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By now you should know that the latest Mac OS X version called Leopard will be in stores this Friday, October 26th, at 6PM. The OS can be installed not just on the latest Macs but on systems that are as much as 6 years old. While reading through the Leopard features list, there are a handful of features that significantly improve Mac usage. The rest seem to be small enhancements. Leopard will go for $120.

Time Machine

My favorite feature is the Time Machine. It is a backup program that runs seamlessly in the background. It does not require any additional settings or options to change. One thing that it does require, however, is an external Hard Drive. A 500GB High Speed USB 2.0 drive Hard Drive can be bought directly from Apple for $140. Once it is hooked up to your Mac or to any other Mac on the network the Time Machine will find it and configure it. The configuration is seamless. This is where I say: “Set it and forget it!”. The restore functionality looks sexy and is unique. Once the Time Machine is activated any document, setting or picture can be restored to any point in time in a few mouse click. It is even possible to restore the entire system.

Quick Look

Another neat feature is a Quick Look. Once you are in a Finder, enter Quick Look and sneak peek through multiple page documents, pictures and videos without opening them. Quick Look works seamlessly with Time Machine. You can simply sneak peek at files or changes that were made back in time.

Spaces

And now we move on to Spaces. Spaces are desktops that look and function similar to Workspaces on Linux. Think of Spaces as multiple desktop environments that can be organized separately from each other. One Space can be used for Internet browsing so I would have a Browser or multiple browsers. Another Space can be used for GarageBand with iTunes and so on.

Other

Obviously, there are other neat features that were added to Spotlight, Terminal, TextEdit, iCal and iChat that are nice to have. I am very exited about Leopard and can’t wait to get a Mac! As Job’s said, “Everyone gets an Ultimate version!.”

Update: Apple Insider is reporting that Apple yanks wireless backup from Leopard last minute. This is a bit disappointing and some users seem to be frustrated. Especially those that upgraded their wireless AirPort.

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