It’s that time again, and if you’re an Apple user you know how it is. You wait around for a while, a new OS is announced, you wait some more and then when it is finally released, you know (again) how you’ve made the right choice in sticking with the guys from Cupertino.

A lot of ink is going to be spilled about Leopard and just how great it is in the next few days, so I’ll just give you the rundown on some of the tiny bits of Leopard that I’ve enjoyed. This was basically written in the first hour with the operating system, so bare with me when it comes to the excitement.

Spaces, stacks and the new UI

Stacks: Stacks are much more useful than I imagined. And they’re beautiful. Just noticed how stacks react when there are new files on the monitored folder (it just changed the stack icon when I saved this file into my Documents folder/stack).

Interface: A unified interface, finally. The new drop shadows are heavy, but I like them. I have mixed feelings about the new dock - it’s good to have a change every once in a while, but things like the new running application marks are somewhat annoying and not easily seen. Also, I personally don’t care much about it being like a shelf now - but it’s a minor change, I’ll cope.

One other thing I have mixed feelings about is the fact that they brought down the opacity of the top bar. It doesn’t look that bad, but I kinda liked the consistency it had across wallpapers (right now mine is a shade of purple because of the default Leopard wallpaper).

Spaces: Finally, proper virtual desktops on a Mac. I had been waiting for this one for a very long time after battling with releases of Virtue Desktops and earlier applications. If you run several things at once (applications that you might easily group together in different “spaces”), you’ll love it too. Each project in its own space, IM and email on another - it’s productivity bliss.

System preferences: I love the redesigns on some of the preference panes - particularly the new Bluetooth and Network panes, that were in dire need of a change. These actually make sense now - which is great.

Terminal, Utilities: The terminal being tabbed is sweet because it saves me from having to install iTerm. But more important than tabs and the terminal itself is how ruby, rails and quite a lot of ruby gems are installed by default. I knew rails was going to be one of the additions already, but some of the gems (capistrano, mongrel, redcloth, hpricot, ruby-openid, etc) they packed were a surprise. And the new Terminal has themes, too - What?

Finder: The new finder - wow, have we longed for this one. I love the new sidebar and I like how they integrate some smart searches by default to give you a sense of the possibilities. Honestly, I couldn’t care much about coverflow everywhere (in fact, it does sound a little bit like bloat), but it may be useful in a couple of cases, so we’ll see how often I use it. I guess it doesn’t really hurt to have an extra bit of eye candy if it doesn’t get in the way of work.

One small detail, not really about the Finder but Leopard itself is how there are now icons for Front Row, Exposé, the Dashboard and Spaces in your Applications folder. Makes it much easier to script interface behavior when there’s actually an icon that can be clicked.

iCal, Address Book: Took a bit of a revamp, good ol’ iCal, and it looks pretty good. I like how it packs some of the interface details we’ve seen on recent iPods and the iPhone - Apple is going for consistency and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that. Address Book looks the same, but I’m still to restore my contacts from my Tiger installation so I have nothing to look at there at this point.

Conclusions, if there are any

As with a lot of what Apple does these days, Leopard looks (and feels) great. I had almost forgotten the feeling of how snappy a fresh installation of an Apple OS is, but now I have been reminded. These guys aren’t playing around, and I definitely agree with the Wall Street Journal when they say that this thing kicks Vista in the butt. Still a fan. Sign me up for OSX 10.6 “LOLCAT”, Steve.

For those of you looking for larger screenshots of Leopard, I uploaded a few to this Flickr set. Have fun!

Now here’s something I wasn’t really expecting: Microsoft taking the side of the user by updating first generation Zunes with a slew of new functionality for free instead of forcing them to buy new models. As the guys at Gizmodo put it, “this is how you treat customers”.

The first generation 30GB Zune—which 1.2 million of you already purchased—is getting all the new Zune’s features. All. Sure, the new Zune is more of a half step forward than a completely new design. But Microsoft’s done something fantastic here by rewarding first gen buyers with cool new stuff that also happens to be free by software upgrade. And talk about spin— Microsoft just took a middling jump in hardware and turned it into a genuinely good move for loyalists (as well as a PR miracle). Are you paying attention Apple?

A little background on how I see Apple

A week ago I was going to write about how Apple had disappointed me with the iPhone update move (you know the one - the one that took all your 3rd party apps away) but decided not to for two main reasons: 1) everyone else was writing about it, and 2) somewhere deep inside I believed Apple would take a step back, think (different) about the whole thing, and come back in with good (great) news. Fact is, Apple didn’t reconsider their move and although I love them, I can’t help but feel a little double-crossed.

Everybody loves Apple. They build great products, push the boundaries of technology by bringing new ideas into the consumer market and understand their audience. But sometimes like say, last week, things take odd turns. Just when I thought Apple pulling the rug from under all of us iPhone lovers was enough of a surprise for this month alone, Microsoft does the right thing - they do what I would expect of the guys in Cupertino.

On rewarding customers

Here’s the thing: when you buy an iPod (bare with me for talking about Apple just a little more on a Zune story), you have no idea about its future. In fact, Apple wants you to buy an iPod now but also expects to buy a new one a year later to get the latest features. Which is all fine and great until someone does what Microsoft just did, which is reverse the rules, by rewarding customers by giving ALL existing zunes ALL the new features they’re rolling out through a software update.

And it makes sense, if you think about it. If you don’t need a new player with more storage capacity, and the hardware has the ability to support everything that’s being brought in by new models, why not stand by the customer and give them the updates anyway? You’re not going to sell the units that a share of those people would be purchasing to get the latest features, but you’re making everyone a happier customer.

Taking sides, concluding thoughts

If I were to ask you which side Microsoft usually takes between customer satisfaction and money, I’m quite sure a lot of you would say money. And if I asked the same thing about Apple, some of you might say customer satisfaction. But recent events (and this is only a week in tech) have shown how sometimes all it takes is thinking differently to really surprise us. I’m as positively surprised by the Zune updates as I am dumbfounded and disappointed by Apple not “getting” the potential of people “hacking” the iPhone. An interesting twist to the usual story of these two companies.

PS: And you know what’s funny? I don’t have a Zune but now I want to. Not because I love it more than I love my iPods, but because I have more chances of sometime in the future, Microsoft adding new life to the device through software, instead of having to buy another model.

You were likely following the news, so I’ll cut things short - today was the WWDC, and together with a bunch of other cool news, Apple launched a new website. “Great!”, I hear you say correctly. The new website is beautiful. Except for where it isn’t - content organization.

The screenshot above portrays the new navigation scheme on Apple.com (specifically, the new iPod+iTunes page). I have to wonder what crossed their minds that made them mix products (like the iPod models) with accessories and user actions (”Download iTunes”) in the same navigation bar. I mean, that’s mixing apples (pun intended) and oranges.

I know once you do something cool - like that awesome new navigation - you want to use it everywhere, but this is Apple - come on guys, you sure as hell can do better than that in terms of information architecture.

You know it’s a good day for science when Steve Jobs writes about his (probably changed) opinion on DRM and asks for it to be put to a stop. Thats exactly what he did only a few hours ago at the news section of Apple.com (hey - you people should get a blog).

In a somewhat long text, Steve addresses the reasons why Apple implemented FairPlay in the first place, the state of the music industry, and pinpoints three possible alternatives on what to do next. Finally, he delivers what we needed to hear:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately we all knew it would take someone with a bigger hammer to actually dent DRM. Given how the technology itself is presented as a “solution” by the music industry, there wasn’t much the “little guy” could do to counter the ongoing trend of DRM-everywhere. Fortunately, Steve Jobs (and Apple as a whole) can make a difference through the iPod and iTunes.

You don’t need to be a fan-boy to realize the importance of this move. I’m looking forward to the music industry’s reply.