Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday offered a crowd of developers, consultants and IT managers here a preview of Mac OS 10.4, the next version of the company"s Macintosh operating system, code-named Tiger. The software is due in spring 2005, Apple managers said. Demonstrated at the O"Reilly Media Inc."s Mac OS X Conference here, Apple provided attendees perhaps the second up-close look at Tiger, since its premiere at Apple"s Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
"I know you"ve heard statements like this before, but this is without a doubt going to be the biggest [operating system] release for developers in Mac history, " said Apple Senior Product Line Manager Chris Bourdon during his Tiger presentation. "The good news: It has by far the most features and capabilities than any other release. The bad news: There"s a lot to learn, so it"s going to take some time to get familiar with it," he said. Bourdon described the new Apple audio/video architecture slated for Tiger: Core Audio, Core Image and Core Video. These Xcode components, built into Tiger"s system, will allow the system-wide addition of special effects to music, image, and film-editing applications.