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Are 'top secret' features holding up Leopard?

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
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  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
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Leslie Katz

Apple is pinning Leopard's delayed release date on the push to get the company's iPhone out on time, but some reports now say "top secret" features in the operating system could be responsible for the postponement.

An AppleInsider report Friday quotes American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu as telling clients that "while Apple cited a shift in resources to iPhone and more time for developers to beta test as reasons for the delay, our analysis indicates that if not for the 'secret' features, the core Leopard operating system would likely have shipped on time."

Apple announced Thursday that it has been forced to delay the release of the next version of Mac OS X until October. As a result, Leopard will not be ready this spring, a time frame Apple had reiterated several times over the past few months.

AppleInsider didn't speculate as to what the mysterious Leopard features might be, but Gizmodo had some rather creative (and amusing) ideas:

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