Apple Computer is set to release the fifth upgrade to its operating system, called Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger. The latest upgrade, available in retail stores April 29, promises significant changes that are being warmly greeted by analysts.The new version of OS X has more than 200 new features and innovations including Spotlight, its desktop file search technology; Dashboard, a new system that uses what Apple calls widgets to access functions such as stock quotes; and enhanced functionality for iChat.Apple said Tiger builds on more than 100 of the latest open source projects. A 10-client edition will be available for $499. An networked edition for multiple clients will cost $999. Enhancements to Tiger include 64-bit application support, access control lists, portable home directories and new services, such as Weblog Server and Software Update Server. Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies endorsed Tiger in enthusiastic terms.“I spent some time over at Apple yesterday taking a closer look of their new OS known as Tiger or Mac OS 10.4,” Bajarin said on his Website. “I had seen it at MacWorld in January and was pretty impressed with the demo then, but seeing it up close and personal yesterday made it clear to me that Apple is light years ahead of Microsoft when it comes to developing PC operating systems. “There are a lot of new features in Tiger, including a much more powerful Safari Browser, a much better e-mail client and something called the Automator, which is a simplified scripting system that quickly and easily can automate repetitive tasks,” he added. “But, its real value is in three key components that really sets it apart from any OS on the market today.”Bajarin singled out Spotlight, Dashboard and iChat for special praise.Regarding Spotlight, Bajrin said: “This search engine is integrated into the new OS and does an amazing job of not only finding any file, image or even video file, but then groups them accordingly. As you type in the search term, files come up instantly that have the referenced tag attached to them and as you focus the search around the actual question or term you want, the files it finds are then grouped accordingly. So, all text files with that searched term in it is at the top, followed by email files, image files and video files that include the search term. I have tested five desktop search programs in the last year and Spotlight by far the best of anything out there for searching and organizing search related content.” Dashboard, he said, is a UI navigation tool that lets a user activate what Apple calls Widgets, “little programs that are mostly utilitarian in purpose, such as clocks, calculators, metric and currency converters, flight trackers, dictionary, etc.”“These little tools are extremely helpful and since they can be created in HTML, anyone who knows how to create a Web page could create additional Widgets of their own,” he said. “This is the area where third party developers could be very creative and deliver all types of Widgets to sell to Mac users over time.” Tiger’s new version of iChat supports up to 10 people for audio and video conferencing. “The way they allow a user to see the other video conference participants are really innovative,” Bajarin said. “It literally allows you to view the others in a 3D-like environment where each person in the conference is framed as if they were sitting right in front of you at three different angles.” Technology Industry