Membranophonist’s Ramblings

1. System-wide metadata infrastructure

This is, to me, the biggest feature. As you may know from my postings and ideas, I am somewhat of a metadata freak. I like being able to organize information however I want. The Spotlight technology will be a huge step towards making this possible.

2. Open sync service access

Maintaining preference settings on two machines is a pain that this could alleviate. While only a one-time task, it will also make it much easier to set up a new account for yourself on another Mac.

3. Safari with syndication support

Both Brent Simmons of Ranchero and Erik J. Barzeski of Freshly Squeezed Software have reacted how I figured they would, noting that while Safari’s syndication support may compete with the lesser-featured “lite” versions of their aggregators (NetNewsWire and PulpFiction, respectively), it is unlikely to be satisfactory to those who have large collections of feeds. Based on the interface I see, Safari wouldn’t handle even my 138 subscriptions very well. I am glad to see syndication support in Safari because it will drive adoption, not because I’m planning to use it.

4. Weblog serving (Tiger Server)

Based on Blojsom, which supports both RSS and Atom.

5. Eye candy!

Seriously, graphical effects can be used to convey useful information. They can also be abused, but that’s life. My iMac’s lowly GeForce 2MX won’t support all of the effects, but I’m neither surprised nor disappointed. Technology marches on — lead, follow, or get out of the way!

Edited to reflect the fact that Atom support was specifically announced during the keynote speech.