By Kasper Jade

Published: 02:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST)

Information on recent builds of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" continues to find its way outside of Apple's corporate headquarters, as engineers diligently work to further develop the next-generation OS.

Sources close to the Cupertino, Calif-based Apple Computer have most recently provided AppleInsider with exclusive details on iCal 1.6, Font Book 2.0, and QuickTime 6.6 interface enhancements, which are present in the newest private builds of Tiger.

iCal 1.6

The latest developmental version of Apple's calendar application—iCal version 1.6—will reportedly allow users to search for events and To Do items through a new pop-up menu, view meeting proposals and responses in a single window, and easily update and cancel events from calendars shared over the internet. Likewise, iCal will gain support for grouping of calendars and To Do lists and drag-and-drop reorganization of To Do list items.

Sources also claim that the new iCal will let users transform event items into To Do items by dragging the event to the To Do list, or vice versa to change a To Do item into an event.

Other iCal enhancements include the automatic creation of birthday calendars from dates present in a user's address book, and a new dialog box that will ease printout creation by formatting calendars and To Do items into weekly, daily, or monthly views.



Font Book 2.0

Apple has also focused its energy into the further development of its Font Book application, which allows users to easily preview, install, and manage font collections. A new version, Font Book 2.0, is reportedly speedier and smarter than its predecessor. The application will validate font files prior to installation and let users choose whether it should halt installations after an error, or treat errors like warnings.

The font application will also sport a handy action menu, populated by shortcuts to common tasks. At the base of the menu are options to open the vendor, designer, and license websites related to a selected font.



QuickTime 6.6 Full Screen Controls

While sources have fully divulged the technical details surrounding the QuickTime 6.6 update that will ship with Tiger, the latest builds of QuickTime player are flashing some fresh eye-candy. Movies presented in full-screen mode are accompanied by a set of semi-translucent, dashboard-like controls that fade in and out of view.

Mac OS X Tiger is currently undergoing private seedings with builds in the range of 8A2xx. Some of the most recent builds have revealed iChat Jabber support, application specific parental controls, Address Book sharing, PDF bookmarking, advanced Energy Saver configurations, Safari RSS feed customization, and a new Graphing Calculator purchased from Arizona Software.