Macintosh Leopard Goodness

Howdy;

I've been using the new version of OS/X, version 10.5 (Leopard) all week since it was released October 26. With very minor exceptions, the upgrade was flawless. Of course, after such an upgrade, you spend some time playing with the new features and figuring out what is useful and what isn't. My favorite new features are:

Time Machine: I plugged in my 512 GB USB drive into the laptop and enabled Time Machine. After the initial full backup, which took a while, it is thereafter seamless. So far, no downside to this. Now just the act of plugging in and turning on the drive gets me effortless backups; and the best part is it is so very easy to restore anything that needs it. Very cool.

Spaces: This is virtual window technology. I have experimented with it in the world of Windows, but was never satisfied. After a few days of using it on Leopard, I'm hooked. Right now I have four screens in use - the first is my default, with Email and Finder; the second is web browsing in Safari; the third is a spreadsheet I'm working on; and fourth is currently my blogging software. Switching between the windows is effortless, just a hot-key. Very well implemented, very fast, no downside so far. Saves a lot of time shuffling around to get the window you need to the top. Nice.

Mail: Now has notes, and a nifty feature that recognizes addresses and similar information, offering to add it to your contacts. This is something that should have been invented a long time ago - no more retyping, or cutting and pasting something I can see on the screen to get it into my address book.

Cover Flow: In Finder (and other places) this allows you to 'flip' through documents and files, glancing at the first page of each. This is so much like how you would leaf through a pile of loose papers looking for whatever that it is very natural and intuitive. Fast, too. Well done.

Lots of nifty other things, those are just my favorites so far.

One other new software item that didn't come in Leopard. I found a program named Undercover, by Orbicule. This program, once installed, sits in the background running continuously, and invisibly. If somebody steals my laptop, I contact Orbicule and enter the code for the copy of the software I bought. The next time somebody connects to the internet with my stolen laptop, the computer automatically and silently sends the IP address and other information to Orbicule, who inform the nearest police. Furthermore, it actually uses the built-in camera to take pictures of the thief, emailing them to Orbicule every six minutes. Now that's cool. The elegance of this approach really appeals to me. I hope I don't have to find out how well it works, but I'm about as prepared as I can get for anything to happen to my laptop.

The World of Apple and the Macintosh just keeps getting better and better. I'll never go back to Windows unless something big changes.

-Pop