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Today at Apple's WWDC presentation the face of its latest OS has been revealed in depth

Today at Apple, fast on the heels of the announcement of a vastly improved 3G iPhone came a preview of the new Apple operating system Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6).  Apple hopes that Snow Leopard "builds on the incredible success" of its Leopard predecessor. 

Apple touts that improvements coming in Snow Leopard will include better support for multiple processors, better GPU support, better use of large amounts of RAM, and support for Apple's new QuickTime® X platform.  The OS will ship in about a year and will come packaged with support for Microsoft Exchange 2007.

Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering describes the new OS stating, "We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more.  In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Apple says that integral to its plans is the new technology “Grand Central", which will help developers design more efficient multi-core programs for Macs.  The new OS will also allow use of Open Computing Language (OpenCL) to use GPUs for non-graphics applications.  And the sky's the limit for memory with 16TB of RAM, theoretically, at the new operating system's disposal (of course such levels are impossible with current chipsets and DIMM densities).

Quick Time X is also a major new feature.  It will draw from lessons learned with the iPhone and will feature support for advanced video and audio formats.  Apple is also throwing in a new version of Safari, which it states will include the "fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive."

With the addition of Microsoft Exchange, Apple should be able to better interface with Windows computers in a business setting.

The new OS marks a continued push on Apple's part towards a longer more Windows-like development cycle for Apple.  Apple has often been criticized for having too short a development cycle.  The OS X family has seen the production times slowly increase from an initial release-a-year pace.

DailyTech will follow Apple's progress in coming months as the OS approaches its release and prepares to compete with the upcoming Windows OS, codenamed Windows 7, due out in about a year as well.

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Quicktime X?
By Fenixgoon on 6/9/2008 7:11:42 PM , Rating: 5
I still can't fathom how quicktime has become any sort of standard. It is slow, bloated, and won't let you play a video full screen unless you buy the "pro" version.




RE: Quicktime X?
By borismkv on 6/9/2008 7:15:13 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
unless you buy the "pro" version.


DING DING DING! We have a winner!


RE: Quicktime X?
By Pirks on 6/9/08, Rating: -1
RE: Quicktime X?
By chick0n on 6/10/2008 12:28:10 AM , Rating: 4
Wow, You actually feel *proud* of that ?

We have a loser, yes. That would be you.


RE: Quicktime X?
By kelmon on 6/10/2008 3:50:43 AM , Rating: 1
Not sure if the language was seen as the issue, but the answer is correct - QuickTime Player does enable you to view movies in full-screen without an upgrade to the Pro version. The Pro version is only necessary if you want to edit a movie file, or create one. While it sounds a bit superfluous given that a Mac ships with iMovie of some version or another, QuickTime Pro is surprisingly useful and, honestly, well worth the money.


RE: Quicktime X?
By gramboh on 6/10/2008 5:01:28 PM , Rating: 2
Except it sucks at encoding h264 versus free x264 encoder in terms of quality and options. For playback on the PC, Media Player Classic with FFDshow is superior (and will even play .mov if you have to use that awful container).


RE: Quicktime X?
By kelmon on 6/11/2008 2:26:09 AM , Rating: 2
I can't really comment on the merits of the PC version, nor the quality of the encoding. What I can say is that QuickTime Pro is damned useful for hacking video, such as cutting bits out or exporting tracks to a new file. I understand that the QTP isn't very fast at encoding video, which seems odd, but its a handy application on the Mac for video that is already encoded.


RE: Quicktime X?
By sporr on 6/14/2008 6:00:58 AM , Rating: 2
I second that. MPC+ffdshow and maybe ac3filter if you needs demand it.

Some of the best things in life are free :)


RE: Quicktime X?
By jpeyton on 6/10/2008 3:00:59 AM , Rating: 3
Apple can't "ice" Windows until they get the hardware numbers to challenge Microsoft's dominance.

They're on track to do it sometime in the early 22nd century.


RE: Quicktime X?
By Arribajuan on 6/10/08, Rating: 0
RE: Quicktime X?
By DASQ on 6/10/2008 11:06:47 PM , Rating: 1
erm... last I checked, doing alright actually.


RE: Quicktime X?
By daftrok on 6/10/2008 11:51:51 PM , Rating: 2
http://www.dailytech.com/PostComment.aspx?newsid=1...

Granted it's in third place but has had a greater RATE of sales than the 360 since the beginning of '08. According to this graph by the end of 2008 the PS3 will have caught up with the 360 in worldwide sales.


RE: Quicktime X?
By akugami on 6/10/2008 11:59:57 PM , Rating: 2
The PS3 is doing terrible. Numbers wise, it's not that bad, dollars wise, it's a huge anchor on the SOE branch of Sony. This is similar to the original Xbox which had the distinction of being in second place in the last console wars but lost over two billion in the process while Nintendo's last place Gamecube made a tidy profit. I've posted it before but from a Japanese Sony executive, the PS3 was suppose to have taken them roughly five years to recoup their costs. I will make a huge assumption that it is with the PS3 in the lead for those PS3 projections. The PS3 is at best in second place and while it's not doing bad numbers wise, I have to wonder when and if it ever recoups its development costs. The ten year console projection is bologna.

Nintendo and Microsoft (if it chooses to remain in the console race) will most definitely have new consoles out in 4-5 years time that will more than equal what the PS3 has and likely one up it in many respects. Not only will the new consoles equal or surpass the PS3 but it'll have the shiny "NEW" tag whereas the PS3 will be considered old and worn, even if it more than holds its own against the new consoles.

The PSP which came off the gates fast, then slowed dramatically as the slow to start DS shot through the roof is doing very well lately. While the PS3 is doing better, the PSP is probably the sole bright spot for SOE right now.


RE: Quicktime X?
By talozin on 6/9/2008 7:27:28 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
It is slow, bloated, and won't let you play a video full screen unless you buy the "pro" version.


Er, what? I've been watching videos fullscreen with QuickTime Player ever since I discovered HandBrake, so this particular complaint was a surprise to me.


RE: Quicktime X?
By Pirks on 6/9/08, Rating: -1
RE: Quicktime X?
By Fenixgoon on 6/9/2008 7:49:43 PM , Rating: 5
I'm sorry, since version 7.2 That's 6.2 versions too late for me and the rest of the world.

VLC/QTA FTW.


RE: Quicktime X?
By xti on 6/10/2008 2:45:19 PM , Rating: 3
this reply wins the internet.


RE: Quicktime X?
By anotherdude on 6/9/2008 8:34:24 PM , Rating: 3
OK, I'll bite. How do I turn on fullscreen?


RE: Quicktime X?
By Reclaimer77 on 6/9/2008 8:44:52 PM , Rating: 5
Quicktime is crap. Its the new RealPlayer.

Back in the 90's everyone used RealPlayer. Then RealNetworks got greedy and tried to get RealPlayer to take over your entire PC. And people stopped using it.

Same thing with Quicktime. You can't even install it anymore unless you also download bullcrap Itunes.