The new Dashboard feature also looks pretty smart, hosting mini-applications called “widgets” – we know this is not original – that scour the Internet to keep you up to date with the weather, stock prices, flight schedules, currency exchange rates etc. They pop up and then get out of your way. Whether or not that will, in practice, prove to be irritating for some people, remains to be seen.

Then there’s Automator, and VoiceOver, which should be a great advance for the increasing number of people who have visual or learning disabilities. It reads aloud the contents of files, including your e-mail, Web pages and word processor documents, and provides “a comprehensive audible description” of the workspace and a rich set of keyboard commands.

Apple is also supposed to be introducing a Windows version of its Bonjour network and printer connection technology in the first half of this year.

It’s going to be an interesting year for Mac users, because Tiger will unleash a whole armada of products that take advantage of the new OS. Synergy Advance, for instance, to control iTunes.

And by the way, Apple’s irritating little nemesis, Think Secret, is at it again, predicting that Apple will release new PowerMac G5s at the National Association of Broadcasters next week.