Leopard apps, system tools offer subtle, powerful changes

Mail, iCal and Parental Controls offer greater productivity, protection

Events can be created in much more interesting and robust ways. You are now able to change the details of an Event directly in the Calendar pane, instead of needing to open the Info drawer as in Tiger. You can also now insert just about any type of media file into Events. Attaching a music file or movie to help explain the purpose of an Event could certainly be a nice way to send a meeting invitation.

You can send notice of the Event via e-mail to colleagues or friends, who can view the media content in the (sometimes huge) .ics file. Note to Evite: Watch out!

Apple is also pushing the CalDAV back-end calendaring protocol (which is supported in Leopard Server). It allows calendar sharing with a lot of the same functionality as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.

One such feature is setting up meeting rooms and assigning equipment -- think cameras and projectors -- their own calendars. That way, people can look up their availability and check them out when needed. People can also advertise their work hours to others so their colleagues know when they have free time. (This may not always be a good thing!).

Apple's Leopard Server back end will allow application developers to add more robust features that work with iCal down the road. I would expect to see the iCal-Server combination move toward being a strong option for business project management.

Parental Controls

Parental Controls are still managed through System Preferences, but they've been made much more robust in Leopard. While in Tiger parental controls were just a tab in the Accounts System Preference, Leopard's version has gained so many features that it gets a preference pane all to itself.

The first tab in Parental Controls lets you choose what applications your little user can access, as well as offering the choice of the simple Finder, as you could in Tiger.

The second tab gives you the opportunity to block profanity from the dictionary. (Holy @$4!%! There's profanity in the dictionary?!) You can also control which Web sites can be accessed by Safari.

In Tiger, you could only whitelist sites by adding them to an account's bookmark. Leopard's controls are much more flexible: You can blacklist sites as well or choose to let the system restrict access to adult-themed Web sites automatically. These settings don't apply to Firefox or other browsers, however, so be careful of those enterprising kids.

The third tab is dedicated to allowing only certain users to contact the child via Mail and iChat. If someone unauthorized tries to contact the child, they will get an e-mail notifying them that they are blocked and giving an e-mail address where they can write and ask to be added to the approved list.

Time limits are a new feature and allow a parent to fine-tune when a child is allowed to log onto the computer. It even has convenient bedtime and school-night features.

Finally, a fifth tab allows parents to set up logs to view what their children have been looking at and what applications they've been using.

These are very helpful, and as a former Macintosh lab manager at a university, I wish these features were available and built in the system a few years ago. I am sure more than a few libraries and schools will use the Parental Controls for more easily managing their Macs for their users.

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