Safari

It looks like Apple really wants more than that measly 2% browser market share that it currently holds, with Safari. They’ve just released Safari for Windows as well, giving Windows users the opportunity to try out one of only a few Apple-created application available for the alternative operating system recently (iTunes was a great move for Apple since it was the iPod‘s tipping point.)

People have already told me that is really IS a lot faster on Windows than Internet Explorer, so I’m happy about that. I rarely, if ever, use Safari on my Mac since I depend on my Firefox extensions, but as a web developer, this news is great for other developers on Windows because they can finally test their websites in Safari without a Mac.

Finder and Desktop

Apple has shown some of the new features that will be included in the next version of Mac OS X 10.5, codename Leopard. Below are my thoughts on the new features that are introduced.

I dislike the new default background image that they’re using for the desktop; the old one is a nice, smooth blue, and the new one is a photo of wet leaves. Yum.

I like the fact that they’ve focused some changes on making a new Finder. The current Finder has its flaws, and it’s very basic. It’s nice, but it could be better. The new Finder will hopefully fix many of its shortcomings.

They’ve applied Cover Flow to the Finder. Cover Flow in iTunes is pretty pointless; it’s fun to use for the first five minutes, and then it becomes an inefficient way to browse your music. Cover Flow for Finder is even worse; there’s nothing less satisfying than looking at your documents as if they were cover albums, but instead of album covers, you look at file icons. Sounds boring? That’s because it is.

The dock is now reflective. I get Apple’s obsession with reflections, but when it’s embedded into the dock, I can’t imagine how I’ll be able to live looking at a reflective dock every single time I’m at my computer. I hope there’s an option to turn that off.

In conclusion…

The problem that I’m seeing is that Apple doesn’t NEED to release so many versions of Mac OS X, because the features that each version has does not substantiate the purchase of a new version every year or so.

I’ve been a Mac user since the last Mac operating system, Tiger, was released (about two months after it was out). I was obviously more excited about using it than Mac veterans were, because I hadn’t owned a Mac since the Macintosh was out. With the previews shown of Leopard, I am seriously underwhelmed, even though it will only be the second iteration of Mac OS X that I will experience.

The announcements that were made today did not satisfy investors, and Apple’s stock price suffered because of that. The funny thing is that Apple set people’s expectations so damn high because of the past Apple conferences, that everyone was awaiting for yet another massive announcement to be made today (as if the iPhone isn’t enough.)

Ah, yes, I’ve got good memories of last year’s inaugural conference. It was actually during that time that I finally decided to start a blog and keep it for at least a month; my first posts are in fact, about the conference itself!

So far, only the keynote speakers have been announced on the website, which include such industry heavyweights like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch fame, Jim Buckmaster from craigslist, and a returning speaker from last year, Tom Williams of GiveMeaning.com. It will be very interesting to see the rest of the schedule fleshed out over the next few months leading up to the event itself; I can’t wait! It would also be interesting to see another ‘15 minutes of fame‘ segment, like the one that existed last year and that I was included in (thanks again, mesh guys!) Or maybe hold a panel focused on how today’s teenagers have a growing influence on some of the largest websites on the web, including YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook? This would then be similar to what I spoke about at last year’s conference; I consider my little spiel at mesh 2006 to be foreshadowing the ‘Google buys YouTube‘ news!