This week we’re going to begin discussing the myriad new features in Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger”, appearing in an Apple retail location near you this evening at 6:00 PM.

\Windows users! Wait! You may be tempted to let your eyes drop down below this article to those other tech articles that often populate the rest of this page: the weekly, seemingly futile, tips on how to keep your PC adware or spyware free; the “arrival announcement” of the next nasty virus or Trojan horse; or, the inevitable advice to reinstall the operating system and get a “fresh start”. Hang around here for awhile. Because, as we’re talking about Tiger, while Mac users can get a preview of what they’ll be using tonight, Windows users can get a glimpse of what they’ll be using next year. See? Something for everyone here at the MacMaineiac. So, without further adieu, here are four good reasons to put a Tiger in your Mac (and, a Mac on your desk or lap).

One. Spotlight. Powerful computer search built into the operating system. From the moment you install Tiger, Spotlight works in the background indexing all the files on your Mac. Where other current search tools can take hours to index your hard drive, Spotlight takes minutes. If you edit a file, or add a new file, Spotlight immediately catalogues the changes to the index. Once indexing is complete, Spotlight will begin listing search results faster than you can finish typing what you’re looking for. Spotlight doesn’t just look for file names containing your search criteria. It looks (among other places) inside text, MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), and PDF files, iTunes song tags, iPhoto keywords and comments, email messages within Mail, contacts in your Address Book, and Bookmarks within your Safari browser. Photo and PDF results are displayed in thumbnail form for easy review. Once the search is complete, save the results as a “Smart Folder”, where any new files meeting the criteria are automatically “stored” (they’re not really moved there, but a simple double-click takes you to the real file). It’ll change the way you use your computer, for the better.

Two. Dashboard. Imagine a group of small applications that display information about local weather, time, calendar, quick-access address book, calculator, language translation, dictionary, thesaurus, stock quotes, “yellow pages” phone book, unit conversion, airline flight tracker, stickie notes, and games. Now, imagine them all updated continuously by your internet connection, and available on an opaque layer floating above your desktop with the push of a key or a button on your mouse. Click anywhere on the desktop, and you’re back to work. Dashboard has an astronomical “coolness factor”, and many more cool widgets are on the way from Apple and other developers.

Three. Safari RSS. Besides being even faster at loading and rendering web pages, Safari now has a built-in RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) reader. RSS allows web developers to “publish” a list of the information on their site in a short paragraph containing title and description. Plus, when they add new information, their RSS “feed” is automatically updated. When you go to a site offering an RSS feed, Safari detects the feed and presents it. Think of it as being able to read this newspaper without having to see any of the advertising. If you’re a news junkie, RSS’s your fix.

Four. iChat AV. Conduct an audio conference (i.e., free phone call) with up to ten people at a time. Take part in a four-way video conference, with your three other chatters displayed in an amazing 3-D interface.

Whew. That’s four out of 200. More next week.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski