On Monday August 7th at 10am PT Apple kicked off WWDC 2006 with a Keynote which gave us a sneak peak of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard", revealed Apples new Xserve, and last but definately not least Apple released a monster, the Power Mac's predecessor, The Mac Pro.

Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"

First off Apple kept a lot of features new in 10.5 a secret due to some "Copy Cats" up in Redmond. We will hopefully learn these secret features at MacWorld 2007.

Time Machine
Probably the most significant feature in "Leopard" is the Time Machine. This feature creates automatic backup of individual files. If you ever delete a file on accident or you deleted it thinking you will never need it again and end up needing it later you can easily get those files back with Time Machine.

Click here to view a video preview of Time Machine.

Mail
Mail has a few new features such as Stationary which allows you to create easy to use/modify graphical emails. Works similar to iWeb, just drag in photos to replace "place holders". Another great feature is Notes. Which allows you to create small notes perfect for writing down directions, class notes, or just create a To-Do list.

Click here to view a video preview of Mail.

iChat
The most significant feature in iChat is Screen Sharing. This allows you to share with a buddy across the world what is going on on your screen so working together is easy as 1, 2, 3!

Also new in iChat is iChat Theater. This allows you to share quicktime files, slide shows of photos, or a Keynote!

Click here to view a video preview of iChat.

Spaces
This allows you to have multiple desktops and easily switch between them. This can cut down on window clutter and improve productivity! Just press the right shortcut and you are looking at another desktop. Or you can select the application in the dock you want to go to and Spaces will automatically bring you to the "space" where that program is open at!

Click here to view a video preview of Spaces.

Dashboard
Dashboard adds a new widget called "Web Clip" you can open a website in Safari and press one button and you have a widget for that website! You can modify it to show any spot on the website you'd like in just a few seconds!

Also you will be able to create your own widgets with just a few clicks, even if you have never written a line of code. Just select which type of widget you want and edit it!

Click here to view a video preview of Dashboard

Voice Over
There is a new synthesized voice called "Alex". This new voice is much more advanced than any text to speech programs out there. It is more human like and even takes breaths at certain points.

Click here to view an audio preview of the new voice.


Well that's all for "Leopard" for now! If you want more information about "Leopard" click here. Oh and one more thing. "Leopard" will release Spring 2007.


Now on to Mac Pro!

Mac Pro

The new Mac Pro still sports the same beautiful case as the Power Mac did. Although it now has two SuperDrives and the insides are completely different.

Default Specs:

• Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors
• 4MB shared L2 cache per processor
• 1.33GHz dual independent frontside buses
• 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
• 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
• 16x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• $2,499.00 Price tag.

That's right, you read that right TWO Dual-Core Xeon Processors! This thing maxes out at Xeons 3.0 GHz chip, 4x500GB hard drives, 16GBs of RAM (8x2GB), NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, etc.

The bottom end sports the 2.0 GHz model of the Xeon processors.

Check this monster out here.


Last but not least Xserve. I won't go into detail on this one since it's not so much of an average joe consumer product. If you really want to know more about it click here.


Xserve
The new Xserve sports the Intel Xeon processor. It is up to five times faster than the Xserve G5. Click here for more information.


The WWDC Keynote went really well in my opinion and I ruined my keyboard by drooling into it while watching MacRumorslive.com for updates :P.

Some parts were slightly disappointing though. No Core 2 Duo "Merom" MacBook Pros, no True Video iPod, and no iPhone. But alas we live on. Just a few more months without new technology (aside from the Mac Pro) than we thought.

I hope you all are happy with Mondays Keynote!