An option in Leopard - literally - lets you get a quick glimpse of your Wi-Fi network connection's speed, signal strength, and other details. And another hidden bit of interface goodness reveals signal strength and encryption method for other nearby networks.
First the Dock lost its silly reflectiveness, then we blocked the menu bar's transparency. Now a new utility, Quay, lets you replace Stacks in the Leopard Dock with folders that have hierarchical menus - just like on, uh, Tiger, Panther, and every iteration of Mac OS X. Except Leopard. Except that Quay's hierarchical menus are cooler.
Back to My Mac can work with a little firewall configuration help, and Apple's provided some more detail that we explain how to use. Also, Apple confesses Back to My Mac's security weaknesses - at either end of the connection, not in the middle.
The transparent menu bar has fallen, a victim of hackers' ingenuity. Users, rejoice!
Frustrated by how Spaces uses meaningless document icons in the Dock? Rich Mogull points you to the solution.
Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.1, the first update to Leopard, and fixes problems with Back to My Mac, Mail, and Finder data loss when moving files among partitions and networked volumes. It also makes one cosmetic change to the application firewall while fixing a problem that bit Skype users and adding more security.
The question of whether Safari 3 would be released for Tiger is answered: yes. Apple pushed out Mac OS X 10.4.11, which fixes a huge list of bugs and security flaws along with the enhanced Web browser.
With PGP installed, upgrading to Leopard can produce hard-to-pinpoint slowdowns, as I saw with a beta of email program Mailsmith. But uninstalling the software or upgrading to a Leopard-compatible beta solves the problem.
Apple touted Leopard's firewall as an improvement over Tiger, but security consultant Rich Mogull found significant problems with how it works and makes some suggestions for better security.
Apple fixes security-related bugs in QuickTime 7.3 and adds support for multi-country iPhone activation in iTunes 7.5.
Apple has quietly updated the MacBook and MacBook Pro with slightly faster processors and a few other minor, though welcome, improvements. Less welcome in the enterprise world is the implied requirement than the new MacBook run only Leopard.
Spotlight on Leopard is so much better than Spotlight on Tiger, it could be a major reason for upgrading. It's full of power user tricks you might not realize are there - until you read this article, that is!
A new piece of malware targeting Mac OS X, if installed, can change your computer's DNS settings so that Web requests are sent to phishing sites or ads for pornography.
Apple has changed the software license agreement for Leopard Server to allow virtualization, something that was previously forbidden. Read on for news from Parallels and VMware about their plans, an explanation from the field of why virtualizing servers is a good thing, and speculation about what this means for the future of the Xserve.
The Leopard installer is even better than the Tiger installer was. That's good news, but some oddities and frustrations remain. Perhaps I can interest you in a little book I wrote on the subject.