Apple Takes Major Leap With Tiger

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May 02, 2005 (Computerworld) -- Want to see what the future of personal computing looks like? Don't wait for Microsoft to show you; go out and get yourself a copy of Apple's latest operating system release, OS X Tiger. It's that good.
For the past few weeks, I've been using the final version of Tiger. There are a lot of nice things in it. For example, iChat2, Apple's instant messaging client, runs rings around the stuff on Windows, and on a G5, you can run a four-way videoconference in seamless full-screen mode. Try that on a PC.
The Dashboard application, including the concept of HTML applets showing contextual snippets of information, is very useful, and like most Apple stuff, it's just plain cool.
But what makes Tiger a big deal are two features that boost personal productivity in ways no PC operating system has ever matched (at least not yet): Spotlight and Automator.
Spotlight's search is integrated directly into the operating system and is therefore much better at finding things than competing programs on Windows. Hierarchal file storage was a great leap forward 20 years ago, when hard drives were measured in tens of megabytes. It worked well then, but not today, when PCs have hundreds of gigabytes of information in local storage and in e-mail, and when data types have been expanded to include pictures, music and video.
With Spotlight, users for the first time aren't forced to learn the intricacies of a hierarchal file system and then spend hours trying to keep organized. They know that when they need to use some information that's somewhere in their computer, Spotlight will let them find it and then manipulate it.
The best part: Since information is easiest to find when tagged, Apple added a visual scripting program called Automator, which is based on AppleScript and makes it a snap to quickly tag information, so it doesn't matter where on your hard disk the data actually lives.

Add in the concept of "smart folders," which work like the smart playlists in iTunes, for constantly monitoring and updating information in real time, and users are finally free to focus on information and not information management.
Want more fun? Use the Safari browser to monitor your RSS feeds and then create smart searches within them. Think of it as your own personal Web service. (And finally there's a simple way to see if a site supports RSS and then easily add it.)
The real challenge for Apple is to make sure that the market understands what it has done. My advice to Apple? Turn up the volume on this release several notches so it doesn't get lost in the checklist wars. (We have search -- check. They have search -- check.)
If you spend too much time organizing your stuff or just can't find it, you need to take a close look at Tiger. There's a real experiential difference. What's missing? Not much. I'd like to see more RSS support so I can better read and search off-line, and I wouldn't mind seeing Microsoft add Spotlight support for Entourage. Otherwise, this operating system is near nirvana for productivity.
There's no doubt that a lot of similar concepts will be included in the next version of Windows. But Longhorn won't be here for at least 18 months. It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us by then.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president and research director for the Personal Technology & Access and Custom Research groups at Jupiter Research in New York. Contact him at mgartenberg2@optonline.net. His weblog and RSS feed are at http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg.

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• Apple Takes Major Leap With Tiger
• Crowds for Tiger release anything but tame
• Apple sued over 'Tiger' name
• Tiger Server 10.4: Open source made easy
• Mac OS X Tiger: All roads lead to Spotlight

• Microsoft to limit capabilities of cheap laptops
• FBI worried as DoD sold counterfeit networking gear
• Update: Microsoft to appeal $1.3B EU fine
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