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Detailed Review of Mac OS X Tiger's New Features

Posted by timothy on from the everyone-has-an-opinion dept.

sammykrupa writes "I have just posted my detailed review of Mac OS X Tiger's new features. The review covers Dashboard, Spotlight, Grapher (Mac OS X's new graphing calculator), QuickTime Player 7, Automator, Safari RSS (2), that cool RSS visualizer, and all that eye candy (iCandy)."

29 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Not very in depth.. by aikon29 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe it's just me, but the article didn't seem to b e too in depth. If you're looking for any real information, look no further than the Ars review.

    1. Re:Not very in depth.. by Reaperducer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the article didn't seem to b e too in depth.

      Agreed. Here's how he sums up Mail 2.0:

      "It does not appear much has changed in it since the previous version except for Smart Folders, Spotlight Search, and a bit of a slicker interface."

      Not true to anyone who's pokes around even a little in Mail. I looked through the preferences for a few minutes this morning, and there's lots of new stuff.
      I think what we have here is the owner of a new web site trying to rush out a review while Tiger is still hot in order to get a headline and drive traffic to his young web site.

      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  2. Looks nicer than I expected by demondawn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Especially Grapher. One of the most annoying limitations of the previous graphing calculator was the inability to graph multiple functions at the same time. I was holding off on Tiger, but I may buy it just for that.

    --
    Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
    1. Re:Looks nicer than I expected by Randy+Wang · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow. A $129 calculator.

      Heh, I suppose I can't talk. I'm buying it for the RSS Screensaver.

      --
      --- Egads, I glow in the dark!
    2. Re:Looks nicer than I expected by demondawn · · Score: 2, Informative

      PacificT's graphing calculator (the full version of the old one you got with the Mac OS) is $100. $30 extra for all the OTHER great features you get with Tiger seems well worth it to me.

      --
      Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
    3. Re:Looks nicer than I expected by Kadin2048 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The old original "Graphing Calculator" which started life back in OS9 (or was it 8? I forget) offered multiple-curve graphing as an upgrade to the paid version, as opposed to the freebie that came with the OS which would only do one function at a time.

      I went to their website a few months ago and they have a Carbonized version -- looks pretty much the same as it always did. I didn't buy the commercial one, just played around with the free one. But it still exists if you're in the market.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  3. If by detailed... by Ieshan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If by detailed, you mean "fanboy", then yes, you are quite correct.

    5. New interface sounds. Now when you drop something into a folder you hear a cool new sound! Ding!

    I can not think of any reason not to buy Tiger for the $129 it costs. You should just make sure that all the Mac OS X applications you rely on are Tiger compatible.

    There's nothing at ALL wrong with it? Nothing he would improve? No reason at all not to buy?

    Man. I really wish we could get critical reviews.

    1. Re:If by detailed... by revscat · · Score: 5, Informative

      Man. I really wish we could get critical reviews.

      Try this one from ars technica, if you haven't already. It's fairly detailed, and not as amateurish, nor is it worshipful.

      Meaty goodness.

    2. Re:If by detailed... by mikedaisey · · Score: 4, Informative


      There's no review you need for a new OS X release except for John Siracusa's work--I don't know how this joke of a review got recommended on the front page instead. There should have just been another article on Siracusa's review, even if it was a dupe--it's that good.

    3. Re:If by detailed... by aftk2 · · Score: 5, Informative
      In addition to the Ars review (already posted in this thread and elsewhere), I would recommend the feature list at Daring Fireball. They're collaborating a list of the small details that have been changed, improved or screwed up.

      It's not all completely positive, either. This is my favorite:
      If you turn on the Finder's "Show all file extensions" preference, this now includes the ".app" extension on application bundles. [...] can't stand seeing these insipid ".app" extensions everywhere, but I don't want to turn off the "Show all file extensions" preferences because I do want to see the rest of them. What I want is the old behavior, "Show all file extensions, except for the insipid '.app' ones that completely booger up the names of every single application".
      --
      concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
  4. Re:Not detailed by Reaperducer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    5. My Quicktime Pro is now just regular Quicktime 7 since I upgraded. I figured I'd get to keep the Pro without having to spend an extra $30.

    --
    -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  5. I was hoping for a better review. by daviddennis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's amazing, considering all the great features in Apple Core Somethingorother, that he could not have used the built-in spellchecker to proofread his article.

    One or two spelling errors is not a big deal, but I proofread my Slashdot posts more carefully than his article was.

    One thing he doesn't touch on that I've seen in other sites is that HTML files are not indexed using Spotlight. This was a rude shock to me since most of my documents are written in HTML. (I don't have Tiger yet so that comment is not yet based on experience, but the warning seemed pretty definitive).

    I think Tiger looks pretty cool and I'm looking forward to receiving my copy. But this review is not a credible information source.

    D

    1. Re:I was hoping for a better review. by adam+mcmaster · · Score: 3, Informative

      HTML files are indexed by spotlight, I'm not sure where you could have heard otherwise (just searching for "html" finds several thousand HTML files on my iBook).

  6. Quartz Composer? by torpor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone figured out anything interesting to do with Quartz Composer yet? This seems, to me, to be one of the more interesting new bundled-apps in the OSX package .. really looking forward to seeing what can be done with this app...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    1. Re:Quartz Composer? by jcr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Anyone figured out anything interesting to do with Quartz Composer yet?

      So far, we're just scratching the surface of what can be done with Quartz Composer. The RSS screen saver is done in QC, for example. Have a look at the Interface Builder compositions in /Developer/Library/Quartz Composer/ for some ideas of how to use QC views in your own apps.

      There's a new mailing list for Quartz Composer users, quartzcomposer-dev, and you can subscribe to it at lists.apple.com.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  7. Are you sure about Quicktime?? by dFaust · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the article: "QuickTime Player 7 is in Tiger and basically it just adds support for H.264."

    The boys at Ars Technica seem to think differently. See what's really changed with Quicktime.

  8. Maybe the editors. . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe Slashdot's editors saw how pathetic this review was and decided to post it just to see if they could melt the server. Doesn't seem to have worked yet.

    Come on! We can do it! [ctrl-click] . . . [clrl-click] . . . [ctrl-click]

  9. Some points missing.... by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Funny

    This article promises a deatiled account of the new features .... but I don't even see 200 features mentionned!!

  10. psst... by fafaforza · · Score: 5, Funny

    You might want to keep that copy of the XISO release of Tiger sitting on your hard drive and indexed by Spotlight on the down low. (second screenshot)

    1. Re:psst... by David+Rolfe · · Score: 2

      I don't recall ADC tasking XiSO with distributing their development builds.

      --
      Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
  11. For a more meaningful review, see AnandTech by Zhe+Mappel · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Well, we've heard the oohs and aahs of the faithful, and sweet to the ear they are. How about some critical reviewing, now?

    Anand, the PC guru who has been extremely positive toward Apple products since becoming a dual-user, beta-tested Tiger throughout its development.

    This week his lengthy review praises features, but finds the release version to be buggy and rushed. Performance is also a mixed bag. http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2404&p=1

    Two quotes:

    "But I have to find it difficult recommending a product that's clearly unfinished, and clearly not without bugs. None of the bugs that I encountered were show stoppers, but I'm not one to support pre-release products that are being shipped as final. So if you're expecting a perfect user experience with Tiger, you'll be close but not quite there. I'm hoping the 10.4.1 update fixes all of my issues, but for now don't expect a flawless $129 experience. "

    ...

    "Looking at today, it's an important day for Apple, a day to celebrate a very impressive OS launch - but I get the feeling that no one at Apple is celebrating quite yet, it seems like there's still quite a bit of work left."

    1. Re:For a more meaningful review, see AnandTech by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's why I'm waiting for the 10.4.1 release. it seems the odd point releases fix things, and the even point releases break them again.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  12. Experiences... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Informative
    My main experience was that the upgrade broke stuff. irssi no longer works, and it looks to be due to two bugs in the OS itself - sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX) returns -1 rather than the correct value, and poll() changing subtly in a way that isnt yet documented (its possibly now a syscall).

    Other than that -
    • Dashboard - love it, got lots of widgets and the best thing is, theres info widgets for places outside the US!
    • Spotlight - As someone said to me earlier today, Spotlight is fantastic for browsing sourcecode and source documentation, as well as all the mundane stuff.
    • Xcode2 - Brilliant, and finally we have a datepicker!
  13. This just in! by flawedgeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft just announced that they are integrating a graphing calculator into Longhorn, along with several other "new" features, including a widget generator and a task switcher code-named XPose.

    Shameless copying, indeed.

    --
    My other Sig is .40 caliber.
    1. Re:This just in! by node+3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      a task switcher code-named XPose.

      Shouldn't that be "XPoseur"?

  14. Command-click? by fideli · · Score: 2, Funny

    Surely you meant [command-click] . . . [command-click] . . . [command-click] . . .

  15. Detailed? by kitzilla · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I share the author's enthusiasm for Tiger, but wonder why this piece was deemed worthy of Slashdot. It is neither detailed nor particularly accurate, more a paraphrase of Apple's marketing pieces than a review.

    The treatment of Automator is particularly disappointing: the author basically says he doesn't understand the feature. Ouch.

    There's little mention of Tiger's under-the-hood improvements, and the author doesn't seem familiar with the complete overhaul of Quicktime.

    Other posters have cited Ars Technica's Tiger overview by way of comparison. I think the folks at Ars have shown us how an OS review is to be done. We don't see much of that quality at Slashdot or over at the hapless OS News.

    --
    This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
  16. Re:Graphing Calculator by Van+Halen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even better: Programmer view in Calculator.app. I always hated having to switch to Windows just to convert between binary and decimal. Now I don't have to. Tiger's new Calculator not only does that conversion, but it has tons of other useful features for programmers, like AND, OR, NOR, XOR, <<, >>, Byte Flip, Word Flip, ASCII, Unicode, RoL, RoR, etc. Very nice. The bad thing is that I got my first Tiger kernel panic in about 3 hours of use while originally typing up this reply. Bleh. Maybe those reports of continuing instability in late builds were not so far fetched? The nice thing about it was that after restarting and logging in, there was a dialog asking if I wanted to report the incident to Apple. Good deal - hopefully my data was useful!

    --

    Say hello to zMac.

  17. Grapher was Curvus Pro before by Herve5 · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was indeed a multiple-curve grapher before Grapher: its name was Curvus Pro (last version 1.3.2); its developper sold it to Apple by end 2004, ...to become Grapher.

    I think I mentioned this here at the time, but presumably as a rank-epsilon anonymous coward ;-)

    Curvus was already excellent at the time (I am a registered user), and it seems Apple has added some honest improvements, at least a couple of extra buttons that are really useful in the GUI and other features that I didn't try in detail yet (for instance, Curvus handled copying -to export- in a variety of formats, of which vectorial pdf, but this had the effect of turning it uncompatible with old apple SW like Appleworks, maybe Grapher solves this)

    --
    Herve S.