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The Mac is on a roll. Apple Inc.’sperennially praised but slow-selling Macintosh computers have surged inpopularity in the past few years, with sales growing much faster thanthe overall PC market, especially in the U.S. By some measures, Maclaptops are now approaching a 20% share of U.S. noncorporate sales, upfrom the low single digits where they once seemed stuck.
There are several reasons for this, including the security problemsin the dominant Windows platform from Microsoft; spillover from Apple’sblistering success with its iPod music players; the fact that Macs cannow run Windows programs; and Apple’s highly successful chain ofcompany-owned retail stores.
But another key factor has been the Mac operating system, called OSX, which came out in 2001. It has proved to be as powerful andversatile for mainstream consumers as Windows, yet easier to use andmore secure. And Apple has upgraded OS X far more rapidly than MicrosoftInc. has upgraded Windows, bringing out major new releases roughlyevery 18 months, while Microsoft struggled for more than five years toproduce the latest Windows iteration, Vista, which came out in January.
On Friday evening, Apple will release yet another new version of OSX, called Leopard, to replace the current version, known as Tiger. I’vebeen testing Leopard, and while it is an evolutionary, not arevolutionary, release, I believe it builds on Apple’s qualityadvantage over Windows. In my view, Leopard is better and faster thanVista, with a set of new features that make Macs even easier to use.
Leopard will come preinstalled on all new Macs. It can also bepurchased for $129 as an upgrade to existing Macs that, depending onconfiguration, can be as many as six years old. Unlike Vista, which issold in four noncorporate upgrade versions ranging from a $100stripped-down “basic†edition to a $259 deluxe “ultimate†edition,there’s only one version of Leopard. It includes all the features, fromthose aimed at novices to those aimed at power users.
For me, the marquee features in Leopard are a new function calledTime Machine that automatically backs up your entire computer in thebackground; two new methods, called Cover Flow and Quick Look, forrapidly viewing the contents of files without opening any programs; andnew techniques that allow you to access the files in, and to remotelycontrol, other computers on your network or connected over the Internetwith a few clicks and no technical expertise.
Plus, Apple’s free software for running Windows on a Mac, calledBoot Camp, which was formerly an add-on users had to download andinstall, is now built right into the operating system. And, in mytests, the third-party Fusion program for running Windows and Macprograms simultaneously continued to work fine in Leopard.
I did notice a few drawbacks, but they were minor. The menu bar isnow translucent, which can make it hard to see the items it contains ifyour desktop picture has dark areas at the top. The new folder iconsare dull and flat and less attractive than Vista’s or theirpredecessors on the Mac. While Time Machine can perform backups over anetwork, the backup destination can only be a hard disk connected to aMac running Leopard. And, on the Web, I ran into one site where thefonts on part of the page were illegible, a problem Apple says is knownand rare and that I expect it will fix.
While Apple claims the new system includes more than 300 newfeatures, there is nothing on the list that could be consideredstartling or a major breakthrough. Some of Leopard’s features areunique, but many others — such as backing up data and quickly viewingfiles — have been available on both Windows and the Mac via third-partyprograms or hard-to-find geeky methods buried in the operating systems.Leopard has made them easy to find and use.
When I upgraded my personal iMac desktop to Leopard, it took lessthan an hour, and after the process was complete, all my programs,including the Mac version of Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browserand Adobe Reader, worked rapidly and fine. I was still able to runWindows XP via Fusion. And my previous installation of Boot Camp, whichturns the iMac into a speedy, full-fledged Vista machine after areboot, worked perfectly. All my Vista programs and files continued tofunction properly.
With <highlight type="\"BOLD\"">Cover Flow</highlight>, users get a visual preview of a computer’s files without having to open programs.
In fact, every piece of software and hardware I tried on twoLeopard-equipped Macs — a loaned laptop from Apple and my own upgradediMac — worked fine, exhibiting none of the compatibility problems thatcontinue to plague Vista. My old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, forwhich Vista lacks the proper software, worked instantly in Leopard,even over the network. And, unlike with Vista, it was able to print onboth sides of the page. I popped my old Verizon cellphone modem cardinto the test Leopard laptop and it worked, too, with no softwareinstallation or tweaking.
Leopard felt about as fast as Tiger, and it started up much fasterthan Vista in my tests. I compared a MacBook Pro laptop with Leopardpreinstalled to a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista preinstalled. Even thoughI had cleared out all of the useless trial software Sony had placed onthe Vaio, it still started up painfully slowly compared with theLeopard laptop.
It took the Vista machine nearly two minutes to perform a cold startand be ready to run, including connecting to my wireless network. TheLeopard laptop was up, running and connected to the network in 38seconds. In a test of restarting the two laptops after they had beenrunning an email program, a Web browser and a word processor, the Sonywith Vista took three minutes and 29 seconds, while the Apple runningLeopard took one minute and five seconds.
Here’s a rundown of some of Leopard’s key features. Much more detailed information is available at apple.com/macosx.
File management: Apple’s Finder, the equivalent ofExplorer in Windows, now offers two new ways to quickly see what yourfiles contain. You can still view them as icons or lists. But you canalso use Cover Flow, the same system Apple uses in iTunes and on theiPhone to display album covers for music. In Leopard, a large previewof each file you select appears above the list of files in a folder,and you can rapidly scroll through these icons. These previews arelive, and their contents can be viewed without opening the program thatis normally needed to display them.
<highlight type="\"BOLD\"">Time Machine</highlight> backs up files.
For instance, if the file is a video, you can just click on it, andit will play. If it’s a multipage PDF file, you can click on it, andarrows will appear allowing you to flip through the pages.
An even better and deeper look can be obtained using a featurecalled Quick Look. Just hit the space bar or click on a toolbar icon,and a preview of any selected file zooms out. You can even viewmultiple sheets in an Excel file via Quick Look without launching Excel.
Another quick new way to see your files is available in the Dock,the Mac’s equivalent of the Windows Task Bar. Here, any folder youplace on the right side of the dock will display its contents, after asingle click, either as a grid of icons displaying miniversions of thefile or as a “fan,†or arc, of such icons. These special Dock foldersare called “Stacks.†Leopard includes one by default that is thedestination for everything you download from the Internet, so yourdesktop will no longer get cluttered with downloads,
Time Machine: This built-in feature willcontinuously back up all of the contents of your Mac to either anexternal hard drive directly connected to the computer, or to a harddisk connected to another Mac running Leopard that’s on your network.The initial backup, in my tests, took all night, but after that, thesystem updates the backups hourly and I didn’t notice any slowdownduring the process.
To recover any file you deleted, you simply click on the TimeMachine icon, and you are taken to a view that shows file folders — oryour email or address book or photo collection — in a stack of windowsthat appear to go on infinitely. You click on an arrow and the stack ofwindows zooms until you arrive at the last view in which the missingfile existed. Then, you click “restore,†and the file is recovered inyour normal desktop view. You can also restore whole folders, groups offiles, or even an entire hard disk.
Shared computers: In Leopard, any computer that hasbeen set to be shared on your network shows up on the left side ofevery Finder window. Click on it, and you can access whatever foldershave been shared on those machines. Depending on the remote computer’ssecurity settings, you may first have to enter a user name andpassword. It’s the simplest method I’ve ever seen for accessing othercomputers on a network. And it works with Windows PCs as well as Macs.When I first turned on the Leopard laptop in my office, it immediatelyfound a shared folder on my colleague’s old Dell running Windows XP.She hadn’t even remembered sharing the folder, which contained filesfrom 2003.
You can copy or move files to and from these shared computers, orview their contents with Cover Flow and Quick Look, or open them inprograms on your own computer.
If you are a member of Apple’s optional .Mac service, which costs$100 a year, you can use a feature called “Back to My Mac,†which canaccess your Macs from thousands of miles away over the Internet.However, this feature works only over certain kinds of routers (not allof them Apple’s) and, as my router didn’t qualify, I couldn’t test it.
Remote control: For any Mac in yourshared-computers list for which you have permission, you can take overthe screen by simply clicking on a button called “Share Screen.†Youcan also remotely control distant Macs over the Internet using Apple’sbuilt-in iChat instant messaging program, as long as you havepermission and the Macs are running Leopard.
<highlight type="\"BOLD\"">Stacks</highlight> displays the files in folders in the dock.
iChat: Apple now allows you to use its instantmessaging program with Google Talk as well as AOL’s AIM service, andyou can set up a video chat in which you can present a slide show ordisplay a document. You can also add special backgrounds that can makeit look as though you’re someplace else, like Paris. In my tests, thiseven worked with someone on the other end using a Windows XP computerrunning the latest version of AIM.
Spaces: In order to cut down desktop clutter,Leopard lets you set up as many as 16 different desktops that can runsimultaneously, with different programs open in each. You switch amongthese desktops by using keyboard commands or a menu.
For instance, you might have your iPhoto and iTunes running in one“space,†or desktop, your Web browser and email program in another, andWindows XP in another.
Leopard isn’t a must-have for current Mac owners, but it adds a lotof value. For new Mac buyers, it makes switching even more attractive.
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