Newton’s Lore

From the Mac OS X 10.5.2 release notes, here are some of my observations: User Interface:

• Apple has added a Time Machine icon to the Menu bar (it can be turned on in the Time Machne control panel)
• The menus are less translucent (who would have thought with everyone complaining that that would have been a problem) and transparency can be turned off in the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane
• List view is back in the Stacks (presumably they got a lot of complaints), and they have a new grid view background (presumably for better visibility)

It remains to be seen if they’ve added the Size column back to the Spotlight column view though.

Support for new things (ie you may want to try plugging some old stuff that didn’t work in again to see if it does now!):

• You can now iSync Samsung D600E and D900i phones
• Airports Express and Extreme now support more printers connected via USB
• New RAW camera formats supported:
  • Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
  • Canon Powershot G9
  • Hasselblad CF-22
  • Hasselblad CF-39
  • Leaf Aptus 75s
  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon D300
  • Sony Alpha DSLR-A700
• Supports more 3rd party routers in iChat and Back To My Mac

Interesting bugs fixed:

• Fixed a problem when ejecting a CD could write to it! (presumably instead of just ejecting it)
• Fixed a problem where the Leopard Setup Assistant would re-appear (as noted in this TidBITs article by Glenn Fleishman)
• Mail now automatically disables the (unsupported) third-party plugin GrowlMail version 1.1.2 or earlier to avoid issues.
• Addresses “accuracy issues” with the web content filter (in Parental Controls) perhaps to now block unboxing porn?
• The computer will now shut down if an automatic disk repair does not succeed during startup. (Hopefully it tells you why it just shut down?)

MacWorld has an article which details software for adding Leopard-like features to Tiger, including creating widgets from a portion of a webpage, multiple virtual desktops, iChat special effects, better searching than Spotlight, and backups.

• Penny Arcade had an amusing cartoon about the iPhone (note the title
• Steve Jobs appears on Saturday Night Live to reveal more about the iPhone (video now pulled by GooTube)
• PvP welcomes the Jesus Phone
• Daring Fireball points out that the iPhone runs OS X (not Mac OS X), and it will probably use an ARM processor, as seen in Apple’s Newton. Perhaps someone could port NewtOS to the iPhone and mod it for the colour multitouch display, phone and wireless. Still not sure if anything will be able to get at the GPS info the phone is meant to contain to support e911

Personally I think it’s interesting that Apple Developer Connection is plugging its Dashcode beta now. Perhaps Dashcode widgets will run on the iPhone?

If you’re looking for recipes, check out the Epicurious widget. Will also display a picture of the final result if they’re available.