Tiger's 200 new features are too many to list, but there are a few that we think are worthy of a special mention. And the adoption of the new H.264 video codec will make iChat sessions with an iSight clearer and enable three-way video meetings on a really impressive 3D stage, providing you know two other people who also own an iSight. You probably won't notice much difference at this stage, but the rewrite of QuickTime does lift the video quality a notch. It's all low-level stuff but it will pave the way for increasingly sophisticated multimedia applications. At the core of the new OS are a number of major changes to the core graphics and audio code. That's a bit of a disappointment as the beachball is one of the biggest bugbears in OS X. Finder has been tightened up, although the continued appearance of the spinning beachball of death leads us to believe that Apple still hasn't made the Finder application multi-threaded. In performance terms, Tiger definitely feels snappier than Panther. This, of course, is little concern to the majority of us who have less than 2GB of RAM, but for video or music producers it could really speed things up. You're no longer limited to a 2GB limit on memory intensive applications. As they say: "The jury is still out." 64-bit brillianceĪs a 64-bit operating system, Tiger can now address oodles of RAM.
![mac os x tiger 10.4 mac os x tiger 10.4](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dPEAAOSwoCdd3Dhp/s-l400.jpg)
Make no mistake, Dashboard is fun and pretty, but its usefulness has yet to be proved. obviously something's not quite right there.Īlso, adding and deleting Widgets seems a bit cack-handed and we couldn't find any way of turning off Dashboard. We tested the English to German version and found that the word suggested for "butterfly" was a "Basisrecheneinheit" which another dictionary told us was "automatic calling and/or answering equipment". The translator, for instance, has a few flaws. Is Dashboard really useful? Well it's certainly pretty but we think it's of limited use at the moment. However, developing Widgets is easy (according to Apple) so expect to see some useful little Widget websites very soon. There are a few others including a Yellow Pages directory and Stock ticker, but these two only work on American addresses or companies it's a case of Sherlock all over again. Tiger currently ships with some basic Widgets that include a calculator, weather forecaster, dictionary and translator. You can consult and then dismiss the Widgets by clicking on the screen and returning to your work. These accessories are available by pressing on your keyboard and the Widgets instantly appear, floating over the Desktop.
MAC OS X TIGER 10.4 SERIES
Looking remarkably like the Konfabulator shareware application, this feature brings forth a series of handy little panels called Widgets. Tiger's other visible new feature is Dashboard.
MAC OS X TIGER 10.4 MAC
Even the tidiest and most organised among us occasionally mislay or lose things, so Spotlight will be a firm favourite with most Mac owners. It works like a charm and really can find almost anything on your Mac. On the other hand, if your bedroom floor is strewn with clothes and muddles, this new addition will soon be your best friend. If you're the sort of person who has separate drawers for socks and T-shirts then Spotlight may not be too useful. Just click on any file to open it and away you go. Once the index has been built you can type any text in the Spotlight window and almost instantly any file that includes the search term will be listed in a Spotlight window. Indexing can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.
![mac os x tiger 10.4 mac os x tiger 10.4](https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/free-upgrade-tiger-to-leopard.jpg)
Once you're up and running Tiger sets about indexing the entire contents of your Mac's hard drive so that the new Spotlight feature will be able to find almost anything on your Mac. However, to be certain that things go smoothly we'd recommend that you repair disk permissions both before and after installation.
![mac os x tiger 10.4 mac os x tiger 10.4](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mac-os-x/0321330226/0321330226_ch04lev2sec77_image01.jpeg)
Upgrading to Tiger is a painless process, and we installed it on four different Macs to check compatibility. It belies the fact that it heralds an era of 64-bit computing, new core graphics and audio, as well as delicious eye-candy in the form of Dashboard's Widgets.