| MailThink outside the inbox.Add style and elegance to your email with Stationery, and stay organized with notes and to-dos. iChatNot being there is half the fun.Connect face to face with easy-to-use, high-quality video conferencing in iChat now featuring fun Photo Booth effects, backdrops, and iChat Theater. SpacesRoom for everything.Group related application windows into separate spaces and swap between them with ease. Safari 3Still the worlds best web browser.The fastest browser on any platform is now improved in Leopard with better tab control, improved Find capabilities, inline PDF controls and more. Parental ControlsSafety first.Easily set up your Mac so that your children can safely surf and communicate over the Internet. Boot CampRun Windows on your Mac.Run Windows XP and Windows Vista at native speed on your Mac.FeatureProduct FeaturesTechnical detailsMedia types supportedDVD Software typeBox SourceICEcat.biz LicenseLicense quantity1users System requirementsMinimum RAM512MB Minimum processorIntel, PowerPC G5, PowerPC G4 867MHz Mac compatibilityY LanguageLanguage versionEN |
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 Evolution not Revolution but worth the upgrade |
| Review Date: November 3, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Mac, UK |
There's been lots of reviews about Leopard so I'll try to cover some aspects from a practical point of view.
First is stability; I decided to do a clean install; I've upgraded a couple of times before for Panther and Tiger (without problems) but have also migrated from Power PC to Intel so I felt a clean install would blow any potential glitches away. I'm glad I did as Leopard runs far more smoothly than Tiger ever did. I reckon it's about 25% quicker on average. I know it depends upon what you're running and your spec etc etc, but to give a simple example, my Macbook used to start up in about 20-25 seconds on Tiger; it took just 15sec the first time I restarted with Leopard.
Cover flow is not a useful as I thought it would be. Yes it looks fancy but I prefer to have overall visibility of my files within a folder and whilst it might look fine on a 24" iMac on my 15" Macbook I just find cover flow view a little too restricted to see quickly what files are present. Bottom line is I hardly use cover flow. Quick look on the other hand is excellent and I only open files when I want to work on them. Quick look is quick, easy and when combined with Spotlight is a potent search tool. I really notice the difference when using Windows at work.
Time machine is really really good but I'm not sure why it doesn't work with iTunes. To give you an idea of storage, I back up everything from my Macbook (about 60GB worth of files) and after a week Time machine has taken up nearly 80GB and it's going up and up. For 80GB of files I'd suggest a 320GB HD (a factor of 4) is a good rule of thumb if you're thinking of buying an external HD for time machine. That should give you at least a couple of months worth of back dating with room for comfort. Be advised though that Time machine doesn't work with drives connected wirelessly even through Airport extreme - a real shame, especially for laptops but one I'd expect to see remedied soon as Leopard was originally advertised to have this capability.
Spaces takes some getting used to. I tend to close or hide apps when finished with them and spaces can get a little confusing when working in multiple apps in different spaces. I'm using it more and more, and I'm sure with time it will be incorporated in to normal working routine. Stacks are good, but a slight shame they've removed the ability to right click a folder in the dock and access sub-folders.
I really like Safari 3 as it's much improved from the beta version. Having used it for a week it's really really fast, displays pages perfectly, and the web clip widget maker is great, although I don't see how to save a widget you've made yourself. A little frustrating as once you've closed it, you need to remake it. Maybe I'm missing something?
Front Row is a definite improvement, it's faster, slicker and miles more stable. The animation to access front row has gone, but I think this is a bonus - with dashboard and time machine it would be too many screens dropping away and being superimposed. I have a slight issue when connecting my laptop my my HD TV in that front row appear but doesn't pay video but it plays the sound. Might be specific to me but still a concern.
iChat is still limited. It works with google talk, AOL and dot Mac accounts - Apple in my opinion really need to expand this out for yahoo and msn etc for make it useful. I have a dot Mac account but I don't know anyone else who does so I can't chat with them. A shame really as it's a waste of a good app.
Help for spotlight is a really cool function. Just be advised that if you don't know the name of the command then it won't appear in your search. A little obvious really but typing 'justify' rather than 'align' might not yield the result you're looking for. But now I'm really nitpicking! The 3-rd party apps I've installed work well, a few (but only a few) are still incompatible but these are getting updated every week; and iLife 08 just purrs. The criticisms I've made are all minor and don't detract from the value of this well-built and thought through OS. It's well worth the upgrade, fast, slicker and more co-ordinated.
Don't get bogged down with the US/UK price comparison argument. Now one vetoes Levis jeans because they're cheaper in the USA. I'm happy with the price for the OS - it's a fair price for the UK, it's great value for money and is far far cheaper than windows. Definitely a good purchase. |
The MAC OS X Leopard has arrived
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| Review Date: October 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Dr. P. Jepson, Strode's College, Egham, Surrey. |
Leopard was delivered on the day of the launch and it operates like a dream. I purchased the family version to work on four Apple MACS. There were no installation problems - all drivers worked and the time machine just flowed.
Using Leopard you can install Windows - but why would anyone want to? Highly recommended - don't bother waiting. Purchase now (this is not Vista)! |
Still the most advanced OS out there.
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| Review Date: October 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Mr. C. J. Thorpe, Liverpool, England |
I got this last night, and although I have not had it long I have to say so far it is living up to every expectation.
For the first time I decided to rather than wipe my old OS and then install just to upgrade straight to Leopard. Having made sure I did a system check first using first aid and repair privileges I then started the install. It worked perfectly. It kept all my old files and settings with nothing lost or altered. All my bookmarks, saved emails you name it they were kept just how I had them before.
At first look it does not look a huge amount of difference than Tiger. Just small differences in the main screen, brushed metal used more in places, Smokey glass effect in others. Black apple symbol rather than a blue one. I think it gives an already very professionally looking OS that extra boost in appearance with a clean but friendly look and feel.
I have no discovered yet all the little extra gems in it but will detail three of the things I am impressed with so far.
Stacks in the dock is very good. Can put a folder of applications or docs or movie files, pics etc and when you click on it, it either fans the documents up so you can see them all and choose which you use, or if there are a lot brings up a grid for you to select from. This added files showing mini previews when you look at the file showing the picture for example or a little movie you can play is very handy.
Next, and I have only just started to play with this, but I am probably impressed with this most of all and that is spaces. It allows you to choose from four spaces in which to set applications. (I think you can create more spaces if you like) You assign the applications to the spaces choosing from numbers 1 to 4 and it means when you open that app in that particular space it flips the desktop to the screen. It is like having four desktops in one. For example say I put ichat and second life in space one. When open they both show on my desktop there. Then I want to open a web browser. When I do so as that is in space 2 is slides the desktop into the second space where I can see my browser and nothing more. Second life and ichat are still running but just not in view at the moment. Then I want to view a mpeg and assigned QuickTime to their. It slides into that screen to my browser, second life and iChat all cannot be seen on the desktop but I see the movie. Then having watched the movie and want to see what is going on in second life I select that and it flips back into the desktop with second life and ichat. I am very impressed. It keeps you desktop from getting too cluttered. Means you don't need to hide open apps away when not using them you just flip between the spaces.
Time machine is a very handy automatic backup tool. I bought an external hard-drive to go with this. It automatically backups up to the external every hour. The real handy function is if you lost a file and know which folder it was in you can go into time machine and it shows the folder in current and all the backup folders behind it going off into the infinite. You can then scroll through the folders of the past until a time when the file you lost was still in existence then restore it back to your current folder. Its a very easy way to find lost things as well as keep a good backup.
I thought there might be one little drawback. Last night when starting up, switching between user names and shutting down it did seem a little slower than Tiger had been on these. However this morning it was fine and just as fast. I guess that was it just settling in and works like a dream.
I am sure I have a lot more things to discover in this but so far I am very very impressed and glad I upgraded. Once again I feel Apple is leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors when it comes to their OS. |
Simply brilliant.
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| Review Date: November 10, 2007 |
| Reviewer: weebod, Scotland |
| Popped in the Leopard disc, the update went smoothly & was effortless. Booklet provided was easy to follow & offers a nice introduction to the new features. Don't want to read? Just pop online & watch the video tutorials. Leopard is a dream to use & it looks stunning. I especially love Time Machine & Spaces. The new mail is great, with some lovely templates & a nice little 'to do' feature. I could go on, but simply put, I love it. |
Mac OS X Leopard 91-User)
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| Review Date: March 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mrs. Beryl C. Shaw, |
| I bought Leopard (1-user) to update from Panther and I am extremely pleased with it. No problems whatsoever in downloading- the whole operation took just over the hour. I would highly recommend this product. |
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