Mac Snow Leopard: Built for Speed

By Sarah Granger

On Aug. 28, 2009, Mac OS v. 10.6 or OSX "Snow Leopard" will be released. Unlike previous versions, this one requires an Intel-based processor, essentially meaning any computer without one cannot upgrade beyond Leopard.  Those that can must pay for this major upgrade, as with others, starting at $29.

The Snow Leopard upgrade is largely about speed improvements and efficiency.  Starting up, shutting down and waking from sleep are all faster, and joining wireless networks is speedier too.  Software installations are reportedly also faster, up to 45 percent. One of the biggest complaints about Time Machine as a backup solution is the slow speed.  Supposedly, Snow Leopard's version is 50 percent faster, as is Mail.

Snow Leopard also takes up less space than Leopard, opening up approximately 6 GB of space on the hard drive since it doesn't need many of the files that were required for previous versions that worked on other processors. And for file sharing needs, Snow Leopard is more efficient because it can still perform in sleep mode, saving energy.

In terms of feature updates, Finder has been completely rewritten for Snow Leopard, with an "enhanced icon view" to allow for quick skims through documents without needing to open them up, like using a magnifying glass over files shown.  Both Finder and Spotlight now have adjustable view options for their search windows, and now Spotlight search can be sorted by name, date modified, date created, size, kind and label.

For those who use iChat to keep in touch with family, friends or coworkers, the resolution and reliability is improved, allowing for higher quality conversations.  Buddies are now searchable, and past conversations can be cached and shown again later.  iChat could always save chats, but now it's easier.

Safari 4 comes along with Snow Leopard as well, performing some of the background processes up to 50 percent faster.  Quicktime now has quick capture features for live audio and video via iSight camera, and quick trimming to crop videos.  It can also live stream video.  Snow Leopard now supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 too.

A few other little things added to Snow Leopard: the ability to restore deleted files to their original location, improved CD/DVD ejection capabilities, and Airport's menu now includes signal strength meters for all available networks, so users can quickly choose the strongest available network to join.  Printer drivers are automatically updated, and there's a built-in thesaurus.

As with every upgrade, Apple has a detailed list of enhancements for those who want to learn as much as possible before making the purchase.