Apple Snow Leopard Bares Teeth

Apple has finally given a shipping date for its Snow Leopard O/S

Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard is claimed to be a powerful, refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system and the foundation for future Mac innovation.

As expected it comes with support for Microsoft Exchange, as well as a range of new accessibility features and will ship as an upgrade for current Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009.

Apple says its engineers focused on 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.

System applications such as 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, claims Apple.

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.

Every Mac includes innovative features and technologies for users with special needs, and Snow Leopard adds new features that make the Mac experience 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.

RRP

TBC