A Closer Look At Today's Leopard Revelations [Updated]

As the dust settles from today's announcements at WWDC, we take some time to make a few additional notes on some details of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard."

Where's Screen Sharing?
One feature that was present in previous Leopard builds but is no longer advertised is screen sharing via iChat.

This is would not be the first time a previewed feature of Mac OS X has been axed prior to launch. Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther's" Home On iPod feature was mentioned on Apple's site, but then pulled without explanation. Currently, all Leopard pages feature a disclaimer stating that "all features referenced in the Mac OS X Leopard website are subject to change."

Update: Forum member lancestraz notes that Screen Sharing is still being shown on Apple's site, however modestly.

Performance Optimizations
The addition of the 8-core Mac Pro saw benchmarks that demonstrated diminishing returns with some applications. Barefeats had speculated that this was due to inefficiencies in Tiger's scheduler. It appears that Leopard will be addressing this with a scheduler further optimized for multi-core systems, as well as built-in support for Message Passing Interface (MPI) 2.0.

In addition to multi-core enhancements, Apple states that other various portions of the OS have been optimized including a self-tuning TCP stack (eliminating the need for specialized tools such as Broadband Tuner), and a multithreaded 'autofs' filesystem layer.

Apple states that all these technologies are universal, meaning both Intel Mac users and PowerPC users will benefit from the enhancements.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...