Although, in my opinion networking under Mac OS X 10.5 is still not what it should be. For me anyway, other machines seem to take forever to show up in the network folder/sidebar. Also there is still no way to refresh the contents of a folder when files are added from elsewhere.

Ok, so let's try actually doing some stuff. If you want to play videos and music then you came to the right place! iTunes is the popular utility from Apple for playing and managing music. And selling you stuff.

And you can play DVDs right out of the box. Although due to licensing bullshit, Apple cripples it somewhat disabling the ability to take screen shots with Grabber. Thankfully their command line screen capture utility isn't crippled. They also cripple output to composite (television) video, if you happen to use a converter, by injecting "macrovision" noise that messes up the picture when played back to most VCRs and some televisions.

Ok, Front Row is a new media system intended to be navigated using an Apple remote control. It is quite slick looking, and provided an alternative way to browse music and photos through a series of simplified menus without the desktop metaphor in the way.

This is great and all, but one thing struck me as really odd about this application. You can't use the mouse with it! Apparently you either have to use the remote or the keyboard. I wonder why they wouldn't let you use the mouse too? And apple was the one that was really big on making everything use the mouse.

Actually this program kind of remind me of the old DOS program Power Menu I used to use all the time.

And some of the other apps that ship with Mac OS X 10.5.