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New Mac OS - Tiger |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - May 2, 2005 | ||||||
 On Friday, April 29, Apple released its newest version of its
operating system and the fourth one based on UNIX. We first reported to you
about the marvels of OS X back on March 23, 2001. Since then the system controlling
and directing the work on most Macintosh computers has continued to evolve through
to this the fourth distinctly separate revision. The last version 10.3 was
revised a full nine times during its life. Unlike Microsoft Windows users
Macintosh users tend to upgrade their systems with each change as it is released.
Not only have there been actual changes to the operating |
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 system but Apple has brought minor security and other related
software updates practically on a weekly basis.On Sunday, April 17 we joined hundreds of other Macintosh users at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas as Apple sent their vice president to extoll the virtues of the operating system that was to be released two weeks later. With one in three of every new computer being purchased today being a Macintosh the importance of this new revision of the operating software has enormous consequences. In the broadcast and media world, the Macintosh is practically the |
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 standard, certainly when it comes to video production and animation.
It would appear that the introduction of the new and more powerful version of Final
Cut Pro, more and more movie makers will be turning to this software to do their
editing.The new OS X, Tiger (10.4) is a faster and more improved version of Panther (10.3) which was the most stable operating system I have every used and as a person who seems to always get on the bad side of operating systems I have never knocked Panther off its feet. |
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 "Tiger" introduces two new features to the operating
system with a high speed search capability within your own computer, Spotlight,
that looks not only for titles but within the context of documents of all kinds including
e-mail. This amazing feature goes to work with the first keystroke and is
faster than any form of search previously seen on a computer system.There are other new features to the operating system like "smart folders" a thing called "dashboard" which amounts to a set of useful built in utilities and then what Mac users will enjoy the most is serious upgrades to already solid performing parts of the operating system. |
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 E-mail, the web browser Safari, iChat and over
all performance all are considerably enhanced. The whole operating system is fast, stable and most importantly, it is not plagued with virus issues, security problems and the evil known as "spy ware". My computer automatically checks out itself for new updates once a week and as a result is always current. Compatibility issues with new updates and the day to day software one uses, have long ago become a problem of history. |
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 This picture was taken on a Sunday afternoon in the Las Vegas Apple
store. It is a small rather plain store but that afternoon it was almost full.
Needless to say with me wandering around a place seems to be a bit crowded. I knocked
over one displaly sign and nearly whipped out a set of iPods when I tripped
on a chord. Clearly the enormous popularity of the iPod has increased the
profile of Apple and of the Macintosh but the growing base of Mac
users is also a factor. Because of the Mac users keen tendency to update
all the time all these users are likely to move up to Tiger at $139 (Canadian). |
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 There is another important reason for the extreme interest in the Macintosh
operating system. This picture shows a typical server array with eighteen "X"
servers and terrabytes of hard drive storage below. The vunerability of
Microsoft Windows servers has cripple corporations and government time after
time as wave after wave of worms and virus attacks have forced server administrators
to invest enormous resources and time into protecting their systems to keep them
operational. Though no system is ever entirely safe the Macintosh server software
is really remarkable and needs only a fraction of the upkeep as other systems.Our web site and the domain name server we use are now secure, running nicely on Apple's X server. Both are still running the 10.3 version but as soon as we receive our copies we will be upgrading to 10.4. I have ordered my machine's "Tiger" and hope to see it late this week. Though we Macintosh users are so quick to praise the operating system, it is important to realise that the Macintosh hardware is also essential to make the concert sound good. We have 1998 iMacs purring along nicely on system 10.3 and they will run fine on Tiger. But the new G-5 iMac and G-5 Pro |
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 machines positively zoom along with each new successive software upgrade.
If you are a Windows user you will realise that those expensive iMacs
that came out in 1998 are still doing their jobs whereas Windows based machines
of that era would have come out running Windows 98 and few of them can be
upgraded to run the present operating systems. In most families three new PCs
have come and gone in the life time of the working iMacs.Though I am praising the advances of the new Mac operating system we are sitting on the edge of a major shift in the electronic world. The integration of web, cell phones, voice over IP telephony, television, streaming television, high definition TV, and the list is only begun. The iPod and iTunes are altering the world of music and even |
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 how we think about music. None of these technologies are not changing
as we see the newest Macs coming out with dual layer writing capability on
their DVD burners. Dual processors have been part of the Mac world
for years and now dual core and much more seem to be on the horizon.One of the main features that few of us will ever notice is that High Definition (HD) is now part of the core of the Macintosh operating system. The Apple applications that come with each machine iMovie and iDVD are now HD compatible. Which means that Steven Spielberg wannabes can sort out their next master piece feature movie on a Macintosh Powerbook laptop and as we walked around the NAB convention we saw many of those wannabes and their laptops. |
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 The business world of UNIX was a nasty business. UNIX
by its nature is unforgiving and enormously demanding of its users. But it is the
rigours of its construction that make it intrepid when it comes to security issues.
It is for that reason that Apple went to a UNIX based operating system
and why so many corporations and individuals have adopted LINUX.In order to make an operating system that would run an a wide variety of computer systems Microsoft had to make a lot of compromises and those compromises have made the Windows environment costly to work in because of the down time from destroyed hard drives and corrupted file systems as hackers and thieves waltz in and do their dirty business. |
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 Yesterday, I upgraded my computer to QuickTime 7, though it is
a part of Tiger it is independent and you can upgrade your computer, Mac
or Windows to the newer faster and more capable QuickTime 7 just by
clicking
here. You really should do it simply because
QuickTime can handle most stuff that comes over the Internet and it does so
seamlessly and with no fuss.If you work with video or audio at all you really need to have the $39 (Canadian) QuickTime Pro which allows you to cut and paste sound and video like text in a word processor. The little clip on the front of this web site was originally 16MB and the compressed rough little clip you see is a mere 94KB. |
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 Many users of OS 10.3 have been using iChat, the video
and audio conferencing application that works completely with AOL's messaging
software on a Windows machine. The new version that comes with "Tiger"
allows for four video conversations at once or sixteen audio conference calls.
This window demonstrates four video conferences. The bottom picture is of the fellow
on stage doing the demo, the guy on the right is a video editor and the one on the
left is the director of the TV show "Scrubs" and they were working
live on editing the clip on the top centre screen. This software is built right into
the operating system. |
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 For most home movie makers iMovie will be all you need to make
great home video but Final Cut Pro does it for feature film makers and its
audio and animation components are now stepping up to the commercial plate.Animations from what ever software, Electric Image, LightWave or whatever need to be "compted" assembled into a full production and Apples latest greatest version of "Quake" is the product that is turning heads. Straightforward to use and hugely powerful commercials and features films are going to be making big use of this application. |
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 At the NAB convention class after of class sat down using "Tiger"
on new G-5 machines to check out the introduction to "Shake".You will be seeing and hearing much more about "Tiger" in the future, not likely by name as it will simply melt into the fabric of the world we live in as every new Mac comes with it installed and almost all the other Macs in use will be shuffling over to it in the next month or so. If you want to take a look give me a call or just connect with me on iChat. |
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by: Timothy W. Shire |
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