SAN JOSE: Apple Computer Inc. on Monday previewed a new bundle of free
programs focused on connecting users, including an instant messaging application
called iChat that will work with America Online's Internet communication program
-- the world's biggest.
The iChat program and other features, which generally focus on improved
communications, will debut late this summer with an upgrade of Apple's operating
system. Chief executive Steve Jobs said that Apple's close cooperation with AOL,
which has the biggest instant messaging service, set a milestone for
cooperation. "It is the first time that AOL let anybody in under the
tent," Jobs said.
Apple has struggled to broaden its appeal beyond the hard core of
approximately 5 percent of US personal computer buyers who own Macintoshes, with
its new operating system and free applications. The iChat application will make
it easier for users to send pictures to each other, and the program is closely
integrated with the new address book, which is also part of the operating system
update.
The computer maker, which was showing off new software at its annual
developers conference, also introduced a new version of its QuickTime media
player and e-mail software. It also debuted a set of technologies called
Rendezvous that tightens the bonds between computers on a home network or other
local network by letting them find each other automatically and share files.
Digital hub
Two computers logging onto a Rendezvous-compatible home network would find each
other and display each other's files. One user could play the second's music,
without having to search for it, while the second could view the other's
photographs. Normally such a connection must be established manually -- and
slowly.
Apple hopes to persuade other technology companies to adopt Rendezvous so
that all sorts of devices would learn to find each other on networks. Aiming to
make the Mac the "hub of a digital lifestyle" that can manage digital
music, video and photos, the company has rolled out a slew of free applications,
such as iTunes jukebox and iPhoto digital photo software that run on OS X.
Jobs, known for his skills as a corporate showman, ceremonially laid the
previous version of Apple's operating system, OS 9, to rest in a casket that
rose up out of the stage as billows of smoke emerged, prompting hoots of
laughter from the audience of programmers.
The next series of free programs from Apple will only work with the new
version of OS X, code-named Jaguar. "It helps customers to move up to the
latest and greatest operating system," Philip Schiller, Apple's worldwide
product manager, said in an interview at the conference.
Apple also showed off a new Address book and said it would launch a powerful
new server, in an industrial rack-mounting configuration, on May 14.