Slash Lane
On Monday, attention was drawn to a YouTube user's webpage brandishing over a half dozen Snow Leopard demonstration videos, five of which were subsequently removed by the user while another was yanked from the video sharing website after Apple waged a copyright claim. Since then, readers have pointed to a long-running thread over at the French-language MacGeneration website that's serving as yet another forum offering Snow Leopard-related discussion illustrated by numerous screenshots and videos.
QuickTime X Screen Recording
Readers are free to navigate the thread on their own, though AppleInsider has extracted a handful images showing off some features that have received limited coverage in the past or haven't been represented fully in imagery, such as the recently-reported screen recording options due to arrive as part of QuickTime X Player 1.0. Portions of the native recording interface can be seen in the alert below, which initiates a screen capture session and directs the user to a menu bar option to end a session.
Once a user has concluded a Screen Recording session, the following interface and options provide a means of saving and exporting movies files in different sizes and formats.
QuickTime X also offers options for publishing supported movie files to iTunes in one of three pre-set sizes. From iTunes, they can be synced with an iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV:
New Image Capture App
Also worth noting is that Image Capture has grown as an application to adopt a user interface that is more like iTunes and the Finder, with a sidebar for devices, main window for file info and a thin row of controls lining the bottom of the application.
Universal Keyboard Shortcuts
Preference panes are also showing a convergence of UI as shown in this screenshot of the new Keyboard & Mouse preference pane:
Advanced Security Options
As always, Apple takes Security seriously. At the same time, it doesn't want to intimidate less savvy users from taking advantage of all the Mac has to offer. The below example demonstrates a simplified and easy to manage option that helps keep users safe while on the net.
Chinese Handwriting Recognition
With the private release of the most recent Snow Leopard beta, Apple also informed developers about the addition of Chinese handwriting recognition support for Macs that include a multi-touch trackpad. Similar software was added to iPhone Software 2.0 a year ago, allowing users to draw Chinese symbols on their handset's touchscreen and then select matching symbols suggested by the iPhone Software. This feature can be seen in action for the first time in the below YouTube video:
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is expected to hit the market sometime this summer with a near finalized version now confirmed to make an appearance at Apple's annual developers conference during the second week of June.
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68 Comments
I'm not sure I like the fact Quicktime is the only program with a black bar.
I really like the current look of Quicktime. I hope it's either not final and will reverse back, or Apple keeps the current look as an option (though I doubt they will).
OK, here's something I wish they'd "fix"... If you've ever entered Screen Sharing in iChat, you'd notice that these little 'invite' screens and 'confirmation' screens pop up outside the main app window and they REMAIN once the session has been broken. Why in the blue blazes they don't simply keep these extra buttons on the main interface is completely bewildering to me. Let's clean this junk up, Apple.
OK, Apple REALLY needs to stick with a consistent UI scheme. Having different skins for everything makes it seem non-cohesive or whatever.. would you all agree?
I quite like the new look of QuickTime... and who knows, it might be a small clue as to an overall UI overhaul for Snow Leopard...