Happy Friday fellow dogbarkians.

The last time we sent a 'happy Friday' message was in August when we announced the addition of an SMTP Server for your outgoing mail needs. Didn't get that notice? Click Here to read all about it.

Today, we're happy to announce an URGENT message regarding the latest release of Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). No doubt some of you have installed this upgrade and have had some painful experiences with your custom-critical apps. This email is to inform you that Dogbark is 100% compatible with Leopard. We wanted to clear that up right away.... everything with Dogbark is smooth sailing with the latest OSX release from Apple. In fact, we like Leopard so much that we going to share some of our upgrade stories with you.

Win a Copy of OSX Leopard -- Free!

Part of why we're telling you our stories is that we want to hear yours. What have been your upgrade stories from past versions of OSX? Send us an email to: news@dogbark.com and we'll pick one of the stories to receive a FREE COPY OF OSX LEOPARD. Email us your stories before November 30th, and we'll announce the winner on December 1st (must be a current customer of dogbark.com to be eligible to win).

Harry:

My upgrade story starts with pre-ordering Leopard for the office two weeks ago. An unnamed massive online store promised delivery some time between Monday and Thursday. As of noon on Thursday, no box, so I picked up a copy at the local computer box store. Time since release: 6 days.

First step: clone the drive to an external hard drive. Time: ~2 hrs.

Second step: install. Options: Archive and Install. A few minutes into the install, the process seems to hang, so I opened the log window (new addition!). Oh, it's repairing the drive volume, another good addition to the process. Just wish there was a status message about it. Ok, there it goes. Time: ~1 hr.

Third step: reboot. Software Update to check for anything that's come out in the last week. A few patches for my older versions of iLife.

Now for the fun part - exploring! Mail is snappier. Finder seems faster. Time Machine is easy to set up, but it's going to take awhile to do the initial backup. The new Drive Utility is very sharp - I love the ability to partition on the fly, and the way it shows the current capacity and usage of the partitions. Spaces is awesome! I love being able to set up distinct workspaces, so I can focus on specific apps for the project at hand.

The changes are quite deep. I'll be spending a week or so getting all the tweaks in place, so it's "my system". I *love* new systems, and am usually surprising pleased with the interface changes Apple makes. I'm not too fond of the translucent menu bar - just no point. It still takes up pixel space, and is harder to read, depending on your desktop. May have to hack that one.

Samuel:

My upgrade story involves a princess, some bicyclists (ok, a lot), and a leopard.

For some odd reason, my local Mac store was closed during the week for renovations and thus I couldn't buy my copy of leopard there. I'm still dumbfounded that they'd close a Mac store (here in Seattle) during the week of a major product release....makes no sense to me. In any case, I was able to find a Mac store near the Univ of Washington campus that was having a launch party.

So just before bedtime for my daughter (enter the princess of the story, we decided to make the quick (15 minute) jaunt down to the Mac store to pick up a copy of leopard. Prior to arriving at the store, we got stuck in a traffic jam (which is not surprising as Seattle = Traffic) due to a bicycle rally (enter 'some bicyclists' part of the story). These bikers were dressed up in their Halloween costumes and there must have been over 1,000 of them. So my princess and I sat in traffic as the bikers rode past us....screaming, yelling, and howling (it was a full moon).

Pulling into the Mac parking lot was fun...I've never really been an early adopter so I was a little giddy. We walked into the store and were greeted by music blaring, stuffed leopards littering the store, folks lined up, people everywhere...Got my copy of leopard (family pack) and was given 2 stuffed leopards (enter 'leopard' of the story....fooled ya, didn't I), one for my princess the other for my son. Everyone wins!

Three hours later I'm playing with quick look, spaces, time machine, and all the other cool features. Apple knows how to make a splash, and they've done it again. My favorite feature is a toss up between Quick Look and the screen-sharing feature with ichat. My wife sometimes needs my help, and to be able to see her screen is a huge help to our marriage (no more "honey, do you see [enter trouble shooting tip here]").

Adam:

I sat down this morning with my copies of Leopard, and the instructions for the install. Yes, I actually read them to make sure I was doing everything correctly. Total time doing this: 2 hours and 42 minutes. Fun times =).

Then I installed it on my macbook and then on my iMac. Of course I just had to do a video chat with Harry and Samuel right away. I was actually shocked that nothing on my machine was really messed up. I've had to do a bit of work to get my local server and site running correctly in Leopard, but my mail, photos, songs, everything I really wanted to have working right away was all set up, I just have a much cooler interface, new technology, a lot of learning to do, and one pretty background on my computers =). Now I am still working on the iMac, but I think by the time it's done it will have taken me a solid 5 hours to do everything I needed to do on the upgrade. Talk about time well spent though.

I am really excited to work on this OS and see what nifty things it can really do. My wife has been looking at a Dell laptop, but I think after working on this for a while at home, she's going to be in the Apple store buying herself a new machine. So far I am very impressed with OSX!!

Kyle:

Two weeks ago I found myself glued to a video-cast of the greatness that would be released with the Leopard OS for Mac. Pretty darned slick. I knew that most everyone in the DogBark office would be waiting in line at mid-night like a prepubescent mob of Harry Potter fans.

Well, in contrast, I like to sit back and watch things unfold. You have to understand, I was using the "Classic" OS for Illustrator 8 even though my machine was running OSX. I did this until I was forced against my will to upgrade Illustrator to CS2 on a machine that wouldn't run on the older OSX. That's an entirely different story. There are just some things I'm slow to give up.

So, today, I'd like to give you my review of the new release of Leopard ... the package looks shiny. I hear it's neat. I also hear there are some compatibility issues. That's all I know ... until I install it ... which might be 12 months from now ... if I'm adventurous.

ps. I did get a new Nano iPod and love it. That, too, is different story.

*** Remember, send us your upgrade stories by November 30th, and we'll choose a winner to receive a free copy of OSX Leopard. Must be a current customer of Dogbark.com to win. Void where prohibited ***

Cheers,
Dogbark.com Team

As always, you can reach us via:
phone: 877.864.7929
email: info@dogbark.com
aol IM: dogbarksupport

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