Today, OS X Leopard hits the shelves and make its way into the hands of the masses including this Apple-phile with two cats. My plan is to head over to the Burlingame Apple Store after work and get my hands on a copy (and hopefully whatever souvenirs available).

Up until today, I’ve been browsing the screenshots, reading reviews by Walt Mossberg and David Pogue, and already checking out new tips over at Mac OS X Hints.

Anyhow, after the extensive list of 300+ new OS X Leopard features, these are the ones I’m most excited about, and looking forward to playing with over the weekend.

Dashboard Web Clip

Simply identify part of a dynamic web page in Safari, and turn it into a Dashboard widget. I could see using this to “widgetize” the top stories in Google News or Techmeme, or information on other often-visited websites. I’m also curious whether the resulting widget appears in the widgets folder and becomes portable - meaning a super-simple way to author a widget that you can install on other computers or share with others.

Stacks

I hope this feature makes folder browsing easier, and in turn, improves utility of the Dock. I still miss tabbed folders from OS 9 - where you could drag an open window down to the bottom of the desktop.

iTunes-esque Finder

Applying the iTunes GUI in general will hopefully make file navigation easier, since I’m already comfortable managing media files via iTunes. But for me, the biggest promise of the iTunes-inspired Finder are the sidebar’s “smart folders” under “Search For”, where I might be able to organize files I worked within a certain time frame and project regardless of where they reside in various folders.

Instant Screen Sharing from the Finder

I’ll first try to control the Mac Mini from the MacBook for the ultimate in lazy-enablement. But this could be useful for connecting to a home Mac remotely, or to troubleshoot my parents’ iMac.

Front Row: Apple TV like interface

I’ve enjoyed hooking my MacBook up to the television in order to play with Front Row. In Leopard, Front Row has been upgraded to further resemble Apple TV. This will give me more entertainment and most likely, nudge me further towards a future Apple TV purchase.

RSS in Mail

I’m totally hooked on Google Reader for RSS feeds - but use Mail daily to download my GMail emails to the desktop for safekeeping. I’ll have to try the RSS feature to see how that works.

Preview and Quick Look

I spend a fair amount of time browsing media files and trying to figure out what’s in them, increasingly through Adobe Bridge. But both Preview and Quick Look promise to make this task much easier and faster.

Spaces

Although I have one large-ish monitor, it would be awesome to up available work spaces to six.

Time Machine

I do backups fairly regularly but I don’t feel that it’s a “set it and forget it” situation. I still worry that they’re being done properly. I hope Time Machine will make such thoughts thing of the past (no pun intended).

So that’s my short list. After tonight, I’ll get the chance to run through these items one by one and see if my anticipation is matched by reality.

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

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