrams button auch gern verzichten kann;-) aber die kann mn dann ja bestimmt abstellen!

Alexander HAhn

You're bang on - Jobs said at the last WWDC that iLife would be bundled with Leopard for free. Have a browse of the keynote and see for yourself, I'm surprised more people didn't notice that? Rich

Richard

iLife has come bundled with every OSX purchase I've made - I don't know why it would be any different with Leopard.

Jim

Well actually you just get an iLife bundle when you buy a Mac - that's not the case when you just buy Mac OS. But it's not just about the fact that it may be bundled - it's all about the fact that it may be a real part of OS X, not just an application.

Wolfgang

It sure looks neat. Having iLife tightly integrated with Leopard might just make it easier to search for that song in a huge library

Anshul

I have never actually used mac OS. I would love an apple laptop though. Just dont have the money to get one. Gotta be one that i can have dual booting vista and macOS tho.

Computer Central

get a macbook! one of the cheapest notebook out there!

Alexander Hahn

I can see why it would be useful, but I dont see myself using it that much. Having iLife built in though instead of installable software, rocks!

Gustavo

This looks like a really useful feature, I can't wait until Lepord comes out!

josh

Hello, my name is Alex, i'm a newbie here. I really do like your resource and really interested in things you discuss here, also would like to enter your community, hope it is possible:-) Cya around, best regards, Alex!

Alexfjgz

Leopard seems to be a very useful feature. I´m eager for knowledge.

Marmelade

Yes, Leopard will definitely be a very cool OS. I am also eager to try out the time machine feature - maybe they will provide a tight integration with media here as well? BTW, does anyone know when they are going to finally release it, any new rumors on this?

Gerald Mesaric

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