Well folks, it is finally that day! With so much anticipation and hoopla surrounding this launch, I thought we'd never get here. The wait is finally over. All around the globe, people are jumping with joy at the sight of their Fedex or UPS guy. And tonight, many, many more will make their way to the holy temple of Apple (the Apple Store) to wait in line with the other minions as the doors swing open to the masses of Apple fanatics known as the Cult of Mac.
Over the past few days, many of the greatest developers out there have released their OS X "Tiger" ready versions of their warez, prepping for the onslaught about to hit their servers tonight. I must say, many of the apps that have been broken, for the most part, now work magnificently. There are just some apps, such as Delicious Library, which must be experienced in person. Some other notables that are working beautifully are Daylite, Transmit, Candy Bar, StickyBrain, Little Snitch, Apple Remote Desktop, and many more. A more extensive list can be found at MacWorld.
So what other goodies could there possibly be for the day? Well plenty I tell ya. For one, Apple released their upgraded .Mac service. Some of the upgraded features include a much tighter integration with the OS. You can now sync passwords from your Keychain and Mac OS X Mail preferences...including accounts, rules, signatures and the new Spotlight-driven Smart Mailboxes...Mac-to-Mac. A new shared address book is now available. Turn on sharing in your Tiger Address Book's Preferences, then add other .Mac members and choose whether to allow them to edit contacts. Any changes made are reflected in all of the accounts. VERY cool if you ask me. Soon there will be a member-only section for widgets. And you can now finally access your email aliases right from within Apple Mail. All very worthy upgrades which in my opinion, makes having .Mac mandatory in order to get the true Apple experience of integration with your OS and web services. This is the future folks, and Microshaft Longcrap won't have it.
So speaking of widgets. This is definitely one of the absolute COOLEST features of Tiger. And as you would expect, Apple has released the Dashboard page to the public. Talk about some wicked new toys. Better grab em now before the servers get slammed tonight! There have been some insanely busy developers out there and they have delivered in a BIG way. Make sure you visit the Widget Wonderland, you won't want to miss this one!
Other places you won't want to miss are the Automater Actions page, and Spotlight Plugins. More very essential resources for things that will make you go Oooooohhhhhhh, Ahhhhhhhhhh and have you sayin "Hot Damn! Now THAT is T-I-T-E "TIGHT"!!!
There is just waaaay too much goodness here for anyone to absorb in one day. If you haven't already ordered your copy, I highly recommend you pick up a copy TONIGHT at your local Apple store. If you happen to be in the Miami area, I will be live and in person at the Apple store in the Falls helping out as part of the Apple Tiger Launch Team (and no I don't work there, I am just part of the Apple team helping for the launch. I'll be the goon in the "Apple Education" shirt and most likely keeping you overly excited peeps from storming the front door before 6pm. If you work in K-12, I will be your go-to guy. See you there!!!
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