Peter Lewisi latest column on Fortune magazineis Web site points out that, not only is Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" shipping well over a year before Microsoftis Longhorn OS upgrade, but it includes an integrated, robust search engine that isnit "bolted on," as Mr. Lewis describes Google and Microsoftis recent efforts. Spotlight will enable users to search not only by file names but also by meta data tags and even the content of the file themselves.
Tiger will ship on April 29 for US$129, with five-packs available for $199. In addition to Spotlight, users can expect more than 200 other features, including Dashboard, which enables the use of small utilities called widgets, upgraded versions of iChat, Mail and Safari and more. Mr. Lewis quotes Brian Croll, Appleis senior director of software product marketing, as saying: "Weire innovating and executing like a machine."