Top Leopard Rumors

Leopard has already been released to the masses, proving to be a bigger success than Tiger during its launch; but before the Beta was seeded, rumors on what the final build would contain ran amok. Let’s see how well they hold up with the final product.

Leopard Will Include Virtualization Software—False!

Apple had already released Boot Camp for Tiger, which allowed Mac users to run Windows and eventually Vista at native speeds by booting into the OS separately from OS X. Rumors alleged Apple would take this a step further by integrating it into the final release of Leopard, allowing users to run Windows side by side with OS X.

The only problem was Apple would be competing with Parallels Desktop, and in the interest of disproving false info, Phil Schiller dismissed the baseless rumor.

Leopard Will Arrive In March—False!

Apple intended to release Leopard during the Spring of 2007 but was subsequently pushed back to Fall. The reason behind the massive delay was the tough decision made to push back the release of one of two products: the iPhone or Leopard. Pushing back the launch of the iPhone, which was already 6 months in waiting, would potentially doom the product and it would go down as nothing more than inspiration for Nokia, Samsung, and HTC to design a true iPhone killer.

Nonetheless, the rumor of Leopard arriving during the month of March or any other month that doesn’t include October has been squashed.

Via: MacOSXRumors

Leopard Will Have A New Interface—True!

Aqua has long been the standard for OS X’s design, originating from the ugly pinstriped Windows of the original Beta to the brushed Metal look of Tiger. Leopard did away with that on a significant scale, ushering in the iTunes look and nearly doing away with all of Aqua’s original elements.

Via: MacOSXRumors

Leopard Will Share Your Documents—False!

This rumor, “Exclusive: Leopard to bring collaborative documents,” propagated by MacOSXRumors in mid 2006, never held any water. The idea was that Apple would somehow integrate document sharing in Leopard and tie that in further with iCal and a few other apps. While realistic in an office environment, Apple did away with this concept and applied it instead to being able to full on control a user account over a network.

Perhaps this was an idea proposed to the higher ups at Apple and eventually evolved into Leopard’s current Screen Sharing app and Back To My Mac. One thing is for sure: I can’t edit Documents in iCal.

Via: MacOSXRumors

Leopard Will Include Bittorent Sharing For iTunes Content—False!

One of the most popular of early Leopard rumors was Apple integrating a Bittorent like distribution system for iTunes content and rewarding users with credit for the iTunes store and other Apple products. It was more than wishful thinking, but the idea was insane. To think that the RIAA and MPAA would consider such a model being implemented into the iTunes store when they were targeting users with lawsuits who were distributing content on the same system.

It did have its advantages though, as many thought Apple could implement this to distribute High Def content since that was the obstacle for it not being on iTunes.

Via: Gizmodo

Leopard Will Include Desktop Switching—True!  Kinda…

Many people predicted Leopard would bring desktop switching, and before Spaces was demonstrated, no one knew how. While we did get desktop switching, a few design concepts were floating around before WWDC.

Via: MacOSXRumors