Nice Tiger

Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) is almost over. Steve Jobs gave the keynote yesterday and introduced the new version of OS X, which they're calling "Tiger." Scripting News has a bunch of good links about the announcements from the last two days. The good news is that Apple keeps adding neat features to the OS. The bad news is some of the most prominenent features appear to be blatant ripoffs of software created by small developers. For example, Apple is adding a cool RSS aggregator feature to Safari, which looks very neat, but it also might really hurt sales of NetNewsWire, the leading Mac RSS reader. (A few comments here from NetNewsWire's developer.) Another new feature called Dashboard will put lots of little widgets on your desktop to allow you to more easily check the weather, stocks, your datebook, etc. Of course, Konfabulator already allows you to do this.

It's a little ironic that the purpose of WWDC is to encourage developers to make Mac software, when Apple's showing up to the conference with software of its own that might put popular Mac software developers out of business.

One feature that I don't think will be putting anyone out of business but which could be pretty cool is Automator, which will allow users to automate repetitive tasks among different applications. Geeks who don't know how to use Applescript (me) should have fun with this.

Hey, and don't get too excited: None of these new features will be available until "the first half" of 2005. Until then, keep your eye out for the QT Bug, a high-tech Beetle that will be touring the country to capture video and audio footage and show off QuickTime-related technologies. Oh, and the car will have an Apple X-Serve built right in:

Yes, that’s right, we are building an Apple X-Serve computer into the car. This Mac will have a 12 inch touch screen in the front dash, a DVD-R/CDRW so we can record our images and movies to disk as we roll along. For connectivity AirPort Extreme (802.11g), wireless will be used and several Firewire and USB ports will be installed though out the car. Camera mounts for both still and video will be located at front, rear and on top of the car.

Gee, I was thinking I'd sure like a new car....

UPDATE: See also:

• Dashboard vs. Confabulator
• discussion on kottke.org
• Matt Haughey's thoughts on Safari's RSS reader

Posted June 30, 2004 06:26 AM | mac geek