It's Official: Leopard DELIVERS on October 26th, 2007

&ot

On Oct 22, 2007, at 6:54 AM, Neil Laubenthal wrote:

On Oct 20, 2007, at 08:45, Ryoichi Morita wrote:

> I noticed that also. I'm not holding my breath. They must have > meant ;SHIPPING on October 26th."

Usually they ship it Thursday by overnight so it actually will arrive on the appointed day. The important thing to remember is either be home to sign for delivery or leave a signed note for the fedex/ups/ whoever guy to leave the package. Sometimes they'll leave it . . . sometimes they won't.

Even for those of us who have ordered using free "standard" shipping, they said "delivers on October 26". That remains to be seen (but I don't need Leopard any particular time, so in my case it's only a matter of interest.

As to not being home, Apple provides a nice printable form you can fill out and leave available to the shipper if you are away. Just follow the links when you check shipping status.

--John

Quoting Conrad Hirano <tidbitshirano.fastmail.fm>:

I seem to recall with earlier versions of OS X that Apple did indeed deliver on the release date. In fact, some people received their copy early when it took less time in transit than expected.

Yep, i expect to hear reports of deliveries on wed/thur. I plan on standing in line on Friday. usually what happens is they close the store for a bit, (let a line form) and then reopen.

Quoting johnbaxterlists <johnbaxterlistsmac.com>:
> Even for those of us who have ordered using free "standard"
> shipping, they said "delivers on October 26". That remains to be
> seen (but I don't need Leopard any particular time, so in my case
> it's only a matter of interest.

For the last Harry Potter book (from Amazon at least) it was the same.
They said delivers on the XXth, and that is when it showed up, even if
you purchased with standard shipping (as I did.)

I need an excuse to leave work early on Friday, so I guess this will be it.

johnbaxterlists wrote:

> As to not being home, Apple provides a nice printable form you can
> fill out and leave available to the shipper if you are away. Just follow
> the links when you check shipping status.

I'm glad they finally do that. There have been many times in the past
when I didn't purchase something from the Apple store online precisely
because Apple is the only shipper I know who requires signatures.

And they've been inconsistent in the past. I've bought several
computers online from the Apple store, and for all but the last one,
FedEx just dumped them on the front porch without asking for a
signature. But whenever I've ordered a $20 cable, or a box of DVD
blanks, *then* they require a signature, and I've often had to go out to
the FedEx office to pick up packages from the Apple store that weren't
really that important.

>
> --John

--
Paul Schinder
schinderpobox.com

On Oct 23, 2007, at 14:47 , Paul Schinder wrote:

> I'm glad they finally do that. There have been many times in the past
> when I didn't purchase something from the Apple store online precisely
> because Apple is the only shipper I know who requires signatures.

That reminds me of ... well, here in Europe, Apple ships via UPS. And
a short while ago I got a shipment from Apple when I was not at home,
so the UPS driver left a card in my mailbox, stating that he'd return
the next day for another delivery attempt, or that I could call the
UPS hotline and give them a different shipping address. "Great!", I
thought, "I'll just have it shipped to my place of work then!". But
the disappointment came right when I called UPS: They told me that in
contrast to most other shippers, Apple doesn't allow changing of
shipping addresses, at least not directly. Interestingly, they had
Apple's customer support number right at hand, which they gave me,
saying that Apple as the sender would be able to change the shipping
address, so I should call them instead. I, however, tried something
else instead: I simply put a short note on my front door, stating to
the UPS driver that I'd like to have my stuff delivered to a
different address, along with a signature, and well, it did actually
work! The same day the UPS driver found the note on my door, he
showed up at my place of work and gave me my package.

Now, to get back to the topic of Leopard: I originally pre-ordered
mine, but cancelled the order just yesterday. My original intention
was to grab a copy at our local Apple Authorized Reseller in Hanover,
Germany, but they close their shop every day at 6 pm, and since
Leopard will only be available at 6 pm, I figured I'd only be able to
pick up a copy there the following day. And since that'd be a
Saturday, I wouldn't be in town for work, and thus would have to come
here only to pick up Leopard. That's why I pre-ordered my copy
online, but because just yesterday I learned that our Apple Reseller
will be open on Friday till 8 pm because of Leopard's release, I have
decided to pick up my copy there Friday after work, just as
originally intended.

Greetings,
Nils

I haven't seen any suggestions here that it's best to wait for the first revision, which used to be a very common suggestion for new releases. Is there some consensus that first releases are better than they used to be?

John

On Oct 24, 2007, at 5:23 AM, John Massengale wrote:

> I haven't seen any suggestions here that it's best to wait for the
> first revision, which used to be a very common suggestion for new
> releases. Is there some consensus that first releases are better
> than they used to be?

There is no such consensus.

MacBreak Weekly (#63, this week) in fact did have the suggestion to
wait. (I think it was from Andy Ihnatko, but there was another voice
on the show similar enough to Andy's that I wasn't always sure--while
driving to and from dinner--who was speaking.) By the way, the Mac
will pronounce Andy's name the way he does--Apple asked him for a
sample to work from. (That's not how his dad pronounces it, oddly--
where Andy has an "ah" his dad has the a sound as in "cat".)

There really shouldn't be any need for a suggestion: if one has one
Mac and it is important to one's life, one should wait at least a few
days, if not until 10.5.1. And that should be obvious. On the other
hand, avoid reading too much into the inevitable flood of reports on
MacFixIt--one would never have installed System 7 if one were a slave
to those reports.

Another reason to wait would be if one has a bunch of "must have"
third party hacks^H^H^H^H^H wonderful improvements. (Having those
would be a solid reason to do any of the forms of install other than
the simple upgrade.)

My situation is that my Macbook is close enough to being a sandbox
machine that I can treat it as such and see what happens with a
simple upgrade install. (I'll have two bootable clones--if not
three--waiting in the wings.) And that machine is free of "must have
improvements". (And has no input managers.) If the Macbook becomes
inoperable, I can do everything I have to with my other two Macs (not
to mention the Vista laptop, which currently does nothing important
except absorb security updates from Microsoft).

   --John ("Snow sensor may record bushes in early season")

On 24-Oct-2007, at 06:23, John Massengale wrote:
> I haven't seen any suggestions here that it's best to wait for the
> first revision, which used to be a very common suggestion for new
> releases. Is there some consensus that first releases are better
> than they used to be?

A lot of people still wait for 10.x.1 before updating. personally, I
think for the vast majority of users, it's totally unnecessary. As
long as you have your Tiger disc so you can roll back if you need to,
just jump in and much like cool water in a pool, the initial shock
wears off and you get used to it pretty qucikly.

That said, if your livelihood depends on your machine and you're not
quite as good about backups as you might like and you use crucial non-
apple apps that you really don't know if they will work with Leopard,
then yeah, at least wait a few days/week to see if anything big shakes
out.

...

On Oct 25, 2007, at 13:48 , Gernot Hecht wrote:

> ...Are you sure about the closure time? The Gravis chain for
> example will keep their shops open on friday until midnight, so
> that people have enough time grabbing theiry copy!

Like I said, our local Apple reseller normally closes at 6 pm, but
will be open until 8 pm tomorrow. Gravis ... well, there're a
"Saftladen" if you ask me(*). We're glad we have a "real" Apple
Authorized Reseller (who is also an Apple Authoried Service Provider)
here, so we turn to them for purchases and service whenever possible!

Greetings,
Nils

(*: For all non-Germans, some explanations: "Saftladen" would mean
something like "lemonade stand" or, more literally, "juice shop", and
is a word Germans use to call a shop / company that they don't hold a
too high opinion of. Gravis, in Germany, is a chain of stores selling
Apple hardware and software, as well as related products from third-
party vendors.)

John Massengale inquired...

>I haven't seen any suggestions here that it's best to wait for the first
>revision, which used to be a very common suggestion for new releases. Is
>there some consensus that first releases are better than they used to be?

IMHO, yes but I have no data to back that up.

That being said, there was a time when I would immediately update or
install updates of applications and operating systems. Maybe it was
because it was the "Wild Frontier" of early personal computing but I got
burned more than once with initial versions of software that created
problems. As exciting as it was, I eventually got tired of having to
take the time to diagnose and fix the problems caused by problematic
software especially since I had other things to do in my life and needed
a working system. It was especially frustrating when I was managing a
department's computing assets. I had much more to do than trying to fix
a broken system thanks to either a flaky release or beta software.

My opinion: if you have a working system that does what you need,
there's no hurry unless you need to be the first on your block to run
Leopard. I like to wait and let the early adopters find problems with
new releases. Of course, our Fearless Mac Journalists have to run the
new system. It's their job to report on and review the new software.

I have to confess that the hints of improvements in Spotlight tempts me
to update a couple of weeks after rather than the month after the
Leopard release. How a simple idea could become something so annoying in
Tiger...

On a tangential topic, I was somewhat surprised when some Mac
journalists were upset that the iPhone update wiped out the 3d party
apps they installed but I'm going to save my full rant for specific
panelists of the MacN*******s podcast.

- Hank

It's Official: My Leopard _didn't_ deliver on 26th October! Maybe 29th?

Paul,
W. Australia

On Oct 27, 2007, at 8:13 AM, Paul Bradstreet wrote:

> It's Official: My Leopard _didn't_ deliver on 26th October! Maybe
> 29th?

Sad!

Mine was delivered, at 18:10 (US pacific daylight time). The usual
very nice FedEx lady. I saw her coming--not that I was watching out
the window or anything like that--and met her at the back of the
van. I remarked that she was having a long day. She agreed, then
pointed at my package, and said "I've had a lot of those today".

   --John

> Mine was delivered, at 18:10 (US pacific daylight time). The usual
> very nice FedEx lady. I saw her coming--not that I was watching out
> the window or anything like that--and met her at the back of the
> van. I remarked that she was having a long day. She agreed, then
> pointed at my package, and said "I've had a lot of those today".

I'm probably a little harder to find.... just a 3 acre hole in the
jarrah forest. Don't get too many nice FedEx ladies visiting.
Living in The Valley of the Lost Partygoers has its downside....

Paul,
WA
 From the Antipodean emails, I thought we had the edge...

--On October 28, 2007 4:01:27 AM -0700 johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:

> Mine was delivered, at 18:10 (US pacific daylight time). The usual
> very nice FedEx lady. I saw her coming--not that I was watching out
> the window or anything like that--and met her at the back of the
> van. I remarked that she was having a long day. She agreed, then
> pointed at my package, and said "I've had a lot of those today".

I was surprised at the number of people in line at the Kansas City Apple
store. There were well over a hundred people. Most of the previous releases
I think it was maybe 40-50. I'm not sure the iPhone line was that long (i
didn't go for that.) I was around 25 in line. The Apple store brought out
drinks for everyone which was nice, i don't think they did that for
previous releases.

Kevin

Eh, I decided to be cheap and I bought my copy from
http://www.onsale.com/ - $109, with no sales tax (cough, use tax, I
know.) and a rebate on the $6 or so ground shipping. Mine arrived
yesterday.

Patience pays, $28.39 in this case. Also give last time I when I
bought Tiger Apple delayed my copy and I didn't get it till the next
week. (sure it was the student edition, but still.)

Speaking of the student edition, did anyone notice that for Tiger it
was ~$80.00, where for Leopard it is $116? Anyone know the story
behind that?

--Nick

On Nov 3, 2007, at 7:32 AM, Nicholas Barnard wrote:

> Speaking of the student edition, did anyone notice that for Tiger it
> was ~$80.00, where for Leopard it is $116? Anyone know the story
> behind that?

Too many people working the system. At least, that has been widely
speculated and makes sense.

   --John