An Anecdotal Leopard Review

I just recently upgraded (3 different computers) to the Mac OS v. 10.5, so memorably dubbed Leopard. Operating system upgrades are, generally, pretty boring. You get a few more features. Some flashy new menus and icons, and that’s typically all there is to it. This is not necessarily the case with Leopard. If you want to know what all 300 new features are, you’re going to have to look elsewhere. Some range from geek-only (tabbed terminal windows), to total eye candy (reflective dock icons). Some, however, offer new and truly revolutionary ways to view computing. Or communicating, since computing sounds like math.

Here is a simple, somewhat embarrassing, but very practical example of a major innovation in Leopard. The concept itself has already existed, but never before implemented so gracefully. It is simply the notion of screen sharing… Allowing a remote user to control your screen (or the option to become that user). Programs exist to perform such functions, but Leopard builds it right into an extremely easy to use program called iChat. iChat is essentially a Mac client to use the AOL Instant Messenger network and protocols, but they built a feature into it to allow screen sharing. Simply select the function “Share my screen with…” or “Ask to share screen”, the other person approves it, and voilá… I’m looking at this other person’s display.

The context. My friend Alyson is in an advertising class, and needs to take one of her group members drawings that was scanned, knock out all the white, and make the white portions transparent. This is to superimpose the sketch on top of another element in Photoshop. Perhaps there are others who can simply explain these concepts without any visual cues, but I am not such a person. I need to see what’s being done in order to show them how to do it. “Ask to share Alyson’s Screen” and horray we’re away.

I navigate through her spaces until I find the one she’s dedicated to Photoshop, and see the drawing that she needs to work with.

I’m not going to lie. I laughed out loud.

Imagine a 4th grade attempt at drawing out a Gatorade ad with a pencil, and you’re looking at what I’m looking at.

All this time, I can talk to Alyson, since my trusty little Macbook has a built-in microphone (my Mac Pro, however, does not… an issue that I hope will be remedied in the next model of Cinema Display). As soon as I see the picture, my immediate reaction is perhaps what many of you would think, but not likely say. “I’m really sorry you have to use this picture for the project, Alyson.”

And then, in an instant, I realize that she is in the group meeting that contains the guy who drew it. And yes, my trusty little macbook has a built-in microphone with which I may speak to everyone within earshot of her trusty little macbook. And yes, I just insulted the guy’s drawing to his face, without even knowing his face was there.

The long and short of it is that technology is incredibly useful, especially in Leopard. But make sure you know who is at the other end of the computer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 06th, 2007 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.