Snow Leopard upgrade: What's in it for me?
Ed Bott: Apple promises that its newest operating system update, Snow Leopard, will make Mac OS X "faster, more reliable, and easier to use" - and will contain some "new core technologies." The $29 upgrade brings Grand Central, OpenCL, full 64-bit mode, QuickTime X, and Exchange support to Mac users. But the new OS isn't for all Macs - newer systems will benefit most from the upgrades - and forget about it if you own a PowerPC. Here are my first impressions of Snow Leopard.
Snow Leopard roundup: Reviews and FAQs
Beware fake Snow Leopard downloads
The Snow Leopard appreciation society
Seb Janacek silicon.com: Apple's latest OS doesn't aim to wow with a host of new features: it's the little things that count. It's kind of like repairing a used-car. You never realized how much better it could be.
4 reasons NOT to upgrade to Snow Leopard today
Robin Harris: Mac OS X dot releases typically offer better security, more stability and — maybe — a few new features. But Snow Leopard isn’t like that. Under the hood it is a very different beast than the Leopard
First Snow Leopard update seeded to devs
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Snow Leopard is only six days old but an update is already in the pipeline.Word has it that a private pool of developers have already been seeded with the 10.6.1 update (build 10B503) which contains numerous stability and security fixes.
David Morgenstern: Snow Leopard install fails? Find a flashlight!
Snow Leopard ships with vulnerable Flash Player
Ryan Naraine: The initial release of Mac OS X 1..6 (Snow Leopard) includes Flash Player 10.0.23.1, which is very much out of date. The fully patched version of Flash Player for Mac is version 10.0.32.18.
CIOs hit the snooze button on Snow Leopard
Jason Hiner: TechRepublic polled its panel of U.S. IT executives about whether Snow Leopard would make them more likely to adopt Mac OS X machines.
Keyboard Viewer hints at tablet OS
Jason D. O'Grady: A new Keyboard Viewer app appears to be tailor made for a touchscreen operating system and could be the basis for an iPhone-like virtual keyboard - on the Mac. At least that’s how the theory goes.
Regretful upgrade? Snow Leopard incompatibilities
Some are regretting their haste in upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6. Little incompatibilities with existing apps are causing headaches and slowing down work flow.
Snow Leopard: What's the hurry to upgrade?
David Morgenstern: With any systemwide upgrade, for some users, especially early adopters, things can and will go wrong. And Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard is no different than any other software upgrade.
Snow Leopard completely blows it virtually
Jason Perlow: Built-in Hypervisor-based virtualization and paravirtualizized kernels are now de rigueur with every major x86-based enterprise OS on the planet. But on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, it’s nowhere to be found.
Snow Leopard geared for multicore future
Mac OS X 10.6 begins a longer-term Apple attempt to get ahead by cracking a problem facing the entire computer industry: squeezing useful work out of modern processors.
Snow Leopard fixes disk capacity bug
Robin Harris: It is a common question: why does my computer say a 1,000 GB drive is only 932 GB? What happened to the other 68 GB I paid for? It's because operating systems report storage capacity in base 2.
Apple kicks ZFS in the butt
Robin Harris: Even though it appeared in 10.5 Server, and was expected to become the default file system at some point, Apple has abandoned the Sun-developed ZFS, the first 21st century file system.
Exchange 2003 users should avoid this update
Dan Kusnetzky: Apple chose to implement Exchange 2007 support in Snow Leopard even though the iPhone supports both Exchange 2003 and 2007. So, my desktop system can not access the calendar.
RTF, Rosetta handling: Beware of changed behaviors
David Morgenstern: Snow Leopard makes some important changes in the way that Mac OS X handles RTF documents and the application that will launch them.
Snow Leopard only scans for two trojans
Dancho Danchev: The much hyped built-in malware protection into Apple’s Snow Leopard upgrade appears to be nothing more than a XProtect.plist file containing five signatures for two of the most popular Mac OS X trojans.
64-bit Snow Leopard defaults to 32-bit kernel
Apple's OS X 10.6 operating system Snow Leopard, released today, by default loads with a 32-bit kernel, despite running 64-bit applications.
Snow Leopard might crash your apps
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: According to a report there are a whole raft of applications included in Apple's Snow Leopard that either flat out don’t work, or just don’t work right.
Great news for Windows 7
Snow Leopard offers an even more streamlined Mac experience than Leopard and noticeably faster interface responsiveness. But the application performance is slightly slower than it is with Leopard
PC vs. Mac: 'If you're ready to compromise, you call'
Andrew Nusca: After almost four months of silence, another two editions of Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign have arrived, this time pounding their chests about the same talking points: a PC may be faster, but a Mac has no viruses and no headaches.
Snow Leopard: Why students shouldn't care less
Zack Whittaker: unless you are buying a brand new Mac for the start of college this academic year, the chances of you having full access to all the features are somewhat restricted. Is this a ploy to sell new computers?
Is Snow Leopard worth it in Ed?
Christopher Dawson: If anything, at least an upgrade to Snow Leopard Server seems to make sense. But in the computer lab, it's a bit harder to justify, even at $29.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard cuts support for legacy Palm OS devices
Andrew Nusca: Apple has discontinued support for legacy Palm OS devices in Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s iSync 3.1.0, according to a report.
Will advances in the Mac OS tip the scales for BYOPC?
Natalie Lambert, Forrester Research: With virtualization no longer needed to support the killer app on a Mac, organizations will need to rethink how they will support users that want to use Macs in their native state for corporate activities.
Apple to ship Snow Leopard Aug. 28; Part of the Windows assault
Larry Dignan: Apple said Monday that it will ship the latest upgrade to its OS X Aug. 28. The upgrade, known as Snow Leopard, refines OS X and features built-in Microsoft Exchange support.
Featured Reviews
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Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Intel Mac users will like Snow Leopard's smartly designed interface enhancements, and its Exchange support is a must-have (especially with Outlook for Mac on the way). With a ton of technological improvements, Snow Leopard is worth the $29 upgrade fee.
Featured Videos
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WWDC 2009: Apple highlights Snow Leopard features
At Apple's WWDC in San Francisco, the company's SVP of Mac OS engineering, Craig Federighi, demos the Snow Leopard version of the operating system. ...
Featured Photo Galleries
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Eye-to-eye with Snow Leopard--screenshots
Snow Leopard is finally here and there's plenty for Mac fans to be excited about. Check out our slide show of new features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
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