Panther will be shipping by this years end. For those loyal to OS X Jaguar, you maybe upset when you have to pay the $129 upgrade charge. For those who are still loyal to OS 9, you’re about to be left in the dust. The new features that will premiere in Panther will make it impossible to resist the upgrade.
Security:
In this age of cyber-terrorism, security is of paramount importance. Panther takes file security to the next level. The entire contents of a users' home directory are now automatically secured with 128bit encryption. Files are decrypted on the fly— and the process is completely transparent to the user. When a file is opened, it is seamlessly decrypted. When you are finished with the file, the OS will automatically re-encrypt with no intervention from the user.
A new Secure Erase Trash function makes sure that your file is really gone when you empty the trash. Conventional computer systems leave the document on the hard drive even after the trash is emptied. Even in OS X 10.2, when you delete a file from your drive, it is simply removed from the discs directory. This means that the data is still resident until another file overwrites its position on the disk. Panther will delete the file from the directory and overwrite its previous position on the disk making it virtually impossible to recover.
Automatic Sign-in has also been added. This means that, once you have logged into the OS, you will not have to enter your login to access file shares or email. Unless you have a different login to another system, you will never have to enter your password more than once.
VPN support will finally be a part of the OS. It may not be essential to all of us, but it does strengthen Apple’s foothold on high security corporate networks. Virtual Private Networks allow home users to login to corporate networks through an encrypted pipeline potentially giving a home user a secure link to their company resources. VPN is also typically used to connect multiple branch offices over the Internet.
Expose:
The Mac OS’s ease of use has always been its greatest trait. With Panther, Apple believes it can improve on its past track record and give users an even easier way to navigate the computer and make their computers even easier to use.
Expose is a next generation file browser and window management feature built into the Mac OS. Using 3 function keys, F9, F10, and F11 a user can quickly and easily manipulate the open applications and their open windows.
Expose utilizes Quartz for lightning fast screen manipulation. If your video card supports Quartz Extreme, Expose will likely change the way you use your Mac.
iChat AV:
Possibly one of the coolest features of Panther, surprisingly enough, was also released for 10.2 today. It is a public beta of the latest version of iChat. Other instant messengers let you do text chat, but iChat AV looks to leave those IM clients in the cold.
If you have a 56K modem (or faster internet connection), you will be able to do real time, full duplex audio chat. If you have a broadband connection and a FireWire web cam, you get to play with the coolest toy— video conferencing on the Mac. Who better to do it than Apple? And since Apple built the computer, and because Apple wrote the software, now Apple has built one of the coolest little web cams on the market!
Apple calls their new camera iSight. It is a small but versatile camera that will run you $149. It comes with 3 different stands making it easy to mount just about anywhere. And, since FireWire powers it, the same plug that sends the audio/video to the computer also sends the power to the camera. Combine the camera with iChat AV, and you have a full-featured video conferencing software that requires no configuration. Just plug the camera in and click a Buddy’s name. If they have a camera set up on their system, you are set to videoconference.
Font Book:
Since the dawn of time, the Mac has been number one in the publishing market. This was due to its power, performance, and its ease of use. One problem that has existed nearly as long, is the issue of font management. This left the door open for several third-party software companies, many of whom have come and gone over the years. Now, for the first time, the Mac OS will have built-in professional level font management.
Faxing:
One of the coolest features of OS X has been the ability to print any document either to a printer, or to PDF format. Windows XP is still messing around with clunky PDF utilities while Apple has seen fit to base its entire graphic display engine on this core technology.
But, if you can print a document to PDF, shouldn’t it be just as easy to print it to FAX? Once again, many third party companies have offered solutions for years. To be honest, I have tried most of them, and none have gotten it right. That is why Apple stepped in to add the feature to Panther. Now, any document you can print or save to PDF, can now be faxed right from the desktop.
Multiple Users:
One of two nice things about Windows XP has made its way to the Mac. It is now possible to switch from one logged in user to the next without closing documents or quitting running applications. At first, this seems like a nice “value added feature,” but its implications are staggering when you consider where Apple might go from here. Consider multiple users logging into a central server from thin-clients over a network. Everyone gets the Mac GUI on screen, but all applications are resident and running on the server. All processing is happening on the server. All maintenance is done on the server. This is the future of corporate networking. I’m betting it is also the future of OS X server.
We can expect to see Panther released by the end of this year. When it hits the shelves, it will definitely give OS X 10.2 users a reason to upgrade. Panther promises a host of powerful new features. Some features, like iChat AV should prove to be a lot of fun. Others promise to make our digital lifestyles easier to manage. In the end, a computer is supposed to be easy to use. With Apple and the Mac OS, we get unsurpassed ease of use and still have fun along the way!
