Snow Leopard Bringing Substantial Package of Enhancements and Refinements

[MacRumors]

As Friday's public launch of Mac OS X Snow Leopard approaches, many users are considering whether to upgrade and wondering what new features they can expect in Apple's updated operating system. While many consider Snow Leopard to be focused on "under the hood" changes to improve and streamline performance, Apple's Enhancements and Refinements page also covers a wide variety of visual and functional changes, many of which had previously been reported by Apple or sources using developer builds of Snow Leopard, but we highlight here a few of those of interest.

"Put Back" and Stacks Navigation: Apple has added the ability for users to quickly restore items from the Trash folder to their original locations and now allows users to easily navigate within stacks by adding a scrolling feature in grid view and adding an arrow icon to allow users to navigate the folder hierarchy. The folder hierarchy icon began as a "thumbnailed" picture of the parent folder, but was replaced with the simpler arrow icon in later developer builds.

- GPU-Accelerated Video Playback: QuickTime X, included as part of Snow Leopard, utilizes video-decoding capabilities built into the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor found in many Macs, reducing load on the system's CPU and freeing it up for other tasks.

- Text Editing Features and Integration: New features include automatic correction for common spelling errors and expanded data detectors to automatically find information such as dates and addresses and provide smart options for such tasks as creating iCal or Address Book entries or mapping locations.

- Full Multi-Touch Gesture Support for Compatible Models: All of Apple's notebooks introduced since 2008, beginning with the original MacBook Air, have included Multi-Touch trackpad capabilities, but many of the early models have been unable to take advantage of newer four-finger gestures, a limitation that will be removed in OS X Snow Leopard.

- iChat Enhancements: Snow Leopard brings 640 x 480 video chats to iChat Theater, four times the resolution of those in Leopard, as well as reduced upload bandwidth requirements for video chats.

- Security: Apple has devoted an entire page of its Snow Leopard site to highlighting security features of Mac OS X, from "sandboxing" programs to limit the damage malicious software can cause and anti-phishing features in Safari to password strength assessment and parental controls. A report today is also pointing to an apparent antivirus feature built into Snow Leopard, and while MacRumors first received reports of this feature after developer build 10A261 was released in February, no further details of the feature have been unearthed.

Article Link: Snow Leopard Bringing Substantial Package of Enhancements and Refinements

[Eidorian]

Hope you got your 9400M G.

[FoxyKaye]

Put Back!

Finally, OS9 comes to OS X.

[JFreak]

No multi-touch love for my old 2007 SR MBP?

[Bjohnson33]

This is the first I've heard of "anti-virus features". Anyone have an idea what that means?

[buckyballs]

Originally Posted by Eidorian

Hope you got your 9400M G.

As much as I think that Apple needs to move on past old tech, this is ridiculous. They could easily add support for the other NVIDIA GPUs that can do hardware h264 decoding, but they've decided not to. I can't see any good reason why they shouldn't support the 8600M or 8800 GT.

[Burnsey]

I hope the finder is faster and less buggy, and that boot up times are improved.

[flottenheimer]

Want. SNL. Now.

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by Bjohnson33

This is the first I've heard of "anti-virus features". Anyone have an idea what that means?

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/2...lude-Antivirus

Originally Posted by buckyballs

As much as I think that Apple needs to move on past old tech, this is ridiculous. They could easily add support for the other NVIDIA GPUs that can do hardware h264 decoding, but they've decided not to. I can't see any good reason why they shouldn't support the 8600M or 8800 GT.

It seems like pure laziness right now and the desire to just sell you a new machine with the 9400M G in it.

I'm not getting Snow Leopard until next year with a new MacBook. I don't want to play these weird lets cripple 'X' model games with my money. I bought my Santa Rosa Macbook 5 days after the Leopard launch. A few days before they were selling GMA 950 ones like it was Christmas and all the happy faces.

[Krafty]

Got my 9400M, Got my order. All I gotta do is wait.

[spillproof]

Can't wait!

I'm really looking forward to Put Back, iChat, and improved Quicktime!

[ElijahPost]

I hope the public launch includes an exact time. Leopard launched 10/26/07 at exactly 6:00PM PST around the world.

[ghostface147]

Originally Posted by JFreak

No multi-touch love for my old 2007 SR MBP?

Nope, we don't have the necessary circuitry for it to be working.

[THX1139]

I was all set to do a preorder but as I was filling out the order, I saw a message saying that I would have to sign for the delivery. I cancelled and decided to pick it up at the local Apple store instead. I hate having to wait around all day to receive a package!

[joueboy]

So the QuicktimeX comes standard with OSX without buying a pro license to take advantage its advance features right? Unless I can keep my current quicktime pro license if incase there is a pro version of QuicktimeX. Because I am not buying a new pro license that almost cost as much as the OSX itself.

[donwlarson]

I'll be looking for the list of all incompatible software working under Snow Leopard that works fine now in Leopard.

[tekio]

Originally Posted by ghostface147

Nope, we don't have the necessary circuitry for it to be working.

Odd that the SR MBP doesn't have the hardware but the SR MB does

[beg_ne]

Originally Posted by joueboy

So the QuicktimeX comes standard with OSX without buying a pro license to take advantage its advance features right? Unless I can keep my current quicktime pro license if incase there is a pro version of QuicktimeX. Because I am not buying a new pro license that almost cost as much as the OSX itself.

There is no Quicktime X Pro. If you already have a Quicktime Pro license Snow Leopard will detect that and install Quicktime 7 so you can continue to use those pro features in Quicktime 7.

[run-kmc]

As good as the team that develops OS X is, the team that markets it is much better.

[ooo]

Originally Posted by donwlarson

I'll be looking for the list of all incompatible software working under Snow Leopard that works fine now in Leopard.

http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/

[thertrain]

Originally Posted by Burnsey

I hope the finder is faster and less buggy, and that boot up times are improved.

I will admit that boot & shut down times have improved quite a bit with the 432 build.

The finder has several little tweaks. For instance, when you click the "pill/expand" button in the top corner, it stretches to the new size, it doesn't just change to the larger windows. The transitions are a small effect that is noticeable when you go back to Leopard. Additionally, if you delete a file by dragging it to the trash, it fades away from the desktop, it doesn't just disappear.

Again, these are very small changes, but are little extras that you see throughout the OS.

[calviin]

Can I install SL on a new hard drive? I want to keep Leopard as a back-up just in case SL dies on me. I was planning on using the discs that came with my Late '09 MB to install Leopard on the new hard drive and then upgrade to Leopard, while keeping my old hard drive as bootable Leopard drive. Possible?

[hamis92]

Originally Posted by buckyballs

As much as I think that Apple needs to move on past old tech, this is ridiculous. They could easily add support for the other NVIDIA GPUs that can do hardware h264 decoding, but they've decided not to. I can't see any good reason why they shouldn't support the 8600M or 8800 GT.

My thoughts exactly. 9400M is found in most Macs today, yes, but I'm sure they are a minority when you look at the base of all Intel Macs, since they've been available for a relatively short time.

This isn't even a new feature. Leopard-equipped Unibody notebooks already utilize GPU for H.264 decoding.

[Cromulent]

I hope my copy arrives on Friday or Saturday as I am going away for 6 - 12 months on Monday and want to have a play around before I am deprived of my computer for an extended period of time .

[Doctor Q]

It's likely that many users have a different attitude about Snow Leopard than they did for previous Mac OS X versions. With the lower price we may think of it as a performance tuneup and new underlying infrastructure, with some extra interface features "for free".

That's not really the case, of course; we're paying for both. But there's certainly a contrast in the way Apple has described Snow Leopard vs. the huge feature lists of past releases.