When OS X 10.5: Leopard debuts in October, it will feature a redesigned Desktop and new Finder. Those new features were among the changes Steve Jobs introduced during a preview of the forthcoming OS X update code-named Leopard during his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech Tuesday. Originally slated for a spring 2007 release, OS X 10.5 is now slated for release in October. It will cost $129, Jobs told WWDC attendees. The finished version of Leopard includes 300 new and enhanced features; Jobs previewed 10 during his Tuesday keynote.
The redesigned Desktop does away with the blue background familiar to OS X 10.4 users. Instead, Jobs said, the Desktop has been redesigned to better accommodate the digital photos that most Mac users employ as the background image on their Desktops. With Leopard, the Menu Bar will be transparent and the Dock will be more three-dimensional. But more significantly, the redesigned Desktop in Leopard introduces Stacks—a collection of folders that reside in the desktop. Apple sees Stacks as a way to clean up Desktop clutter. Files are collected in the Stacks for rapid access; click on the Stacks icon and the Dock and the files and folders fan out or appear in a grid. Clicking on one of those icons instantly launches the relevant app.