Since my last two postings, I received so many mails that I really had to write a part 3 on Panther 7A179. So here it is. I hope that although there are now dozens of reports on the net, you'll still enjoy discovering new features that you might haven't seen anywhere else yet.

I'm going to start with something I actually noticed since the first day I tested Panther but I had forgotten to mention on my earlier reports: Although it's not on the dock any longer, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 is still present in the Applications folder of Panther and it might stay there in the final release of Panther, in contrary to what I previously thought.

I have very good news for people who would like to use password protected proxy servers. Panther adds support for proxy authentication as shows this screenshot. This is one of the missing features of Jaguar that showed its immaturity. I've also noticed on the Network preference pane that there is a Network Assistant allowing you to easily set up your network settings.

A lot of you asked me further information and screenshots about the Finder, TextEdit and fast user switching. So here is a screenshot of the Finder's toolbar customizer, TextEdit preferences and another one of fast user switching login window. Note also that the fact that TextEdit opens .doc files means that you can finally open Word files written in languages that are not even supported by Word:mac. For example, I tried to open a Word XP document written in Greek and it was perfectly readable with TextEdit even-though Word:mac cannot read it. TextEdit can also write a Greek document that can then be opened and read on a PC. I also have to add that the wrap-page feature I had mentioned on my earlier report as new feature, actually exists also on current version of TextEdit.

The Terminal brings cool improvements too. It is now possible to put a picture as background and even apply the transparency effect on it, what makes very sexy terminal windows. There are also other cool features like the "Connect to server" item that allows you to easily connect to any kind of server very quickly. Unix geeks will also appreciate the new Scrollback features available on a dedicated menu.

As for QuickTime, there is nothing really new to report, except Pixo. I was quite disappointed to see that the full screen feature is still for the paid version only and I hope this will change.

Inkwell is one of these features on which it's not easy to report improvements because it requires some hardware to be connected for the preferences pane to appear. I fortunately own a Wacom Graphwire II, so I can say that Inkwell also sees some improvements that are welcome. It now better recognizes French en German and allows writing everywhere on the desktop.

The Help Viewer has always been laggy and buggy on earlier and even current releases of Mac OS X. It looks like the Panther version has been rewritten from the beginning. It now uses the Safari Web Core for HTML rendering so it's really faster and it never lags or endlessly blocks itself.

As showed by Steve Jobs during his WWDC keynote, Preview is certainly the fastest PDF reader we have ever seen. I opened a very large PDF file (that made my Windows PC freeze!!!) and I could smoothly browse it and make instant searches.

In terms third party of hardware support, Panther improves support for IIYAMA displays. Now I can use higher resolutions and refresh rates on my HM903DT. Remember on my first posting I told you that it was impossible for me to boot Panther on my PowerMac G4 AGP, upgraded with a Giga Designs 1Ghz/2Mb DDR processor card. I finally found that the problem came from my Adaptec 2906 PCI SCSI card. The PowerMac hangs when the card is installed and boots normally when I get it out. Let's hope the issue will be fixed on the final release.

I have to show you a second xCode screenshot on which you can see instant search, class browsing and SCM features. The new GUI is quite cool, I think it's overall faster and more productive.

Among other features that I've forgotten to mention on earlier articles is desktop and dock printing. Now it's possible not only to add any of your printers on the dock and on the desktop, but you can also drop any PDF file (and probably PS file though I did not try it) and print it without even having to launch a viewer. As on Jaguar, it is also still possible to drag any folder on the Print Utility icon to print its files listing.

I couldn't really test Classic mode because it did not want to boot the Mac OS 9.2 system that was installed in the same partition but I think there is no need to boot it to show you its new features. Classic now has a dedicated menu that allows you to start, stop and restart it. This new menu gives also access to the the Mac OS 9 Apple Menu as a sub-menu.

Finally, some sources reported that Panther's Keyboard & Mouse preference pane now brings support for Bluetooth devices. I unfortunately cannot show you that on a screenshot because my Mac is not bluetooth enabled. It might mean that Apple will soon release a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse as recently reported by some rumor sites after Apple dropped prices on its current wired keyboard and mouse products.

I think there is nothing else really important to say about this build of Panther. My future Panther related postings will probably preview more recent builds that are already seeded to some developers. For the moment, all I could learn is that a lot of bugs are being fixed especially on the Finder and Exposé. Mac OS X Panther will probably ship in September at Apple Expo as xCode is announced for September the 15th on Apple's web site and some sources told me that Apple was on track with the development of Panther which means that there shouldn't be any delay. Some sources even claim that there will be new features that will be implemented on coming builds, let's hope that a new disc burning application is one of them ;).