During his Macworld New York keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the first major update to Mac OS X: version 10.1. However, it won’t be available for another two months.
Jobs said that performance was much improved, the Aqua interface enhanced, there was more “digital hub” support, more printing support and beefed-up networking abilities.
Regarding performance, he said Mac OS X 10.1 provided faster menus, window resizing, application launch, and faster log-in. He demoed all these things and they certainly appeared much more zippy.
“You name it and it’s faster,” he said.
An enhanced Aqua interface now provides a movable Dock and new system menus that places controls for such features as volume, display, battery life, and AirPort on the menu bar. The Finder has also been improved and more personalization features are offered.
iTunes is now bundled in with Mac OS X, and CD burning is now supported in the Finder. The new update also offers DVD playback at last. Apple has also added built-in support for more digital cameras.
When it comes to printing, over 200 PostScript printers are now supported, Jobs said. Mac OS X 10.1 adds LaserWriter features and better plug-and-play for USB printers.
In the area of networking, AFP servers over AppleTalk is now supported by Mac OS X. The update also offers support for the new WebDAV standard; iDisk now runs atop WebDAV so it never disconnects, Jobs said. There’s also a built-in SMP client and the ability to manager AirPort Base Stations from Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.1 will be a free upgrade and will arrive in September. Meanwhile, Apple has seen 300,000 downloads of the latest Mac OS X upgrade, 10.0.4.