I'm swamped under a lot of work and little sleep (as usual), but wanted to share some quick thoughts about what we now know about Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther. First, I'm really excited about the new iDisk functionality. I really like iDisk, Apple's remote storage option as part of .Mac, but it can be slow. Or quite annoying, in fact, when disconnected from the internet. I have a few files that I keep on there because I update them from numerous locations, primarily OmniOutliner documents being used as task lists or status reports. In Panther, you always have a local copy of your iDisk's contents, and the contents get synchronized in the background. And, since it's a local copy, you can update files offline. Nice.
Now, about the new Finder... I'm curious to hear about people's reactions to it that have one of preview copies. Generally, I spend a lot of time now in "Column Mode", as it's extremely helpful for working with audio snippets (the live preview is a godsend), and this new Finder looks like it makes working in that mode a lot easier. But what I haven't seen is if there's any spatial finder capabilities left in. Spatial Finder is how the classic Finder worked, all of the time. It was very fast and very easy to lay things out how you wanted them, and your muscles could get trained to certain positions very rapidly. I still find this handy for some (small) uses these days, but the behavior - even in Jaguar - is too unpredictable.
John Siracusa wrote up an interesting article about the Mac OS X Finder - what's wrong with it, his ideas how to fix it - for Ars Technica a few months back. It looks like Panther's options satisfy one of his ideas for fixing the Finder (making the 'browser mode' be more distinguished from traditional Spatial mode, and borrowing from the web browser for design). I wonder where the rest of it fits in.
Steve Jobs compares the new Finder to iTunes playlists. I really really really really hope at some point we can get the equivalent to "smart playlists" in the Finder. (Which would, obviously, be saved searches).