I have gotten my hands on the latest build of the next version of Mac OS X – Snow Leopard. The 6th version of OS X, due to be released in September of this year, promises speed boosts…and not much else. The OS upgrade focuses almost entirely on under-the-hood improvements (like opening images and pdf files faster, and quicker boot/shut down times, as well as overall zippiness), with a few additional features. Perhaps this is why the upgrade is only going to cost $29?
That being said, the new features that are included are pretty handy. For example, there’s this new exposé feature that lets you simply click and hold an icon on the dock to see all open windows for that application, a feature very similar to the new tile bar in Windows 7. This enables easy window flipping without the use of the keyboard (or those annoying screen corner shortcuts).
Stack folder navigation is even more useful. This is functionality that should have been in Leopard, it’s so obvious. Why Apple didn’t include it in the first place perplexes me. Basically, if a stack on your dock has a folder in it, clicking that folder will open its contents within the stack, instead of opening the folder in Finder. It’s really a no-brainer, and a great feature.
The new look for Quicktime X is nice, but the big black titlebar is a little off-putting. It really doesn’t match anything else in the system, except perhaps the Quicklook HUD windows. This is forgivable, however, because the titlebar quickly vanishes along with the controls, leaving simply a borderless video playing on your desktop. This has a very slick feel to it, but its still a bit disconcerting to have a window with no titlebar. Other Quicktime X features include screen recording (something that previously required the purchase of a 3rd party app), and all QT Pro features enabled by default.
My favorite feature is actually relatively unadvertised, though. The ability to set a time frame for locking the computer after it goes to sleep is a godsend. This should have been included in OS X a long time ago. Anybody with a laptop whose hinges are loosening up knows how aggravating it is when the lid slams shut and immediately asks for your password. With Snow Leopard, you can set it to require a password after being asleep for 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and so on.
Other cool features include small touches like WiFi signal strength indicators in the Airport menu, a battery health indicator for the battery menu, and the date in the time menu (all on the menu bar at the top).
As for the speed increases, the system did seem a bit faster when using 10.6 as opposed to 10.5, but honestly that might have just been because a fresh install always operates faster than one that’s been bogged down with stuff like mine has. Then again, speed increases aren’t really promised for a computer as old as mine. Apparently every application in the OS has been re-written to be completely 64-bit compatible, which is the root of these speed claims, but that means that older computers (such as mine, and anything else made before 2007, pretty much) won’t see any speed boosts. Anything made after that point, however, should (in theory) clock in at least a little faster under Snow Leopard.
Overall, 10.6 doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade, but if you have a computer newer than mine, and even one of the above features (or one of the features from Apple’s features page) appeals to you, then the purchase will be worth it. It is only $29, after all.