[poetic_folly]

The last couple OS X updates have run $129, but 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, will be available in September at a cool $29 upgrade for Leopard users. Anyone who buys a Leopard machine between now and then can pick up Snow Leopard for free plus $10 shipping from Apple once its released.

A list of the updates include:

• Finder has been rewritten for faster Quick Look and Spotlight operations.
• All core apps are 64-bit, meaning Mail will load 85-90% faster, and Time Machine will back up 50% faster the initial backup.
• Opening jpg's is twice as fast in Preview. PDF speed improvement is 150%.
• Snow Leopard is only half the size of Leopard - 6GB in savings, and 45% faster installs.
• MS Exchange Server 2007 supported including Mail, Calendar, and Address Book syncing.
• New trackpads can handle handwriting recognition.
• 64-Bit, GPGPU, and Multi-Core support.
• QuickTime 10 is included, with a new interface to mimic the iTunes video player. Quick video editing is supported.
• Safari 4 available for Windows, Leopard, and Tiger. Snow Leopard adds "crash resistance," which keeps browser and tabs intact even if a plugin crashes - just refresh the page. 64-bit is 50% faster loading JavaScripts.

SAN FRANCISCO—June 8, 2009—Apple® today unveiled Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system and the foundation for future Mac® innovation. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for $29.

“We’ve built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before.”

To create Snow Leopard, Apple engineers focused on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system, refining 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects in Mac OS X. Users will notice a more responsive Finder™; Mail that loads messages 85 percent faster and conducts searches up to 90 percent faster;* Time Machine® with up to 50 percent faster initial backup;* a Dock with Exposé integration; a 64-bit version of Safari® 4 that boosts the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent** and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard also includes an all new QuickTime® X, with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video to YouTube, MobileMe™ or iTunes®. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 6GB of drive space once installed.

For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance, and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors. GCD is integrated throughout Snow Leopard, from new system-wide APIs to high-level frameworks and programming language extensions, improving responsiveness across the system. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the incredible power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.

Snow Leopard builds support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal so you can use these applications to send and receive email, create and respond to meeting invitations, and search and manage your contacts with global address lists. Exchange information works seamlessly within Snow Leopard so users can take advantage of OS X only features such as fast Spotlight™ searches and Quick Look previews. Snow Leopard is the only desktop operating system with out of the box support for Exchange 2007 and businesses of any size will find it easier to integrate Macs into their organization.

Every Mac includes innovative features and technologies for users with special needs, and Snow Leopard adds groundbreaking new features that make the Mac experience even more accessible to those with a vision impairment. Apple’s Multi-Touch™ trackpad is now integrated with the VoiceOver screen reader so users can hear and navigate different parts of a window or the desktop by moving a single finger around the trackpad as if it were the screen. Snow Leopard also introduces built-in support for wireless bluetooth braille displays and the connection of multiple braille displays simultaneously to one Mac.

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard in September 2009 through the Apple Store® (Apple), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a suggested price of $49 (US). For Tiger® users with an Intel-based Mac, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife® ’09 and iWork® ’09 and will be available for a suggested price of $169 (US) and a Family Pack is available for a suggested price of $229 (US).

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, whichever comes first. For more information please visit Apple - Mac OS X - Update your new Mac with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.. Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM and is designed to run on any Mac computer with an Intel processor. Full system requirements can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.

*Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 with shipping Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.7 using shipping MacBook® 2.0 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB) and shipping generation iMac® 2.66 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB).

**Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing 64-bit Safari 4 to 32-bit Safari 4 on prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6. Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Snow Leopard, Finder, Time Machine, Safari, QuickTime, MobileMe, iTunes, iCal, iChat, Spotlight, Multi-Touch, Apple Store, Tiger, iLife, iWork, MacBook and iMac are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

[Melech518]

Sounds good but I think I will hold of a little while on this...

[plcrules]

nice

[SuperJoker]

Sweet, $29. About €20.

[tattoojack]

so this will not run on 32bit or PPC systems???

[jballa9]

So what's up with Safari? They released the "finished" version of that today, but when they released the beta they made a big deal about the tabs being on the top, and you can grab the corner and pull it out of the browser, I really got used to that, and now it's gone, anyone else with me?

[joshuo]

^ Sounds like it...

[GregTheWang]

Damn, very nice move apple. I expected to be behind the updates the second snow leopard came out, but now I can upgrade at a decent price. Not bad not bad

[dennder]

Gimme my TOP-TABS back! =(

I'll buy new LEO asap, but as a test system before the first update goes public.

[one1]

It should have been an update. It's not a new OS. That's why they only priced it at $29.

They know people aren't going to buy it as a new OS because it isn't and they know they aren't going to move up a number on the OS with making money so they created bug fixes ALMOST worthy of a $5 bill and threw enough in to make you want to pop your $30 down.

Apple, the mud is getting deep in marketing, please send a shovel.

[timbo]

is there a torrent of the latest Snow Leopard master

[Zwayne]

Originally Posted by one1

It should have been an update. It's not a new OS. That's why they only priced it at $29.

They know people aren't going to buy it as a new OS because it isn't and they know they aren't going to move up a number on the OS with making money so they created bug fixes ALMOST worthy of a $5 bill and threw enough in to make you want to pop your $30 down.

Apple, the mud is getting deep in marketing, please send a shovel.

I needed a good LOL.....

[dale1v]

Top tabs are quite simply a GUI disaster. There is no benefit whatsoever about having them the way Safari 4 beta had them

[ipoong]

Originally Posted by dale1v

Top tabs are quite simply a GUI disaster. There is no benefit whatsoever about having them the way Safari 4 beta had them

I love top tabs!

[jballa9]

Originally Posted by dale1v

Top tabs are quite simply a GUI disaster. There is no benefit whatsoever about having them the way Safari 4 beta had them

Sure it may have been a disaster, but I personally loved the tabs on top. for me it was just more productive to see my tabs on the top, at least give us the option to choose for ourselves, now that I've experienced it it's hard to go back. I accidentally already updated safari on my work computer, but I'm holdin on strong to the beta on my MacBook!