Hyperbole or otherwise, Apple’s fulsome listof over 300 new features, tweaks and improvements to OS X Leopard makes for damned interesting reading.  ZDNet’s resident tech doctor (and seemingly a bit of an Apple-phobe) Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has been browsing through it to see exactly what has been tweaked and came to the conclusionthat “Leopard looks like it beats Vista in the ‘Wow!’ department”; of course, we’ve been looking at it from an ultramobile point of view, and it looks like Apple has taken some cues from the iPhone and iPod Touch’s interface.

For a start, media playback in Leopard looks to be much streamlined, with better full-screen support and top/bottom transport controls that, while not activated by a finger sweep (at least yet), are a simple mouse gesture away.  The ‘Time Slider’ seems to be a desktop version of the position scroll that’s superimposed over iPhone movies, while chapter thumbnails mimic the big, finger-friendly iconography from the popular cellphone.

Meanwhile, support for the company’s CalDAV standard (think Exchange calendar, but Apple style) and synchronization between one or more machines and one or more individuals hopefully signals a move towards integrating live calendar updates on the iPhone.  After all, why should you wait until you get back to your office to sync it, when there’s a happy server sitting there with all the details inside.

It’s worth going through the list yourself – there’s bound to be something that perks your interest and would fit nicely with the way you work – but we’re all quietly excited here for Leopard’s launch.  It’ll make portable Macs more mobile-lifestyle friendly, and hopefully pave the way for push-email, calendar and more on the iPhone.