Apple's Leopard operating system

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With its trademark theatrical flair, the maker of Macintosh computers and iPod music players demonstrated new Leopard features that included playful "iChat" video-conferencing and a "Time Machine" that resurrects lost data.

Time Machine was inspired by a survey that indicated only 26 percent of Macintosh users regularly backed up information on their machines to avoid losing it forever in system crashes.

The feature automatically copies music, pictures, applications, files and "absolutely everything" a person puts on their Macintosh, according to Apple vice president of platform experience Scott Forstall.

The operating system enabled people to remotely search for files on all computers connected to their network.

Leopard also had simple tools for people to create "widget" applications that stream feeds from websites onto small windows on computer screens.

For example, a Macintosh user could keep a continuously updated best-selling book list or the views from chosen web cameras on a desktop screen, Forstall demonstrated.

Leopard was also designed with better text-reading, Braille support, and closed captioning for people with disabilities, Jobs said.

Leopard e-mail would allow users to create the virtual equivalent of fancy stationery decorated with personal photographs. Modifications to iChat allowed people linked via web cameras to share slide show presentations, playfully distort their pictures or insert fake backdrops.