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.

The buzz is on again as Apple announced some of the more important agenda in its June 11 to 15 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in which IT professionals from more than 45 countries are expected to attend.

The highlight will undoubtedly be the new Mac OS X leopard, which is geared at creating the perfect development environment to allow developers to easily integrate podcasts and other media to Apple applications.

There will also be a lot in store for developers new to the platform regarding Mac Essentials and other development tools. There's a significant amount of speculation that there will be more announcements regarding the much-hyped iPhone which is set to ship in June. Apple shot down the rumor by saying "we've announced it's releasing in June, and we're not saying anymore about it."

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There are some who believe that the Mac OS X Leopard will be released some time around May. How do they come up with this predicted release date? These are some hints:

• At WWDC 2006 (August 2006) Steve Jobs announced a "Spring 2007" Leopard release
• Apple executives continue to highlight a "Spring 2007" release
• The latest Leopard Build (9A377a) was released to Apple Developer Connection members on March 4, 2007 - buzz in the Apple community is that the release is far from stable and not ready for release
• Steve Jobs's WWDC speech indicated Leopard had several "Top Secret Features" that could not be announced until a later date
• Macworld 2007 (January 2007) didn't disclose any "Top Secret Features"
• No details of any top secret features have emerged since then
• Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger has been released

Aside from these, some other factors that say that Leopard will be released in May: Spring begins March 21, and Summer begins June 21. In short, Leopard will be released between these two dates, given the "Spring release". The release dates of Leopard books also happen around May and June.

And lastly, iPhone will be released at the WWDC 2007. The darling of Apple products deserves a strategic release date, and many think that the release of Leopard will not coincide with the release of the iPhone.

 

If you're an independent software maker who has dreams of making it big as the next Apple developer, this is good news for you. The Apple Design Awards is already accepting entries. The Awards, well on its 12th year, recognizes technical excellence and outstanding achievement in the design and development of software for the Mac OS X.

The Apple Design Awards has seven categories, namely: Best Mac OS X Leopard Application, Best Mac OS X User Experience, Best Mac OS X Developer Tool, Best Mac OS X Game, Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution, Best Mac OS X Dashboard Widget, and Best Student Application.

This may be your chance as Apple Design Awards not only recognizes the talent and excellence of developers in making software, but also their resourcefulness in thinking up newer ways to use the Apple Mac OS X. The winners of this prestigious award will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple expressed its confidence that its Mac OS X Leopard will stack up very well against Microsoft's fledgling Windows Vista system, saying that the latter is not a threat at all.

"We believe we have the superior operating system on the market today, and this release will only extend that. With the features and functionally and stability and security of Mac OS X, I don't really see Vista as a threat," says Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer of Apple.

He pointed out that the high hardware demands of the Vista will either scare off or require users to buy a new computer, which opens an opportunity for their wares to be considered.

He also said that historically, Apple's revenues always see a spike whenever a new OS comes out, even though their product has kept relatively silent this year, with Apple choosing to show it off sparingly in shows and choosing to highlight its other products instead.

A definite release date is also yet to be announced, with Oppenheimer reiterating Apple's "this Spring" answer to the question. Details as to the new features were available and they are as follows:

1. Time Machine- a backup utility which can also be used for data versioning
2. Spaces- a virtual desktop
3. An updated version of the Spotlight search application
4. Boot Camp= a system that allows Windows to run on Macs.

Recently, VMWare has released Fusion Beta 2 which has the "Experimental 3D Acceleration" feature. The feature basically allows you to play certain games that require DirectX 8.1 in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines(VM). However, Mac users shouldn't rejoice just yet as the game selection is rather limited, and the games that it supports are pretty old.

VMWare has a list of games that are compatible with this current "experimental" feature:

• Aliens vs. Predator Demo
• Breath of Fire IV
• Grand Theft Auto III (NOTE: Set the Display Setup option Trails to OFF.)
• Hitman 2
• Lord of the Realms III
• Max Payne 1
• Max Payne 2
• Need for Speed Porsche Demo
• RalliSport Challenge
• Tony Hawk 3
• X-2 Rolling Demo

Additional features and fixes of note for this release:

• Snapshot feature which enables rollbacks if something goes wrong.
• Experimental support for Mac OS X Leopard (Note: There WILL be support for Mac OS X Leopard in the full release).
• Improved keyboard and mouse support Â? Third-party graphics tablets, keyboards, and mice no longer interfere with keyboard and mouse input.

So far, Fusion Beta 2 seems stable and the added features well thought out. However, it still is in the Beta stage, so you can expect certain bugs or problems to pop up aside from those that are mentioned in the release notes. You can learn more via the Read link below.

Hmm, we've reported about this just two weeks back but we felt it was worth touching back on as PocketGamer airs some pretty interesting points regarding this rumor.

For those who missed that post, here's a quick overview. iPhone World got a tip from an anonymous and reliable source that World of Warcraft is coming to the iPhone and also Video iPod. According to the said source, he/she saw a beta of WoW on the said Apple products.

Curiously, the anonymous Apple person (so much for Apple's well guarded secrects) claimed, "Watch out for the iPhone and their new video iPod when it comes to gaming. Imagine playing WoW on them using the touch screen interface. Think of the impact it's going to have on the handheld game market and AppleÂ?s revenue." This rumor was greeted with a mixture of absolute disbelief and some sort of "I wonder if it's really possible".

According to PocketGamer, the iPhone's (and Video iPod's) leap from conventional mobile gaming to online gaming is just hard to compute. They are not completely discrediting the information since the iPhone reportedly has a full OS X (WoW has been successfully ported to the Mac OS). Throw the ARM11 processor into the pot plus touch screen capabilities and you get something that would resemble a handheld.

Could it really be true? Stay tuned for more updates and let's hope that the next Apple person we hear from is reliable sans the anonymity.

 Living up to its name, the OS X Leopard just might be speeding into its eventual release into the wild (i.e. the consumer market) very soon - like, end-of-March-soon. Well, that's if web rumors are to be believed. Well Jobs did say they'd have OS X 10.5 available by Spring. That's a couple months earlier than what most of us expected.

With the release of Leopard also comes the new versions of iLife and iWork. We haven't heard follow ups from Apple HQ yet, but we're bound to spot something very soon. Stay tuned, folks.

   

So what would happen if you installed Vista on a Mac Pro and ran OS X alongside it? This is possible with the use of a hardware emulator, Parallels Desktop.

After discovering that Vista runs faster than OS X on an Intel Mac Pro, the guys at Gizmodo got curious about how the two operating systems would do when running side by side. They installed Vista on their MacBook Pro and waited to see what happens. It worked, but with assorted problems.

They encountered problems with Vista support in Parallels - describing it as "still quite developmental" - and Aero graphics which was explained by Parallels' inadequate graphics card support. Networking problems (the complete non existence of it) were also encountered. They tried getting a Windows Experience Index score but their plan to compare scores were botched by an error pop up window.

Parallels isn't perfect - atleast not yet. We'll see how it goes in the near future when Parallels updates their Beta. Stay tuned.

Apple owners may want to set their calendars for June, as Apple has scheduled this year's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) from June 10 to 15, with Steve Jobs making his keynotes presentation on the 11th.

In conjunction with the WWDC 2007, it is noted that this event heralds the coming of Apple's Leopard OS, with further info on the system being released in the following months. Readers may also want to double up on the iLife and iWork software packs, with Apple possible releasing more info on these two as they will for OS X Leopard.

The event will be held at the Moscone West convention center in downtown San Francisco, with Apple releasing a formal events announcement early next month. Stay tuned for this official release.