It seems Apple is getting into the swing of things, bringing the buzz of its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to the public. Forum-goers are abuzz with news that Apple is sending out teaser emails enticing people to sign up for the event. The company's main draw: a feature-complete version of the Mac OS X Leopard.

For those having difficulty reading the text, here's what it says:

At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, we're planning to show you a feature-complete version of Mac OS X Leopard, and you can take home a beta copy. Be the first to get your hands on the Leopard beta and get a huge head start on development. Register now for WWDC 2007 - it's your ticket to the future of Mac OS X.

According to the teaser, early registration's also been extended to May 11, so Mac lovers everywhere can save some extra cash with their applications for the June event. As for what "feature-complete" means, we're certain that grabbing the beta will tell everyone more about it. Till then, we'll just have to sit tight and wait for the WWDC.

 

Apple has announced that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO will be highlighting the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10 A.M. on June 11, 2007, at San Francisco's Moscone West.

It was noted that Apple plans to show developers a "feature complete version" of Mac OS X Leopard, and distribute a beta copy for home use and final testing.

Other activities from Apple at the WWDC 2007 include presentations from Apple engineers about an in-depth look at  Leopard (from its open-source foundation to other innovations like iChat Theater and Dascode), practical hands on sessions, technology labs, and other special events like the Stump the Experts event, and the Apple Design Awards.

Leopard is set to ship come October later this year.

It seems like file sharing between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X has been crippled by the latest OS X security patch. According to MacNN, one of their readers reports that when a Mac OS 9 user tries to copy a file to an open Mac OS X file share, the fileshare "disconnects and the Finder reports that the share unexpectedly closed down."

The MacNN reader in question supports numerous clients across London and has clients that require Mac OS 9 to run older applications such as Quark 4 and other DTP applications. Other users have reported encountering similar issues. Another MacNN reader, though, has come up with the following workaround:

From within the Chooser:
Be sure to hold down the OPTION key while double-clicking the fileshare. This should force TCP/IP access rather than Appletalk access. That ought to fix your trouble. If not, then select the TCP/IP button and access the server that way instead of via Appletalk.

What about you guys? Anybody out there using Mac OS 9 experiencing this? Leave a comment and let us know.

Apple is slowly but surely opening the seals on the details regarding its upcoming Mac OS X platform release. One of the interesting revelations is about iChat, a messaging tool which will change the way you think about software of its kind.

The iChat application will be much more than a run-off the mill instant messenger. Aside from the ability to send quick messages, users can stream videos, 3D images and slide shows along with digital audio.

Apple says that developers are putting in the last screws to the iChat package, but it also revealed that AppleScript makes the software easy to modify for updates in the future.

"One of the powerful capabilities that the Instant Message framework gives you is the ability to determine if a contact in a user's buddy list is online or not," said the company in a technology overview and adds "you can also get the Address Book data for that contact as well as other status information."

On the techy side, Apple says that developers and users can take advantage of the 'presence' function, which allows the identification of your buddies whenever they're online to alert them of a Theater event or other what nots. iChat may have a few more months before rolling out, but these details already have Mac-heads drooling for more. For more details, follow the read URL.

Back in October 2005, Apple filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office about "System and method for computing a desktop picture." Last Thursday, details of the said creation were published for the first time with credits going to employees Ralph Brunner, Imran Chaudhri, and Mark Zimmer.

Accordingly, the Mac OS X operating system will be enhanced with the addition of active desktop pictures, or desktop backgrounds that can include motion graphics. These, then, will alter themselves depending on user actions or the time of the day. The technique will reduce requirements for both VRAM and RAM because static picture files will no longer be used.

Apple went on to explain that since the pictures are being computed quickly by a GPU, they now can be made to move on demand. Part of its patent reads,

This includes movement, for example, when logging in, logging out, and transitioning to and from a screen saver, providing a seamless experience. It can also include slow movement, such as seen when a soft tree shadow is cast, with the gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze, or slow movement over time, or concerted movement to mark the passing of time (e.g., a noticeable change to pattern or color every hour).

The "active desktop" patent has many potential uses based on the way Apple described it. Some of the other features include computation of several gradations over time hence mimicking the changes in the color of the sky. As if all of these are not enough, Apple also hinted that users can further enhance the experience using an editing tool.

As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the foregoing examples are provided as just a few examples of the many types of events that may be used to trigger a change in the desktop picture, and are not intended to be an exhaustive list. It will be appreciated that various other types of events may be used to trigger a change in the desktop picture and are within the scope of the present invention.

Iljitsch van Beijnum, an avid fan of Apple products, wrote an opinion piece for Infinite Loop journal on Ars Technica which delved into why the next major OS X release's delay shouldn't be taken so lightly. Just last week, the official word on OS X 10.5, codenamed "Leopard," was to be delayed all the way until October 2007.

 

Despite Apple's consistent drive for a "spring release," Leopard won't make an appearance until fall of 2007. This proves that the speculation of the Mac OS revelation at the 2007 WWDC does signify that it's already in its polishing stages.

But Beijnum's concern isn't about its delay - he is far more concerned about the detrimental effects of the delay could do in relation to what Leopard could offer and what the current marketing strategy that accompanies the product. For the most part, the OS - as he says - comes with a feature set much needed by the Mac user community. iLife and iWork are claimed to be coming in Leopard-only versions.

Apple used to be the secretive product shipper: always being able to keep everything safely tucked in their closet until the big release date. This has always allowed Apple to slap giants like Sony and Microsoft with their new product releases. That character has been struggling to retain itself recently, with information leaks left and right before a product could even be put to production.

Unfortunately, the Mac community isn't such a forgiving crowd. There are those that don't even see a need for Leopard, and could care less about the release delays for 10.5. Tiger, according to them, is a safer bet to stay with instead of having to stave off months from purchasing a new Macbook.

It is possible that Leopard could be a disappointment to many once it releases, due to lack of HD support and hardware resolution independent support. Who, after all, is to say otherwise? Demonstrations are only slated for WWDC attendee eyes and most screenshots have either been debunked or unsatisfactorily rumored to many OS X users. So is the delay of Leopard really much of a big deal? Feel free to discuss.

Here's something interesting. A while back, Macenstein posted about an unusual entry in the built-in Dictionary/Thesaurus app that ships with Mac OS X. According to the post, someone from rave.com noticed that if you type the word "democracy" into the Dictionary widget and then switch over to the thesaurus, you get the following example usage of the word:

It's an odd and slightly controversial example, so the guys from Macenstein checked with the people from Oxford University Press to get their side of the story. After three weeks of waiting, they finally got a response from the dictionaries editor of the Oxford University Press.

The editor said that he "checked the hardcopy of the New Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus and did not find in it any sample sentence attached to the definition of democracy." The editor also added that he suspects it was "added by the Apple programmers."

Did a border programmer add that little nugget of knowledge? We can't rightly say. Still, we're leaving you guys with another example from the same widget. Feel free to tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.

The poor guy who blew from boredom to stardom within minutes in Digg is now being hounded by Linux and Apple command line weavers for his apparent limited knowledge. In his opinion piece at the Apple Matters blog, he questioned the intuitiveness of Apple's Mac OS X when he committed a fatal mistake of deleting a directory vital to the Unix kernel.

While Matthew Bookspan could be excused for being in a rush to delete his /usr directory, the fact that he did use third party programs (NO-IP, to be specific) to provide above average user access otherwise unavailable, turns tables against him. But even then, we can't see the relation of his mistake to the the Mac OS X intuitiveness question.

Still, it should be apparent to anyone that there are things in your computer that just shouldn't be touched. Well, okay, that's not the entire truth: you can touch those sensitive folders, but only when you do have the technical knowledge or expertise to do so. In short, if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.

But granted Bookspan learned his lesson, new computer users should also be vigilant on what they're doing, what effects it would lead to and who the action will affect. And because the Mac is slowly squeezing into the corporate world, new Apple users should heed our advice.

The following statements under this heading are entirely speculative, though they would make any Mac fan more excited about the upcoming Mac OS X software to be released, version 10.5 or the Leopard.

Everybody's been wondering about the essential new feature that the Leopard will have. Recently the speculation has come to this; that the Leopard will feature resolution independence, an application that could render its windows irrespective of the physical resolution of the screen.

With the Leopard's Core Animation, resolution independence will allow building things like iTune's cover flow very easily. But the only thing missing is an easy way to manipulate objects in three dimensions. Our source mentions garbage collection: a new feature in Leopard that allows the system to determine whether the memory is still needed and to free it if it isn't.

Unfortunately, garbage collection doesn't apply as a way to manipulate objects in three dimensions. Garbage collection only looks at whether a program still points to a block of memory. If it does, the block is in use and it's not garbage collected.

There are more speculative details about what the Leopard essential new feature will be, but the fact of the matter? We'll all see about it in due time.

There's been a lot of hype surrounding the Mac OS X Leopard as of late. It was initially expected by industry insiders to ship some time in mid-to-late March. Looks like the mavens struck out this time.

Anonymous Ars Technica tipsters are now pointing to mid-April as the possible launch period of the new OS, but even that is doubtful. According to other unnamed Ars sources, developers are saying "I'd say it's barely beta, not Final or Gold Master."

That could be quite a wait considering that the trend with Apple is that it usually picks up the pace in the final month and a half of the slated timetable then takes a couple of weeks more to manufacture the CDs, DVDs and packaging. This may very well push the Launch date as far as early June if all goes through the worst possible scenario.

Of course, there's a chance that Apple might be putting some of its departments under information blackout, and what the sources are seeing may indeed be the final version. "If what we have now is the final build, I am NOT buying Leopard," retorts one of the sources.

In related news, another Ars tipster revealed that Leopard will not have InputManager plug-ins, which essentially takes away hacks that make Safari plug-ins possible.