Posted on : 27-Aug-2009 | By : dre elmore | In : technology
Tomorrow Apple will release their newest system upgrade, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, almost a month ahead of schedule. Take that, Microsoft. The reviews are trickling in, and based on what I’ve read so far, I think I’ll upgrade. It’s only $30 (if you are already running Leopard) and it certainly sounds as though the enhanced system is worth it.
Most of the new features are beneath the hood, faster app load and boot times, a serious whittling away of bloat (the new OS is 7 gigs smaller than the previous version), and increased stability. However, according to David Pogue of the New York Times, there are plenty of new features that sound pretty damned cool:
The Mac now adjusts its own clock when you travel, just like a cellphone. The menu bar can now show the date, not just the day of the week. The menu of nearby wireless hot spots now shows the signal strength for each. When you’re running Windows on your Mac, you can now open the files on the Macintosh “side” without having to restart. Icons can now be 512 pixels (several inches) square, turning any desktop window into a light table for photos.
There’s now a Put Back command in the Trash, just as in Windows’ Recycle Bin. You can page through a PDF document or watch a movie right on a file’s icon. When you click a folder icon on the Dock, you can scroll through the pop-up window of its contents, turning a worthless feature into a useful one.
There are some bigger-ticket items, too. Movies open up into a gorgeous, frameless playback window with built-in trim handles and a “Send to YouTube” command built right in. You can now record your screen activity as a movie — fantastic for tutorials. The old Services feature has been reborn as powerful commands that appear only when relevant — and you can modify, make up or assign keystrokes to them. (nyt)
I’m sold. I have two machines with intel processors (which is required for upgrade, PowerPC users take note), so I’ll have to shell out $59 for the family pack. But that’s way cheap compared to previous Mac upgrades at a buck-twenty-nine ($129). Who’s with me?
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