More Goodies in Apple's New Operating System
In today's Times, I reviewed Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard." I noted that Apple claims to have added over 300 new features. — Trouble is, if I tried to describe them all in my 1,280-word column, I'd have 4.3 words to describe and assess each one.
Context & Ripple Effects
Leopard's arrival closes a two-year gap since Tiger, and the run-up this week was wall-to-wall: The Times' own pre-release rundown of Leopard's goodies landed October 24, followed by Computerworld's in-depth look at what Apple calls over 300 new features and USA Today's verdict that the system 'hits all the right spots.' Today's column adds the reviewer's dilemma to that pile — 1,280 words against 300-plus claimed additions works out to roughly four words per feature.
Two wrinkles complicate the clean launch narrative. Reports say Apple stripped wireless AirPort Disk support out of Time Machine at the last minute, though accounts conflict on whether the capability was actually cut or only scrubbed from the marketing pages; separately, a claim that Apple quietly removed iPhone note-syncing references from Leopard feature pages went unconfirmed after pushback. Meanwhile Threat Level reports the finished build was already flooding BitTorrent before the official 6pm retail opening.
First-order effects
- Millions of Mac fans who queued or pre-ordered get their copies tonight as stores open at 6pm, and reviewers across outlets — including Engadget's gallery-and-apps walkthrough — converge on the judgment that Leopard was worth the wait.
- Early upgraders lose the advertised ability to run Time Machine backups to an AirPort Disk over wireless, a feature pulled or de-listed in the final days before ship.
Second-order effects
- Widespread torrent distribution of the final build undercuts the paid-upgrade window for Apple, turning launch-week revenue into partly a test of whether users buy rather than download free copies.
- Every announced-but-dropped feature — wireless backup, possibly note syncing — hands reviewers and rival OS vendors a ready-made contrast between Apple's marketing list and the shrink-wrapped product.
Third-order effects
- If big-version launches keep pairing huge feature-count claims with late cuts, the industry drifts toward judging operating systems by shipped reliability rather than announced totals — a shift reviewers are already signaling by rationing attention across hundreds of bullet points.
- Apple's simultaneous embrace of a student-made ad shows the company leaning on consumer-generated content as launch marketing, a pattern that could make fan-created material a standing part of OS rollouts.
The trend: Desktop OS releases are becoming marketing events built on ever-longer feature lists, with launch-day piracy and last-minute feature cuts testing how much of the announcement survives contact with paying users.