Another year, another high-profile Steve Jobs keynote… is it just me or was it pretty dull? Yes, the Mac Pro is a beast of a machine, but it was hardly unexpected; meanwhile the Leopard demo was interesting but never made me go “woo!” Virtual desktops? Nice enough. Email stationery? Erm… Animated backdrops for video chat? System restore? The changes to Mail and Spotlight look interesting, but the Leopard demo left me with the same feeling I have about Vista: looks nice, and that’s about it. I’m wondering about the “top secret” stuff Jobs said he couldn’t talk about just yet, and hoping those mysterious things have the wow factor I’m missing here. Or at least, I hope there’s an improved Finder.

It’s also a bit cheeky to take pops at Microsoft when one of your key features, Time Machine, replicates the Windows program GoBack (originally centerprise, then Roxio, now Symantec), which has been kicking around since at least 2000… and is Apple going to get nailed by the fanboys for the Vista-style shipping delay? Leopard was due for a 2006 release, and now it’s going to be 2007.

Maybe things will get more interesting next month, when – if the rumours are correct – we’ll see some changes in iPod/iTunesland.