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Apple's Mac OS 'Tiger' Ready to Pounce

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

April 29, 2005, 9:00 AM

Events are being planned ahead of today's launch of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" across Apple's 105 retail stores worldwide and in participating resellers such as CompUSA beginning at 6 p.m. At that time, Apple will unleash the new version of its operating system, said to include some 200 new features.

Reviews thus far have praised Tiger as being worth the $129 USD it will cost users to upgrade. Apple itself has pointed to additions such as Tiger's Spotlight desktop search and Dashboard widgets - features that will not be available on the Windows platform until Longhorn launches late next year.

The events at Apple's retail locations will run from 6 p.m. to midnight and will include demonstrations of the added features within Tiger, as well as workshops to help users understand how the new Mac OS works. Stores will also run promotional giveways, offering iPods, PowerBook G4s and other items as prizes.

Retailer CompUSA will run a promotion starting at the same time, offering a $30 mail-in rebate on Tiger for purchases over $400, as well as giving away a 1GB iPod Shuffle in all of its stores. CompUSA also has a 10 percent discount on all Apple and third-party Macintosh software.

"Features like Spotlight and Dashboard will change the way millions of people use their computers," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Our competitors will be trying to copy Tiger's more than 200 new features and innovations for years to come."

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By zridling

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 6:24 PM

Went to the unveiling at my friend's today and was surprised how slow Tiger is with other apps beyond the already reported Apple Mail and Safari. Something's wrong folks, and once again, Apple will fix it after a new release. Oy.

Score: 0

By nate

edited May 2, 2005 - 10:12 AM

Completely disagree. Tiger runs a lot faster than Panther does and feels much more snappy. Even Mail (which has been said to be slower for some reviewers) is faster for me.

Safari 2.0 is amazingly fast. Never seen a browser load pages so quickly. However, I'm sticking with Camino for now due to some minor dislikes that Apple will hopefully fix in Safari (such as an IFRAME taking the mouse cursor focus when you hover over it).

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted Apr 30, 2005 - 4:28 AM

works for me

Score: 0

By infomatique

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 5:23 PM

As I live in Dublin, Ireland I was more than surprised to receive my copy at 8:30 this AM. I installed about six hours ago and am more than impressed (switched from PCs, XP Professional and Server 2003 just after Christmas).

Spotlight alone is enough to justify the cost of the upgrade.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 9:18 PM

Does that mean it took six hours to install?

Score: 0

By nate

posted May 2, 2005 - 10:13 AM

It takes about 30 minutes to do a completely fresh install, maybe a bit less.

Score: 0

By The-Ancestor

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 2:55 AM

"Our competitors will be trying to copy Tiger's more than 200 new features and innovations for years to come."

lol... apparently most of the new "innovations were available through third party appz... who is really copying who?

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 1:50 PM

Third-party probably means they had somebody develop the apps FOR them. So technically they aren't really copying anyone.

Score: 0

By donpacman

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 2:53 AM

If only Apple had a PC version!

One can hope.

Score: 0

By sfo

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 10:19 AM

PearPC works ok, if you know how to set it up

Score: 0

By DiGiTaLFX

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 9:18 AM

Well you know there are things flying about that might make this possible. Apple may be moving to Intel compatible chips before the end of the year and and someone from intel has also mentioned there is already an internal version running on x86. So maybe! This would really p*ss on ms's bonfire!

Score: 0

By GeneralLeoFF

edited Apr 29, 2005 - 8:32 PM

They had tried it before and gave up though. Quicktime player and a few other programs run on x86 under Windows as a result of this work. The project was codenamed "Star Trek".

But I think more hints are leaning twords Apple going into a joint venture with IBM and Sony involving the CELL processor rather then trying to go x86 again.

[edit]

I am sure Paramount would have sued the hell out of Apple over that project codename much like Tiger Direct is over OS X 10.4's codename.

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 1:48 PM

Yeah it would. I would like to see an x86 version of 'Tiger'. I really don't want to shell out the $$$ to buy a whole new computer to be able to use Mac OS.

Score: 0

By The-Ancestor

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 2:44 AM

What if tigerdirect wins?..
Would apple have to change their OS name? or just pay some fee to tigerdirect?

Score: 0

By GeneralLeoFF

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 8:29 PM

Tiger is just a development codename. Apple would have no problem droping it, and Mac OS X 10.4 is the offical name really.

Score: 0

By jlennon

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 9:39 PM

Yes, it is only Microsoft that gets sued. I read an article that states: "There are also enhancements for Apple users who require graphics processing. QuickTime video moves to version 7 and, like Spotlight, is built into the core of the operating system, speeding tasks such as videoconferencing". I wonder if the EU will sue Apple now and force them to release a version of OS X 10.4 without Quicktime.

Score: 0

By Squire72

edited Apr 29, 2005 - 4:42 PM

it's not a double standard.

everything MS got in trouble for was because it was using these practices to extend and increase a monopoly, and as a monopoly, it was causing hardship to those trying to compete on the windows platform, or against the windows platform.

MS's practices would have been perfectly legal if they hadn't controlled over 90% of the desktop market, and used that leverage to squash competition.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited May 2, 2005 - 10:23 AM

So your telling me that MS is extending its monopoly because of WMP being included in the default OS? Wow, I can only imagine the numbers of people who have installed Windows just to get WMP. RIGHT!!!

This is the EXACT same thing, if apple ever strikes it big and OSX becomes dominant, you will see the same thing happening, people whining about stuff being incorporated. People just hate MS so much they hate to admit when another company does the exact same thing.

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 12:34 PM

Exactly.

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 7:53 PM

looks like you are on the receiving end this time, sucks to be you.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1039

Score: 0

By JackSpade

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 2:56 PM

Seems there are some nice features in Tiger from the reviews but Philip Schiller really needs to get out onto the web more, a lot of the functionality in Tiger already exists in third-party apps on various platforms.

Too bad they embedded Spotlight into the OS, now they are going to get sued by other desktop search companies and advocates for locking out the competition. Oh wait, that's what would happen if it was Microsoft. *grin*

Hope the OS does well, competition can only make everyone strive to be better. I'm guessing for the few features of the 200 that can't be had in third-party apps today new ones will be born in a much quicker time-frame than "years to come".

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 5:44 PM

Only MS gets sued for locking out the competition. ;)

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 8:06 PM

Probably because MS' software cannot be removed. IE/OE, anyone? Oh, that and the fact they have a market monopoly already - makes them fair game. :)

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 1:56 PM

Sounds really promising. As much as I like Windows (and its my OS of choice), I really am impressed with Apple's developments as of late. I'm eager to see how 'Tiger' fares and how MSFT retaliates in Longhorn.

Score: 0

By nate

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 2:44 PM

It's quite probable Mac OS X 10.5 will be ready by the time Longhorn rolls around. Everyone seems to be comparing to two, but 18 months is a long way away for Longhorn. Apple will probably have another 200 new features in that time.

Score: 0

By PhoenixPath

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 4:22 PM

Ya know, I never even looked into this, but since MacOS is now based on BSD...are there any Server versions of it floating around?

Score: 0

By Squire72

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 4:45 PM

They do have a server version - and oddly enough (a snub to MS maybe?) there are no per user/connection licencing fees on it - you pay for the OS, and that covers anyone who connects to it in any manner.

Apparently (never tried it) it's an amazing product - basically an enhanced BSD system...

Score: 0

By ghammer

posted Apr 29, 2005 - 10:05 PM

The Apple site sells 2 versions.
One is a 10 client, the other unlimited.

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 5:49 PM

you can drop to a command line in regular OS X and it'll give you tcsh shell. from there you can pretty much do whatever you want in *NIX land. there's even a SF project called fink that ports open source unix projects specifically over to the mac. also, the standard OS X ships with (although all aren't turned on) apache, send mail and tons of other common programs.

Score: 0

By fyrewalll

posted Apr 28, 2005 - 4:54 PM

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/

Score: 0

By rauckr

posted Apr 30, 2005 - 9:02 PM

I notice the article indicates that Windows will not match Spotlight until Longhorn ships. Didn't I read that the new improved search file system was dropped from Longhorn (along with other things) to allow it to ship by the end of next year? If I have not kept up with the latest Longhorn status, forgive me. If the new features do not ship until Blackcomb, that will be near the end of the decade.

Score: 0

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