Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the successor to Mac OS X Leopard. The name similarity between the two versions is significant - Leopard was a feature-release, but Snow Leopard was a developer-release that has since been released. Snow Leopard lays the ground-work for better Mac applications. This page tracks the latest releases of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system for the Macbook and Macbook Air.

There were hopes that Snow Leopard 10.6.4 would be released at WWDC 2010.http://technofriends.in/2010/06/06/list-of-expected-announcements-from-apple-wwdc-2010/ However, Apple released another beta version of 10.6.4 (build 10F564) in early June. In addition, the focus of WWDC 2010 was on the iPhone and iOS to the exclusion of the MacBook and OS X. There are rumors that a second WWDC would be held for Mac users.http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/06/11/rumor-two-wwdc-per-year

Snow Leopard 10.6.4 was not released at WWDC 2010 as anticipated.http://technofriends.in/2010/06/06/list-of-expected-announcements-from-apple-wwdc-2010/

• Exposé integrated into Dockhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• Faster shut down and wake up times, faster to connect to wireless networkshttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• Faster installation - up to 45% faster than Leopardhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• Smaller footprint - takes up 6GB less space than Leopardhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• QuickTime redesigned, focuses more on the actual contenthttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• QuickTine includes support for trimming videos, and screen recordinghttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• Simplified Chinese input, using multi-touch trackpadshttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

• GrandCentral Dispatch allows you to get the most out of your multi-core processor.http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html

• Safari plugins, like Flash Player, run as seperate processes, causing the browser to crash less oftenhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html

• Support for Microsoft Exchange in iCal, Mail, and Address Bookhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html

• Key system applications are all rewritten in 64-bit, allowing you to get the most out of your RAMhttp://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html

• Want to see more? Apple has a full list of refinements on the Snow Leopard site.

Snow Leopard was announced on June 9, 2008 at Snow Leopard was announced at the World Wide Developer's Conference in 2008. Since then, it has been privately tested under an NDA by registered ADC members.

The final developer build of Snow Leopard is scheduled to be seeded to developers at WWDC 2009 http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/05/13wwdc.html, and the public release was scheduled for September 2009, but was changed to August 28, 2009. On August 24, 2009, Apple began taking pre-orders for Snow Leopard and announced its release date: August 28, 2009.