AppleInsider.com is reporting that Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, will be featuring Quick Look technology that allows users to preview audio and video files as part of that file’s icon.
A source with access to the pre-release software told AppleInsider that hovering the mouse pointer over a file icon in the Finder will trigger a triangular “Play” button to appear on the file’s icon. Clicking on it begins audio or video playback. As an audio file plays, the “Play” button turns into a square “Stop” button with a ring around it. The ring fills according as the track progresses. Video files act similarly, with the icon becoming the video itself.
The source noted that this style of Quick Look could be switched back to 10.5 Leopard’s Finder window preview style with a simple whack on the spacebar.
The icon Quick Look feature also works for other files such as those for iWork and Microsoft Office. But unless users have their icon size bumped up to the maximum, Snow Leopard testers say the feature is rather useless. Having the latest Mac OS is cool, but having to wear drugstore “readers” to use it… not so cool.
