(IDG) -- The once-beleaguered Apple Computer is full of good news these days. Just after announcing it had closed the books on another profitable quarter (the fourth one in a row), Apple unveiled an enhanced Macintosh operating system.

Chief among Mac OS 8.5's 70-some new features is Sherlock, an enhanced search technology. The Mac OS Find feature has been upgraded to search your Mac's hard drive as well as the Internet and deliver a list of hits summarized and ranked by relevancy. From within Sherlock you can perform simultaneous searches in AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and other Web search engines. Sherlock will combine the search results, sorted by relevancy, into one list. From the list, you can double-click the site you want and your browser will automatically jump to that page.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

PC World home page

FileWorld find free software fast

Make your PC work harder with these tips

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

IDG.net's desktop PC page
IDG.net's portable PC page

IDG.net's Windows software page

IDG.net's personal news page

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for computer geniuses(& newbies)

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

The revamped operating system promises greatly enhanced speeds when copying files across 100-megabit Ethernet networks. Apple claims Mac OS 8.5 can copy files across a network faster than Windows NT can. Mac OS 8.5's Direct Printing feature should also offer a performance boost: It lets you drag a PICT, PostScript, EPS, or JPEG file to a desktop printer for printing without having to launch an application.

AppleScript, Apple's scripting language, has finally been made PowerPC-native. Though Apple introduced PowerPC-based Macs in 1994, until now the Mac OS contained AppleScript that was still largely 680X0-native. The PowerPC-native AppleScript is as much as five times faster than previous versions of the scripting language, Apple claims. In addition, you can attach scripts to folders to trigger events such as automatically compressing files whenever a folder is closed. QuickDraw, Apple's technology for rendering screen images, has also been made PowerPC-native, which should boost graphics performance considerably.

The new OS also includes QuickTime 3 Pro, the latest version of Apple's digital video format (also available separately for $30) and multilingual Internet access, which promises to let you easily view Web sites and e-mail in many languages.

Mac OS 8.5 will be available within the next few weeks at a street price of $99. Customers who purchased a Mac or Mac OS 8.1 since September 17, 1998 can upgrade to OS 8.5 for $19.95. iMac owners are eligible for the upgrade regardless of when they purchased their system.

Despite its enhancements, Mac OS 8.5 is still not the big upgrade Mac users have been waiting for. Mac OS X, the first major operating system overhaul since the Mac debuted in 1984, is due in the summer of 1999. Among its promises: the ability to work in multiple programs simultaneously and efficiently.