Macworld NY: What Did It Mean?

CreativePro Staff

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This summer’s first Macworld Expo didn’t force the world to re-evaluate our take on the Internet, the personal computer, or our OS, but Apple certainly treated us to some welcome, workflow-enhancing upgrades to its hardware and software. The industrious Apple developer community also came through with some great new product demos.

Apple introduced a further refinement to the G4 tower, a faster iMac, and a new version of iDVD. Apple iCEO Steve Jobs’ characteristically skillful presentation covered the whole of Apple’s strategy in broad strokes, including software and hardware demonstrations, the standard Mac vs. PC showdown, and a video report on the success of Apple’s retail stores. From a day-to-day perspective, however, probably the most important content had to do with OS X.

"Ten on X," But When?
Jobs yielded the stage for 45 minutes to what he called the "10 on X," a group of Apple’s key developers invited by Apple to demonstrate their support for Apple’s new crown jewel.

Microsoft was first, followed by Adobe and Quark. Each demonstrator wowed the audience with new features and sang the praises of OS X and the Aqua interface — and left without committing himself to a specific release date.

The "big 3" vendors were followed by representatives from FileMaker, Connectix, IBM, World Book, Blizzard, Aspire, and alias|Wavefront. Of those, only FileMaker (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple) and World Book are shipping OS X product now. A notable absence from the stage was Macromedia, which was surprising given that Macromedia’s FreeHand 10 for OS X shipped this spring.

Opening his discussion of the OS X transition, Jobs reminded the audience that when OS X started shipping, he estimated it would be 12 months before the transition was complete. Apple is now a third of the way through the process, but for the Mac-using creative professional, OS X is still just a small dot on the horizon.

The Dot Grows
Following the parade of vendors, Jobs announced that OS X will get a major upgrade in September, one that will possibly banish the roman numeral from its moniker. OS 10.1 looks to be a dramatic improvement over the current release.

Quickly then:

• "Performance, performance, performance." Jobs started his demo by performing several mundane tasks to show how much faster the system responds with OS 10.1. Application launching, Finder tasks, navigation, and menu response are all improved.
• Mentioned in passing by Jobs, but significant to anyone on a Windows network, Mac OS 10.1 features support for SMB and AFP servers, meaning Macs running OS 10.1 will have full access to Windows-managed servers, as well as UNIX servers running SAMBA. At this time, using OS X on a Windows network can only be achieved with third-party software.
• 10.1 features DLLs for more than 200 new printers, as well as improved USB printer support. This is good news for creative folks, as the printing capabilities of OS X have to this point been questionable.
• Aqua enhancements aplenty. The dock is now movable, the Finder is more customizable, the Preferences panel has been reorganized, and the Menu bar will hold information for battery life, AirPort signal strength, and controls for a slew of system settings.

The Waiting Game
The refinements Apple is making to OS X reveal its willingness to adapt its vision in response to customer feedback. When the OS was first shown to the world, its aesthetic beauty was tempered by its structural rigidity: The desktop had no icons, the Dock was static, and some of the humanistic touches familiar to Mac users were gone. File names now had three-letter suffixes, and long file names — while possible — were often truncated with ellipsis, further "techifying" the Mac experience.

For the creative professional — indeed for Mac users of all stripes — OS X offers a revolutionary jump forward. Apple is committed to OS X, and is implementing user feedback into its development process. For its part, Apple is doing the right thing.

When it comes to the users, however, we must consider our daily workflow: Yes, the OS is pretty, it’s stable, and soon it will presumably be a "first-class network citizen" that can intelligently select printer drivers on the fly. But until we can walk into the Apple Store in the Mall of America and buy OS X-native versions of the applications we work with every day, our time with OS X should be relegated to weekends and free time.

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