Apple Previews Next Version Of Mac OS X

Apple on Monday previewed the next version of its Mac OS X operating system, which it said would include powerful search features that would put it far ahead Microsoft Windows.

Apple’s search technology, which it calls Spotlight, lets Mac users find any file, document or information created by any application on a Macintosh by entering the query in a search at the upper right hand corner of the desktop.

Simplifying the search process on a PC’s hard drive has emerged as one of the major goals of both Tiger and Microsoft’s next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which is due out in 2006.

“What they’ve (Apple) done with search is a key element of Longhorn,” said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, adding that Apple’s next version of OS X, code-named Tiger, will be available to consumers at least a year or more before Longhorn.

Tiger will be available in the first half of 2005, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said, and will cost $129.

Read more of this story at Reuters.