I ran into one bug that stumped Apple: The iMac G5 system I borrowed, initially running Mac OS X 10.3, connected to the Internet with no problem through my home network and Comcast cable modem. After upgrading the system to Tiger, which took about 45 minutes and consumed 2 GB of space on the hard drive, the Internet connection disappeared.
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Apple Computer's (Nasdaq: AAPL) new Tiger upgrade to the Macintosh operating system, officially Mac OS X 10.4, delivers a worthwhile collection of useful and fun new features -- if not the earth-shattering breakthrough proclaimed by Apple's over-the-top marketing.
Like any new operating system, Tiger is also prone to bugs -- some of which I encountered -- making it a good idea for Mac users to wait about six weeks before taking the plunge.
Tiger went on sale last Friday at a list price of US$129, although some retailers are offering small discounts. It will run on any Macintosh computer with a G3, G4 or G5 processor and at least 256 MB of RAM.
Credit Deserved
The hype comes in large part from Apple co-founder and high priest Steve Jobs, who proclaims the upgrade -- the first since Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" in October 2003 -- as just short of miraculous: "Tiger is the most innovative and secure desktop operating system ever created."
That's over-reaching, although Apple still deserves credit for Tiger's many accomplishments, two of which are particularly important: Spotlight and Dashboard.
Spotlight is the most important feature, an easy, quick and powerful way to search for files anywhere on your computer.
Tiger puts a new magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Click on the icon and you get a small text-entry window where you type a search term. Spotlight almost instantly displays a list of all files containing that term.
Here's an example: I loaded 15 gigabytes of personal documents, photos and songs onto an iMac G5 borrowed from Apple. I entered the word "blackberry" in Spotlight and got two results. The first was a photo slide show I'd made several years ago, saved in the Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Acrobat PDF format, with a caption mentioning the Blackberry Farm picnic ground near my home. The second was a Word document from last year referring to the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. Neither document had the word "blackberry" in the file names.
Spotlight doesn't yet look inside all types of files, but it covers the most important, including e-mail, text documents, songs, photos and PDFs. Searching within your computer has been available before, mostly notably with the free Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Desktop Search tool, but Spotlight is much faster and more comprehensive.
Smart Folders
Going a step beyond the competition, Spotlight has "Smart Folders" that point to search results without moving the files, and automatically update themselves.
Here's another example: I created Smart Folders to search for files related to two of my favorite vacation destinations, Hawaii and Florida. I then wrote a short text document about how I soon hoped to visit both states, and named it "Sunshine." As soon as I saved the document, it appeared in the Smart Folders for both Hawaii and Florida, even though the computer's single copy of the file still resided in the "Documents" folder.
Spotlight doesn't substitute for Apple's iTunes software in organizing your music library, or iPhoto in organizing pictures, but it will make life much easier for digital packrats who can't remember the names or locations of crucial files.
Dashboard is the fun new feature in Tiger. When you click the Dashboard icon in the Dock, or press the F12 key, the desktop turns gray and a collection of small windows called "widgets" fly onto the screen.
The widgets, which you pick from a menu and decide where to put on the screen, are little tools -- a clock, a calendar, the local weather, a stock ticker, Post-It-type sticky notes and more. Tiger comes with 14 widgets, and Apple already offers 42 more on its Web site. Independent developers are also free to create widgets, so there could soon be hundreds.
Dashboard disappears with a click of the mouse, so it's easy and even addictive to keep flipping Dashboard on and off while you're working.
There's much more in Tiger, some 200 new features by Apple's count.
Wild Beasts
Some of what else I like about Tiger, but only have room to mention in passing, are: viewing RSS news feeds in the Safari browser, an improved Mail program for e-mail, wide-ranging and easy-to-use parental controls, and improved iChat videoconferencing for Macs with G5 or high-end G4 processors.
Still, it's important to remember that new operating systems are wild beasts that take time to tame. To avoid getting mauled, it's wise to hold off for at least a few weeks while bugs are uncovered and fixed.
I ran into one bug that stumped Apple: The iMac G5 system I borrowed, initially running Mac OS X 10.3, connected to the Internet with no problem through my home network and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSK) cable modem. After upgrading the system to Tiger, which took about 45 minutes and consumed 2 GB of space on the hard drive, the Internet connection disappeared -- even though I changed nothing physically.
Thank goodness for my friends down the street, a couple who are both longtime Mac users. They let me take the iMac G5 to their house, where the computer effortlessly connected through their Apple AirPort wireless network and DSL modem from SBC.
Other reviewers have reported minor Tiger flaws. And there's a least one documented missing piece: Cisco Systems' VPN client software, widely used for remotely connecting to office networks, isn't compatible with Tiger. Cisco is promising a fix later this month.
Once Tiger lies down with the lambs, however, I'd recommend the upgrade. Spotlight and Dashboard alone are worth the price of admission.
© 2005 San Jose Mercury News, Calif.. All rights reserved.
© 2005 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
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In chatrooms and on bulletin boards, Macintosh users and the Macintosh-curious are buzzing about Tiger, the newest version of Apple Computer's Mac OS X, version 10.4. The open-source kernel, or base of the system, "Darwin", plus all the features of Apple's proprietary Quartz user interface features, software, and system utilities have passed through their next phase of upgrading and scrutiny, and have been shipping for more than a week now.

Apple reports that Tiger, the code name for this release, includes over 200 new features and new versions of application software such as e-mail client Mail, web browser Safari, and multi-person audio/video/text messaging client iChat. Entirely new features have also been rolled out in this release:
* Spotlight integrates search in the core of the OS, and utilizes meta-data in its algorithm.
* Dashboard provides a sandbox for widgets, handy mini-applicatios like a calculator, sticky notes, and a dictionary, made available at the stroke of a key.
* Automator, a graphical scripting interface that enables non-programmers to automate repetitive tasks.

One user of the new operating system made this comment:





 IRC chat snippet:   





   
 Amgine> so... how is it?   
    
pHatidic> It's like being in the future.   
   



Industry analysts have pointed to both the advances and the failures of the new version already. Many of the bigger technology advances have gained high praise, but, they point out, Microsoft Longhorn is also expected to have many of these advantages when it is released, expected in late 2006. And inter-operability, long a strength of Macintosh to work with other operating systems and networks, has had a few bugs—such as reports of issues with Server Message Block (SMB) and Active Directory. Another issue for some is the fact that Cisco System's VPN does not work with Tiger. Cisco has promised a compatible release before the end of the month.

The biggest technology breakthrough is Spotlight. Using meta-data, searches are fast and easy and very thorough, and the results of the search can be used over and over again and will automatically update and change as you use your system. Search queries on a user's data can be saved as "Smart folders" without ever moving files on the hard drive, so you can collect all your photos, receipts, and webpages about your summer vacation, for example, while still keeping things ordered on your hard drive. According to a review by ''PC World'', this alone is worth the US$129.

Still, even Macintosh support sites such as Mac News suggest waiting for the first "point" release (10.4'''.1''') before jumping in, which is expected in late May. Apple Computer has been on a semi-regular release pattern since moving to Mac OS X, with four versions released in 5 years. This constant development program has occasionally been accused of being aimed at forcing users to constantly pay out for expensive new software, but the returns of regular releases have been quick bug fixes and leading edge technology.