Since my href="http://www.macopinion.com/index.php/site/more/ leopard_first_impressions/">"first impressions" report, I've had a bit more time to explore Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) and I must say I'm pleased with what I've found. Though there are a few problems (more on that in a future column), for the most part Leopard is a significant improvement over Tiger. Today I'm going to write about my experiences with some of Leopard's new features.

Time Machine

While most people can safely put off upgrading to Leopard, at least in the short term, if there's one feature that's a must-have it's Time Machine. Time Machine is so good it's worth buying a new Mac to get it (assuming you have Leopard-incapable Mac -- otherwise you just need an external hard drive).

With Time Machine Apple has accomplished something amazing: they have made routine backup utterly transparent. Backups have been essential since computers were invented, but few consumers bother. The backing-up processing has always been complicated, tedious, and slow. Even those who should know better (like yours truly, who makes a living with computers) don't backup properly or often enough. Backing up is like buying life insurance or preparing for the big earthquake -- you know you should do it but you gamble the disaster won't happen to you.

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