Apple has whipped the covers off its next operating system, OS X Snow Leopard at WWDC. It’s faster, lighter, and smarter. Want the skinny on Apple’s next OS X? Read on!
OS X Snow Leopard is an evolution of Apple’s last OS, OS X Leopard. On the surface, it looks very similar, but deep down there are a ton of changes.
Apple says it has refined 90% of the operating system, and simply by installing it on their Macs customers will reclaim a whopping 6GB of hard drive space.
Neat tweaks to the way the desktop works are included too. Holding down a mouse button on the dock flicks OS X Snow Leopard into Expose mode, showing off all the windows that’re open.
It’s super efficient too. The included Mail app is 2.3 times faster, while web browsing is similarly speedy.
Apple’s including the Safari 4 browser, the final version rather than the Beta which had previously been available. It says it’s light years ahead of Windows, with Apple’s OSX boss Bertrand Serlet claiming: “It offers unsurpassed speed… the scale is multiples of IE8’s speed.”
OS X Snow Leopard: destined to create monster Macs
OS X Snow Leopard’s Safari 4 reduces the number one cause of OS X crashes: browser plug-ins. Now they crash inside the browser, but the browser keeps running, as does the OS.
And multimedia? Nope, Apple didn’t forget it. It’s including a whole new version of QuickTime in OS X Snow Leopard, it uses hardware acceleration to speed up performance, automatically corrects colours and can support improved web streaming.
Under the bonnet, OS X Snow Leopard is a complete upgrade to 64bit. That means it’ll make use of modern Mac hardware to the extreme. Apple has updated all of its own system apps to run in 64-bit mode, delivering a 2x speed boost in the process. Now it’s up to developers to do the same.
The Mac-maker has also added OpenCL technology, which lets Macs use their otherwise idling graphics cards to process normal apps. It’s a neat trick, and should give an instant performance boost.
In a rare nod to Microsoft, Apple has also included Exchange support in OS X Snow Leopard. It integrates with Mail, iCal and the Address Book, automatically syncing with corporate servers and making setting up a Mac for business much simpler. It’s not all lovey dovey between the two rivals though. Bertrand Serlet couldn’t resist a sly dig at the Big M, saying: “It’s ironic that we have Exchange support for no extra charge, while Windows PCs have it as an extra product.”
So the big question. How much will Snow Leopard cost? Apple priced OS X Leopard at £129. In a big surprise to the WWDC audience, Snow Leopard will cost just $29.
Out September | $29 | Apple
Tags: Apple, OS X, snow leopard, WWDC 09