Apple Mac OS 10.4

Mail has had an update with a cleaner interface and the addition of Smart Folders. These work like the one in Itunes, so you can create a folder for invoices or receipts and they'll all appear there, whichever email folder you stored them in - a little like Gmail, but on your machine. We were sceptical at first, since we don't store mail on our Mac, but on an Imap server. However, the system did index all 7,000-odd messages, amounting to around half a gigabyte. Admittedly, it rather hammered the Imap server during that process, but being able to track down mail so easily is great, and long overdue whatever platform you use.

This searching is powered by Spotlight, arguably the star of the update, which you can access from a menu at the top-right of the screen or by pressing Apple & Space. On installation, your existing documents are indexed in the background and, after that, everything happens automatically. Almost everything can be searched, with a plug-in architecture allowing new applications to be included. You can even search, for example, for photographs taken with a Fujifilm camera - all the metadata is indexed.

Another top feature of Tiger is the Dashboard: pop-up widgets that appear and disappear with a click, giving fast access to clocks, calculators, translation tools, flight information and so on. Although most standard widgets are US-centric, there are already lots of extra ones, such as UK train times or Yell.com searches.

The last of the major new features is Automator, which is used to provide functions such as the Web Receipt folder mentioned earlier. It's a type of drag-and-drop programming tool, and it lets you put together common sequences of actions you can repeat easily. You can add them to the context menus in the Finder, for example.

If you're already running OS 10.3, this is a worthy upgrade. For some, the convenience of Spotlight or Automator alone will make it worthwhile, and it's streets ahead of what Windows can offer in those areas. If you're running an even earlier version of OSX, this is a must-have upgrade; it really will transform your older system into something much, much better.

System requirements:

• G3, G4 or G5 processor and built-in Firewire
• 256MB memory
• Approx 3GB disk space
• DVD drive