It’s Gotta Be Sonata

At the recent Macworld Expo keynote address, “Interim” CEO Steve Jobs revealed some tantalizing tidbits about Mac OS 9 — it’s coming in October, it’s $99, and it’ll be “like a whole new Macintosh.”

This came as a bit of a surprise to many. Sonata was assumed to be an incremental update, and screens that read Mac OS 8.7 on startup have only recently been changed by Apple to read OS 9. But Jobs announced that Sonata will have 50 new features, and went on to introduce a demonstration of Sherlock II, the next generation in internet search engines.

Sherlock II will make it easier to organize groups of plug-ins, instead of checking off each site you want to search. New plug-ins will allow you to search for email addresses on LDAP servers, and comparison shop e-commerce sites.

So what are the 49 other features in OS 9? Officially, none of this has been announced, but here are a few of the biggies currently being whispered about:

Carbon API Support — Developers writing applications for OS X are using a set of programming interfaces called Carbon, which will allow their programs to run on both OS 9 and OS X. Carbon is what made OS X much more welcomed by developers than Rhapsody ever was.

Multi-User Environment — Sonata will allow for a much more secure Mac, with separate logins for multiple users, with varying levels of access to System Folder items and other private parts.

Strong Encryption — Features built in to the OS will let you password-protect your files and data without the need for a third party program like PGP. Keychain, a utility introduced with PowerTalk and buried in the same tomb, will provide a central storage area for server passwords and other sensitive info.

Game Sprockets — Significant upgrades to Game Sprockets will speed performance in multiplayer network games, joysticks and sundry input devices.

Improved Open GL Support — One of the multitude of 3D “standards” in the Wintel wonderland, Open GL support means more 3D cards to choose from, as well as better graphics in both games and 3D authoring programs like Strata Studio Pro and Bryce.

Auto-Update — Just like QuickTime currently does, Sonata will be able to search the Internet for System Folder updates, download them and install them automatically.

Improved Navigation Services, File Sharing and Program Linking via Internet Protocol (IP), and Open Transport 2.5 are also rumored to be on the horizon. See some stellar Sonata screenshots at http://www.macosrumors.com/5-99.html