Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger [OLD VERSION]

by Apple

Product Details

Product Manual [6.51mb PDF]

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Supplementary Guide [780kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 1.6 x 7.9 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0002G71T0
• Item model number: M9639Z/A
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 1, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,284 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #7 in Software > Operating Systems > Macintosh > Mac OS X
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From Amazon.com Product Description

Apple's long awaited new operating system brings more than 200 new features to Mac users. Technically speaking, Tiger boasts an open source core, 64-bit system, and support for the High Definition H.264 video codec. But, every user will enjoy the highlights of this new release: a new search tool, cool new mini applications, real-time RSS feeds in the browser, improved email, amped up audio and visual conferencing, parental controls, automation of tedious, repetitive tasks, and the list goes on.

OS-Level Search: Spotlight Handled by Tiger's search technology, Spotlight, users may search across documents, images, movies, music, PDFs, email, calendar events, and system preferences with one keyword. Spotlight reviews text content, filenames, and keywords (metadata) applied by users and automatically stored by files to return search results. Results are fast and smart, providing previews of returned files and the ability to filter them by kind, date, people, and location.

Spotlight Search Return

More Robust Conferencing: iChat AV iChat AV updates the Panther version with various new features. Enjoy three-dimensional, multi-participant video meetings with better resolution and compression. Conduct audio conferences with up to 10 members utilizing a graphical panel with sound meters for each speaker that indicate who is speaking. Purchase and run your own Tiger server and conduct instant messaging behind your firewall.

iChat Audio Conferencing

iChat Video Conferencing

Parental Controls

Set computer profiles for children using the aptly named Parental Controls and limit their access to system controls, documents, printers, burners, applications, email, chat, and the Web. With multiple profiles, parents can set varying levels of access for each child. Even downloaded or emailed applications are subject to parental approval first.

Drop and Drag Tool Panels: Dashboard Pull in mini applications from a menu, named the Dashboard, to complete frequent tasks, like tracking flights and stocks or looking up words in the dictionary. Add and rearrange these panels, called "widgets," on your desktop as you choose, and hide or show them with the click of a button. Some other widgets include a calendar, calculator, weather report, yellow pages, language translator and unit converter.	Desktop with Dashboard Widgets	Language Translator Widget
		Stock Tracking Widget

Automated Repetitive Tasks: Automator Choose pre-programmed "actions" from a library and automate tedious tasks when they have to be done in bulk, like editing images for slideshows and creating birthdays in the address book. There are hundreds in the can and sure to be more as third-party vendors create and make them available.

Automation of Image Editing Task with Automator

Real-time Browser: Safari Quickly view news headlines and article summaries from around the world with Tiger's browser, Safari . Take advantage of RSS protocols to get the latest news updates automatically.

Improved Mail

Tiger's email program, Mail, uses Spotlight to manage your mail. Find messages easily and let Mail automatically organize your messages as they come into the box. New photo resizing, archiving, and slideshow options enhance your ability to share and enjoy pictures via email.

Centralized Computer Sync: .Mac Sync Use .Mac to sync all your Mac computers, wherever they are. .Mac Sync allows you to conveniently sync your Safari bookmarks, iCal appointments, Address Book contacts, passwords, and Mail settings for multiple Mac computers over the Internet.

Automation of Image Editing Task with Automator

VoiceOver

Apple's spoken interface technology, VoiceOver, gives people with visual and learning disabilities equal access to Mac.

Enhanced QuickTime 7

Featuring the new standards-based H.264 video codec, QuickTime 7 brings you incredible video quality with lower data rates and smoother playback.

Product Description

Apple's long awaited new operating system brings more than 200 new features to Mac users. Technically speaking, Tiger boasts an open source core, 64-bit system, and support for the High Definition H.264 video codec. But, every user will enjoy the highlights of this new release: a new search tool, cool new mini applications, real-time RSS feeds in the browser, improved email, amped up audio and visual conferencing, parental controls, automation of tedious, repetitive tasks, and the list goes on.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

177 of 189 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Okay. Wow., April 28, 2005

By 

Maine Writer "David" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger [OLD VERSION] (Software)

(1) You will notice a speed increase on any Mac that fits the specs. Boot time is sliced almost in half on my dual processor G5, and by a third on an older G4 tower. They've obviously put a lot of effort into optimizing the OS code and bringing a new level of "snappiness" to OS X's already quick performance. In my opinion, the speed improvement is reason alone to get Tiger ... it's that impressive.

(2) As with other OS X upgrades, I'd suggest a fresh install, wiping the hard drive completely (backing up your stuff, of course, first!), not an upgrade install or "clean" install. I've tried both and, frankly, the fresh install on a pristine hard drive has a better "feel" to it and, if experience is any guide, will reduce problems down the line.

(3) Spotlight is everything it's claimed to be. However ... your computer may seem to be acting oddly for the first hour or so as Spotlight (I assume) creates an index. Once that's done, you're flying.

This is an amazing upgrade ... well worth the wait and the price. What I love most is the continuing attention to detail ... the cool visual effects with widgets are but one example. Launch a widget and the entire desktop ripples like cool, clear water. I'm still having fun with that!

Windows is now way behind ... or is that a cloud of dust a few miles back?

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiger Install/Upgrade Tips, May 1, 2005

By 

X (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger [OLD VERSION] (Software)

Since most of the previous reviews have covered the features, I thought I'd share how I upgraded from Panther to Tiger on my Powerbook. If you're undecided about doing an Erase and Install vs Upgrade vs Archive and Install like I was, keep reading.

While some mac experts say that upgrading on top of your old system should be fine, I prefer a "clean install" as an old habit from using Windows. But I didn't want to spend my weekend configuring everything and reinstalling all my applications. Here's what I did:

1. Cloned my Powerbook using a utility called SuperDuper (free/limited) to an external hard drive. I believe it's possible to clone to another mac or another harddrive. I had Filevault on and it is highly recommended to turn it off before cloning. Made another backup using .mac Backup just in case.

2. Tested the clone if it's bootable and my personal files were copied correctly.

3. Installed Tiger with Erase and Install option for a clean install. Towards the end of the installation, it asked if I wanted to copy settings, applications etc from another Mac or volume. I pointed it to my external HD. This step can be skipped as there is a migration utlity included in Tiger which does the same thing after installation.

4. Pretty much everything was transferred over including my dock layout etc. It alerted me to two apps that weren't transferred properly and had to be reinstalled: MS Mouse and Virex.

5. Reinstalled MS Mouse. Everything now feels "Snappier".

Don't reinstall Virex as it is not yet Tiger compatible. This caused my Powerbook to have the fan on all the time, so I had to uninstall it using a script from the Virex installation package.

I've noticed a couple of really minor glitches but it's only a matter of time before Apple fixes them. Spotlight and Dashboard seems to be really handy. Overall, there's a feeling that I've upgraded to newer mac computer.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiger and me..., June 13, 2005

By 

David M "professordavid" (Zionsville, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger [OLD VERSION] (Software)

Yeah it sounds a little egotistic, but I don't mean it that way. I have a G3 (digital audio), G4, and a G4 PowerBook. I put Tiger on all three machines -- with very different experiences and consequences. I tend to upgrade my CPUs regularly in spite of the occasional warnings that may appear on the web.

First, my office G4 installed Tiger flawlessly and has performed since without incident. It's fast, Spotlight is the much powerful search engine in the universe -- I am sure. I can find very elusive files with it, and the G4 does this quickly. The other search engine (cmd-F) behaves snappy as well, but it's interface is different and a bit more elaborate. Dashboard is not slow for me; to the contrary, it's quick once it's retrieved the temp, etc. I don't overload it with widgets: I have about 6-7 of them. The psuedo-integrated apps like Preview, Mail, Safari, all seem to operate quickly as well. Preview works better and gives you more controls than before. I do remote connections between computers frequently, and these have also functioned smoothly and quickly (via DSL).

Second, I upgraded my old G3 with no DVD drive. That was a challenge. But, if you put another computer in "target mode", turn it into a remote drive with a firewire connection to another computer (in my case my PB). Then I inserted the DVD in my PB, and upgraded the G3 that way. Worked like a charm. No incidents, no problems, and we are all happy.

Thirdly I need to talk about my 15" G4 Titanium PB (667 MHz). I think this PB is one of the best computers I have ever owned: I got it in the summer, 2002. And I love it: light, fast, and extraordinarily durable (except frame peeling problems covered under warranty). This is where all hell broke loose. I installed Tiger, but it wouldn't restart. It got to the spotlight icon at start-up, and would go no further. Sometimes I walked away for an hour and I came back and it had restarted. No way to use a computer. So I re-installed with archive. At this point, I had decided I should back up most of my files on my Firewire Le Cie Porsche drive (80 GB). It did the same thing: stopped at Spotlight icon with remainder of screen blank. Consulted the Apple web site, Googling in general, and could find no like circumstance. It would start up in "Safe Boot" (shift depressed during restart). But I couldn't do it for real. So after weeks of trying things, concluded it was time to do the total install (I think the old "clean install"). This worked perfectly. In fact, my PB runs faster now than before, and the crap on the drive is far smaller. I did import my user settings from the back up and this caused no problems. I didn't image the drive, just copied specific folder manually.

So why a 5-star rating when I had problems. Well, I guess I blame myself for potentially corrupt software or files somewhere -- I still don't know what caused it. But my computer is now so spry, Spotlight operates very fast: virtually immediatley. Other than the heavily advertised new things: Spotlight, Automator, and Dashboard, there have been large numbers of little improvements in all the other programs. I am still discovering them, and they're too numerous to list. System 9 applications still run well (I'm not holding my breath here). So what's the point? I gave it five stars because in spite of the PB quagmire, I am much happier than before. My full complement of programs work: MS Office, the Apple ones, and soon, the real test (based on other reviews), with by Adobe Creative Suite is coming up fast. That's in the next few days. I have some Chinese language programs that run fine, and I do use the character input systems that's about to be immediately tested.

So it's good to have a Tiger in my tank...