The Cult of the Cool Mac: Made with 100% USDA real meat!

Apple has officially announced the ship-date for their next-generation operating system — Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger.

Tiger will ship and be available at retail on April 29th. Expect celebrations and promotions on that date at your local Apple Store.

I don't usually pass along shopping tips on this site, but I'll make an exception here. Amazon is taking pre-orders for Tiger at the retail price of $130 dollars with a rebate that brings it down to $95. If you don't want to wait for a rebate, Otherworld Computing has a discounted price of $99 dollars on pre-orders through April 28th.

Tiger is expected to run faster than OS X 10.3 Panther and has optimised code to speed things up further on 64-bit G5 Macs. New features include:
* Spotlight, a way of cataloging and accessing files that makes ordinary file-searches and hierarchical folders obsolete;
* Dashboard, bringing back the concept of desk accessories in a clever way (not unlike a less-friendly version of the shareware Konfabulator);
* Automator, more than just a macro program;
* Safari RSS, which allows you to subscribe to RSS headline-feeds from your favorite blogs and news sites — but it's still not clear whether Safari RSS has the oft-requested bookmark-organization tools and full WC3 CSS 2.1 support;
* Core Image and Core Audio plug-in tools that give power-users the ability to manipulate data in a way that previously only sophisticated programmers had access to.

There is, of course, a whole lot more in this major operating system update — including over 200 changes, according to Apple — but you have the highlights. As with all significant software updates, you are best off waiting for the first (of what are sure to be many) incremental patch containing inevitable bug-fixes before you install Tiger. And you are advised to back up the contents of your hard drive before installing Tiger -- just in case.

**UPDATE: The Apple Store offers qualified students an educational discount that brings the price down to around $74 dollars (after tax) with free shipping.

[ **Updated by Andrew on April 12, 2005, 05:45 PM ]

COMMENTS

What are the system requiremens, man?

Can I run it on my Pizmo?

Thanks for the link to the educational discount!!