OS X v10.2
AKA Jaguar

by Eden Maxwell

Page 3 of 7

Once devices are networked, you can share nearly anything in new and simpler ways including: files, digital content, printers, and other devices. Rendezvous makes the services offered by each device dynamically discoverable by other devices on the network. Rather than focusing on the device, Rendezvous focuses its notification mechanism on the content you want to share. Devices can “advertise” share points for file sharing, playlists for music sharing, print queues for shared printers, and create photo albums for picture sharing.

Many homes today have more than one computer, and, in some cases, computers of different flavors. But for all of the computers a home might have, they invariably share the same connection to the Internet. Mac OS X now includes Internet-sharing technology that allows all the computers in the home, whether they’re Mac or Windows systems, to connect to the Internet through the Macintosh. For homes with multiple computers this is better than sliced bread.

Communication

Mail. With a breakthrough junk mail filter that goes way beyond filtering emails based on keywords, the new Mail application uses an advanced technology, called Adaptive Latent Semantic Analysis, to intelligently identify junk mail by the content of the message itself. The junk mail filter ships with a prebuilt database of spam information that it compares to each incoming message. If it sees a high correlation between the new message and its notion of spam, it marks the new message as junk. As more spam mail arrives and you decide whether it really is junk, the junk mail filter learns from your decisions, adds that information to its knowledge base thereby becoming more accurate with each new message. By default, Mail operates in Training mode. Once you are comfortable with how accurately messages are being marked as junk, choose Automatic from the Junk Mail menu. The junk mail will then be moved to a dedicated junk mail folder, or you can choose to deleted it automatically. Now that’s an act of faith.

Mail has the best junk filter by far and it gets “smarter” the more you use it. The question is whether you want to leave your current mail program such as Entourage or Eudora. If you’re going to be a daily visitor to iChat, you may want to make the switch. The Mail application displays an online status of buddies allowing you to instantly turn email exchanges into real-time chats.

iChat. Apple’s AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)-compatible instant messaging application allows users to instantly chat with their AOL and Mac.com buddies through it’s most dynamic feature—a fun and easy-to-use interface customizable to suit your taste.

With more than 150 million registered users (a staggering amount of chatter if this figure is accurate), AIM is one of the most popular instant messaging communities. Instant messaging has all the benefits of email without the delay. Since responses are immediate, you can have conversations in real time. iChat users can automatically discover and chat with other iChat users on their local Ethernet or AirPort networks.. Like a phone conversation, communication can be more spontaneous, interactive, and fun. If you want to see how iChat works for free, launch iChat, click the sign up for Mac.com button, and select a trial subscription.

iChat’s innovative use of Aqua delivers a great new user experience You can view the real names of your iChat buddies (instead of their instant messaging account names) and their pictures, as well. When you’re participating in a chat, dialog balloons (which you can toggle off if they remind you too much of Apple’s now defunct Balloon Help) appear next to your buddies’ pictures so you won’t get confused about who’s saying what. You can further customize your chats by changing the background colors and patterns of the balloons to reflect your personality and sense of style. And, if you must, add smiley faces to show how you feel.

If you use Rendezvous (network required), you can see your friends and colleagues when they are on the same local network, and you won’t need to incur AOL or Mac.com fees. No need to know anyone’s instant message handles as they show up automatically (sounds like my relatives). You can even chat when an Internet connection is not available to either person. By using a computer-to-computer connection, a group can network to interact with each other. It’s a quick way to transfer files, too, for example, if you’re in a classroom working on a group project. File sharing with your buddies is as easy as dragging a file into the dialog field.

Continued
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