Mac Users will be able to back up files or even a complete Mac with just one click using a new feature demonstrated by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
The feature is included in the forthcoming Leopard operating system. Called Time Machine, it allows Mac users to “travel back in time” to restore lost data including digital media and applications.
Using Time Machine, users can automatically back up data on an external hard drive via FireWire, USB to a server or wirelessly to a Mac AirPort Extreme base station with a hard drive attached.
Leopard, the sixth major release of the Mac OS X, has other new features including Spaces, which allows users to create groups of applications that they can instantaneously switch between.
QuickLook is a new feature that previews most files, including playing media files, without having to open the application they pay in.
Jobs said: “Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS X’s leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world.”
New operating system aside, Jobs also unveiled the next version of Safari, Mac’s native web browser, which for the first time will be able to run on Windows.
A beta version of Safari 3 is now available to the public for download and, according to industry standard iBench tests, this browser loads pages twice as fast as Internet Explorer 7.
“We think Windows users are going to be really impressed when they see how fast and intuitive web browsing can be with Safari,” said Jobs..
“Hundreds of millions of Windows users already use iTunes and we look forward to turning them on to Safari’s superior browsing experience too.”
By Marie Boran
