1. 64-bit Applications
All 64 and 32-bit applications will run natively on Leopard. No emulation or anything.

2. Upgraded Mail
Mail now comes with amazing CSS-like templates that smoothly snaps to any email we write.. called Stationary. There is also ability to do up notes and to-dos from emails in Mail or just about any other applications. Tracking anything and everything becomes amazingly simple.

3. Bundled Applications
There’s Photo Booth, Bootcamp and a whole host of applications previously available as Beta or in advanced systems that are now bundled in with Leopard.

4. Improved iChat
Usability has had a giant leap and video-conferencing allows for sharing of Keynote presentations and stuff at the same time. Very chic.

5. Spaces
Creates four virtual desktops.. its like expose but better. Less clutter on the desktop.

6. Dashcode and WebClip
I like this. DashCode is an application that helps Developers create widgets. Its a HTML/CSS Helper.. as well as JavaScript editor and debugger. This means that its an amazing AJAX and webbie builder.

And webclip is a widget that allows you to take a snapshot of any part of any web page on the internet and keeps it live in real-time on your dashboard. Get an update on anything whenever it happens.

7. Universal Access
Stuff like VoiceOvers and Braille support get a major boost.

8. Improved Spotlight
Spotlight now allows for filtering and checking off other Macs. Looks like this software that this Chinese student made though.

9. Core Animation
This stuff helps developers create reaaaalllyyy cool application animation. Think of it as flash for developers. Yes.

10. Time Machine
This one is by FAR the most uber-cool feature. Imagine being to step back in time on any document, applicaiton, window.. whatever. For example.. pressing that SAVE instead of that SAVE AS? Time machine steps you back in time to get that document.. throwing you into a really cool deep space background at the same time (this app was developed with core animation). Knew a file was in this folder a month ago and now its gone? Just step into the time machine and boom, you got that file back.

That’s the good stuff from Leopard. And the best part is I got a free Developer’s Preview version of it.

Muahahaha. =)

The excitement is palpable. Everyone’s taking photos.. with digital cameras, handphones and the small isight camera that comes with the latest MacBooks. A whole sea of zealous Mac developers and evangelists. I can only imagine the amount of bandwidth coming out from this place towards flickr, youtube.com and all the blog engines worldwide.

We are all awaiting the arrival of Steve Jobs, the man with the reality distortion field and his formal unveiling of the Mac OS X Leopard.

Sunny side up

Getting into America was totally smooth. I came in at 8 in the evening and it was just getting dark.

Morning and we got down to register for the conference at Moscone West. The morning was as cool as walking through a supermarket freeze section. The streets were empty but it was bright enough to appreciate the architecture.

We went down to the Marriot for Student Sunday, a special day just for over 400 student developers all over the world. The programme for the day was a good 3 sessions of re-hashing subversion, unit testing and the basics of some objective-C data patterns by Aaron Hillegass, the guy that wrote the book on Cocoa that I have been going through a few weeks back. Then it was lunch.

And lunch rocked! It was so good I didn’t remember to take pictures.

A guy from Pixar talked to the 400 of us after lunch and Wil Shipley talked for a bit after that. The group of us made our way to the Asian Developer Reception and then walked around Chinatown before we ended up in a Thai eatery on the corner of Bush and Kearny Street.

Pictures are up on flickr here! I can’t wait for the Keynote Address tomorrow.

I promise that other blog will contain a lot less geek. Now, onward to hacking!