The WWDC keynote has just finished, and Steve has just announced the first details of OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Some new features are overhyped. For instance, Apple Mail now comes with templates! And Outlook Express had that in, what, 1996? (I always thought it was a good thing that ‘serious’ clients like Mail and Thunderbird didn’t go down that path …).

Also, OS X will now have virtual-desktop functionality called Spaces — something that’s been in KDE and GNOME for years. Heck, with Xgl the Apple fanboys can’t even claim that their desktop switcher looks cooler.

But there are two new features that caught my eye. One is Time Machine, which on the face of it is just another incremental backup utility with a shiny interface. But turn it on by default and add a little Apple simplicity magic, and I think this may finally be the solution to everyone’s tendency to never back stuff up. Kinda like System Restore in Windows XP, but actually useful, because it automatically backs up your data.

The other is the planned improvements to OS X accessibility. The lack of accessibility features in most computer software has long annoyed me, and while Apple have done a better job than most, up until now it’s been a matter of “if you can’t use this, your best bet is OS X, if you have this other disability, use Linux, otherwise, use Windows”. Leopard may change that — which can only be a good thing. Also, lots of people are saying the system text-to-speech (which hasn’t been updated since OS 8!) now sounds awesome.

Steve’s WWDC keynote also announced the ‘fastest Mac ever’ and new Xserves, but (surprise, surprise!) none of the crazy rumours like an Apple mobile phone.