[noopietom]

Hello Everyone. I went to the MacWorld Expo and hung around the 10.3 exhibit for a while and asked the guy some question. Here's what I found out:

–The feature set is not finalized for 10.3. More features could be added
–The OCR function in Image Capture may not make it into 10.3 because of lisencing issues of the Open Source involved. Apple is trying to convince the author of VueScan to write a plug-in so all the scanners (1000+) that VueScan supports will be supported by image capture. Also as of now OCR function is only about 75%. If Apple does ship it they would want 98 or 99% accuracy.
–Overall performance was increased by about 30% (even on the oldest machines according to the guy I spoke to). But some applications are 2x, 3x, 4x, or even 5x (such as Mail and Preview being the most increased)
–There was a "binoculars" in the menu bar for remote access 9I think Apple Remote Access has this already)
–Nothing has been changed in Sherlock
–Changes and enhancements have been made to Address book (can change phone numbers to have "()" automatically).
–Mail has the ability to view a chain of emails, you can see who started it and it can list all the emails of the chain.
–Faxing can be done using a bluetooth phone
–The guys working on 10.3 are trying to increase the speed and optimization taking full advange of the Velocity engine and of Multithreading
–As the date gets closer (the guy assured me that "later this year" did not mean decemebr 31st), Apple will release much more info about 10.3. He actually said Apple would swamp users with info.
–Apple will also release some sorta plan (I forget exactly what he called it) but you'll pay a price and you will automatically recieve OS X updates for the next three years (he specifically said three years)
–User switching was fast, the screen would blank out, then switch to the user selected. It seemed though that this feature was not near its final stages and could use some more polish. Everything else in 10.3 seemed rock solid.
–Application launching was fast (one bounch) for applications (on a 1 GHz PB)

That's pretty much all I remember. I'll post more if I remember and more. But overall 10.3 seemed absolutely amazing. They could probably ship it now if they wanted to. I just can't imagine how amazing it will be "later this year"

[Adam Betts]

Thanks for the great info.

[lookmark]

Neat.

Apple already offers an OS Maintenance program for OS X Server... it's interesting to see that they might be bringing it over for OS X...

Apple Expo seems like a good time to announce the release date for Panther, don't you think?

[OptimusG4]

Nothing has been changed in Sherlock

It has third party channels in the DP.

[krove]

They are probably going to release an SDK or something for Sherlock, so 3rd parties can implement their own plug-ins.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Originally posted by noopietom:
–Application launching was fast (one bounch) for applications (on a 1 GHz PB)

Ya right. I'd pay to see Photoshop or illustrator launch in one bounce. Or even Acrobat for that matter.

What you are really saying is that Preview and mail launch in one bounce on a G5. Yippie.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally posted by krove:
They are probably going to release an SDK or something for Sherlock, so 3rd parties can implement their own plug-ins.

I believe they already have.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally posted by noopietom:
–Application launching was fast (one bounch) for applications (on a 1 GHz PB)

This is already the case in Jaguar on a 1GHz TiBook with many apps.

[theory]

Well at least we now it didn't slow down .

I am very interested in what the apple upgrade
plan will be.

[JLL]

Originally posted by lookmark:
Neat.

Apple already offers an OS Maintenance program for OS X Server... it's interesting to see that they might be bringing it over for OS X...

Apple Expo seems like a good time to announce the release date for Panther, don't you think?

Mac OS X Maintenance for clients was launched at the same time as the launched Maintenance for Server.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally posted by noopietom:
–User switching was fast, the screen would blank out, then switch to the user selected. It seemed though that this feature was not near its final stages and could use some more polish. Everything else in 10.3 seemed rock solid.

User switching is already solid:

If the user you are switching to is logged in, the transition is instant. Programs keep running, music keeps playing. Not a hitch.

If the user is not logged in, it runs the transition into a blank blue screen (like when you login with the first user) and you have to wait a second or so for finder to load.

However, if the user you are switching to is running a screen saver (which are on by default), then the screen is blank and it takes a second to kick back in. A fun bug here is that sometimes you will see an upside down image of the first users screen for the second it takes to unload the screen saver.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
I believe they already have.

Yup, there are already plenty of 3rd party sherlock modules as this SDK was released over half a year ago.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

Originally posted by noopietom:

–There was a "binoculars" in the menu bar for remote access 9I think Apple Remote Access has this already)

Don't know if everybody knows this already, but Remote Desktop is built into the preview of Panther, and is activated in the sharing panel (I think). It's pretty cool, and works seamlessly, but also perpetuates all the same problems remote desktop currently has.

[edited to correct my mistakes, as politely pointed out below]

[cybergoober]

Actually it's Apple Remote Desktop.

Remote Access was the Control Panel in Classsic Mac OS used for dialup connections.

[benb]

Originally posted by Immortal K-Mart Employee:
Ya right. I'd pay to see Photoshop or illustrator launch in one bounce. Or even Acrobat for that matter.

What you are really saying is that Preview and mail launch in one bounce on a G5. Yippie.

[osxisfun]

>Faxing can be done using a bluetooth phone


Oh yes. i hate faxes (too analog) so i don't have one but i still need to fax something about 2 or 3 times a year.

my t68i should solve this problem!

[mitchell_pgh]

faxing is so 1970's... oh yah, so are computers...

I think the fax thing will be great for many designers that run their own businesses. Also, Apple is trying to get its foot in the door with small business people and its "Buy this computer and EVERYTHING will be included..." mentality...

[Powaqqatsi]

Why are you all against faxing ? People still use it alot you know.

[Sage]

Originally posted by noopietom:
–User switching was fast, the screen would blank out, then switch to the user selected.

Wait, so are they still using the twirling cube affect?

(Sorry, it's the little things that make all the difference to me )

[osxisfun]

paper jams. scrunched output. stupid sounds coming out of a fax machine. another separate device. crappy feeling paper. separate fax numbers that are always busy when i call them.dedicated lines. (yes i know some devices can check) broken connections blah blah blah.

>faxing is so 1970's... oh yah, so are computers...


the user experience for a computer has changed. for the fax it has not.


I did not say faxing should be stopped. if people want to put up with them fine. I just think faxing is like the 8track of the computer world.

[noopietom]

Originally posted by Immortal K-Mart Employee:
Ya right. I'd pay to see Photoshop or illustrator launch in one bounce. Or even Acrobat for that matter.

What you are really saying is that Preview and mail launch in one bounce on a G5. Yippie.

No. It was not on a G5. They had a 17" 1 GHz PB hooked up to a 20" or 23" Apple Display. For the applications that I noticed (System Preferences, Mail, Safari, etc.), it was one bounce. Granted they did not use any heavy applications like Photoshop or Acrobat. On a side note, the Apple guy did say that the G5 was addictively fast...

[ambush]

Originally posted by noopietom:
No. It was not on a G5. They had a 17" 1 GHz PB hooked up to a 20" or 23" Apple Display. For the applications that I noticed (System Preferences, Mail, Safari, etc.), it was one bounce. Granted they did not use any heavy applications like Photoshop or Acrobat. On a side note, the Apple guy did say that the G5 was addictively fast...

All those apps are always one bounce, on my emac700.

Altho it takes a lot more for System Prefs to load all the prefs bundles (modules)...

[lookmark]

Originally posted by JLL:
Mac OS X Maintenance for clients was launched at the same time as the launched Maintenance for Server.

It was? Where is it? Do tell.

[JLL]

Originally posted by lookmark:
It was? Where is it? Do tell.

You have to have at least 10 clients:

http://www.macminute.com/lib/020601osxma.shtml

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally posted by Sage:
Wait, so are they still using the twirling cube affect?

(Sorry, it's the little things that make all the difference to me )

I already answered this. Scroll up.

[KidRed]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
Why are you all against faxing ? People still use it alot you know.

Because scanners can cost less then a fax machine. Why fax black and white when you can email or ftp color?

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by KidRed:
Because scanners can cost less then a fax machine. Why fax black and white when you can email or ftp color?

Yeah, but when you fax for example your identity card over to someone who needs it to get some legal papers for you. You just fax it, it's fast and easy and anyway... FTP ? I don't know ONE PC-user who knows how to really use FTP.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Twirling cube is in. But only on QE enabled macs and only if the person has been logged in before.

[rocheb]

Hopefully we will see this in September

[sniffer]

The 30% speed increase sounds very nice. Wonder how they measure it?

[OwlBoy]

Originally posted by benb:

Well he IS right... though, these ARE huge apps. (then again they did launch faster in the past) hmmmm...

-Owl

[Superchicken]

30% faster, how do they messure that? Simple

They go on MacNN and look for posts asking about snappyness, and all the people with the preveiw that say it's snappier are messured against how many people said that for jaguar.

[Graymalkin]

Faxing as a system service is a good means to connect to people that aren't exactly in the latest technological loops. E-mail is a particularly fast and effective means of communication. Some businesses are not interested or don't care to use e-mail but have fax machines. Sometimes the only way to send an order or interact with someone is via phone or fax. Despite their flaws fax machines are a bit simpler for people to operate than e-mail or FTP. Though I'll probably rarely use it I'm glad to see faxing as a print service in 10.3. One of the more useful features of the Newton is the native ability to fax or e-mail a document to anyone in the world*.


* Provided they have a phone line, fax machine/computer.

[Geobunny]

One thing I've been trying to do on-and-off for the last month or so is write a printer driver that when something is printed to it, it's actually another computer on the internal network that recieves all the printed data and faxes it to a phone number (specified in the print dialog box).

Similar to OS X.3 Panther's print-to-fax mechanism except that only one computer on the network is actually connected to the phone line.

I'm sure something like this existed in the past (maybe for OS 8) but can't find it anywhere. Anyone think this would be a good idea? Makes sense to me.

Anyone willing to help?!

[Henriok]

I Panther there's an advanced option in Priner Setup Utility to build a fax-printer. If you shared that printer you could build a network-fax.