SnowLeopard
Latest
Lucky Mac mini buyer got Snow Leopard disc in the box?
If his story is to be believed (and it seems pretty believable), an anonymous tipster to Engadget Japanese got a nice surprise with his recent Mac mini purchase: a Snow Leopard install disc. It's one of those vanilla hardware-specific install discs, dubbing itself Mac OS version 10.6, and clearly packing the goods if the screenshots don't lie. This only adds confusion to the ship date, which has been listed as August 28th on Apple's online store, dubbed as "September" elsewhere, and obviously been totally disregarded in this specific case. No matter what, it looks like we won't have long to wait. Hit up the read link for a couple of Japanese-infused screencaps.
Snow Leopard shipping August 28th, says Apple's UK online store (update: US too)
We've heard whispers that Apple might be unleashing Snow Leopard to the unwashed masses a bit earlier than September, but this listing in the company's UK online store is the most concrete evidence we've seen to date. Still up as of this writing, the page clearly says Snow Leopard is shipping by next Friday, August 28th. No way to actually order it at this point and no clue whether or not this is just some glitch, but if the gang at Cupertino are really planning to launch in a week's time, we wouldn't be surprised to hear something official sooner rather than later.Update: A pair of tipsters have revealed the same August 28th ship date for the US Up-To-Date program. Screenshot of a shipping confirmation after the break. [Via TUAW, thanks Will G.]
Snow Leopard box set makes short-lived cameo in Apple's online store
Whether or not Snow Leopard build 10A432 is really the ready-for-shipment "golden master," Apple's own site is giving hope to the masses that its next platform iteration is gearing up for a launch sooner rather than later. MacRumors is reporting that a Mac Box Set containing OS X 10.6 , iLife '09, and iWork '09 popped up on Apple's online store today priced at $169 for single users and shipping within 24 hours. The page itself no longer exists, although not before Google's spiders managed to pick up on it. It's probably wishful thinking to think this is indicative of a release before its projected September launch window -- and really, at this point, that's only a couple of weeks away -- if you were gonna hope for it anyway, here's some fodder for ya. Read - Snow Leopard box set briefly appears in Apple Online Store Read - Google entry for now-defunct page
Ask TUAW: More migration, expanding Apple's Dictionary, syncing iPhone notes, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column! This time we've got more questions on migrating user data when upgrading to Snow Leopard, expanding Apple's built-in Dictionary application, accessing iPhone notes without Mail.app, and more.As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Mac 201: Preparing your Mac for Snow Leopard
With Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, expected rumored to ship out any week day now, it's worth looking at one thing that can make upgrading to 10.6 a lot easier (at least on an Intel Mac-as most PowerPC Mac users should know by now, Leopard 10.5 is the end of the road for you: Snow Leopard is Intel-only). Snow Leopard is mostly about optimizing Leopard's performance rather than introducing new features. Part of that optimization is that OS X 10.6 is expected to save users several gigabytes of space on their hard drives versus a 10.5 installation. And part of the reason that Snow Leopard is able to pare down that much space is that Rosetta is now an optional installation. (Update: as many commenters have noted, the Rosetta program itself doesn't take up much space - only a couple of megabytes. Most of the space savings in Snow Leopard is from Apple stripping out PowerPC binaries from the apps and OS libraries. It's still worth going through your apps and updating the PowerPC-only apps to universal binaries, however, because you will still see a significant boost in performance by doing so.) Introduced in 2005, not long after Apple announced its transition to Intel processors, Rosetta is a dynamic translator that allows legacy PowerPC applications to run on Intel processors. It was intended as a stopgap measure to allow PowerPC applications to continue to run on Intel-powered Macs until developers were able to update their applications to support either universal binaries or Intel-only code. Applications which run under Rosetta provide slower performance than their universal binary counterparts because the CPU has to translate Intel instructions into PowerPC, so developers definitely had an incentive to switch to universal binaries. With four years having passed since the Intel transition, almost all applications for the Mac now run under a universal binary, which makes Rosetta largely unnecessary-hence its inclusion in OS X Snow Leopard as an optional installation. So, why not save some space on your hard drive and leave Rosetta out? Well, if you do that, any applications you have that still have PowerPC only code won't run at all. (Update: Apparently Rosetta will download on demand if you try to run a PowerPC-only application.) Rosetta is absolutely necessary to run those applications. But, before Snow Leopard drops to consumers, you can take one simple step that will save you a lot of trouble.
TwitPic Find: Snow Leopard on a hackint0sh
What's better than pictures of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in the wild? How about a snapshot of Snow Leopard running on a hackint0sh? While this could be a doctored photo, it does show a Eee PC 901 netbook with several windows open on the screen. In the About This Mac window are the magic characters "Build 10A432", which all good TUAW readers should recognize as the build number for the Golden Master of Snow Leopard. Click the Read More link to see the picture.
Entelligence: Stains on the sleeve of my operating system
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. I originally started this column on my take on what an Apple tablet might be (I literally dreamed about it and started to write it down when I woke up). I was really into it, which explains why I didn't save it as I wrote. I think you can see where this is going. Like a cartoon character who notices that he's no longer standing on solid ground and suddenly begins to fall, I reached over to save, but was too late. My trusty XP install suddenly blue screened. Muttering just a few choice words, I rebooted, only to blue screen again. No problem, there's always "safe mode." Too bad safe mode blue screened as well. With little hope of getting anything recovered, I gave up, fired up my Mac and started from scratch. It's not the first time this has happened to me, where for some reason or another I've lost work on my computer. I suspect it's happened to a few of you out there too. But this latest bad experience changed my thought process from Apple tablets to what's wrong with the whole PC landscape and today's operating systems.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard one step closer to release, now Golden Master
Mac OS X 10.6, AKA Snow Leopard, is one step closer to being released sometime in the next month. Multiple reports indicate that build 10A432 of the new OS has reached Golden Master status, which indicates that all testing has been completed to the satisfaction of the development team.As we've noted before, Snow Leopard won't introduce many new features. Instead, it's intended to reduce the size of the OS and run much faster on Intel hardware. Snow Leopard will be the first version of Mac OS X that cannot be run on PPC Macs. Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders for Snow Leopard at US$29 for a single-user license or just US$49 for the five-license Family Pack.The next step is to release the OS to manufacturing, so that the requisite millions of copies can be burned into DVDs prior to the actual release date. When will that actually happen? My personal guess is September 25th, as the last two versions of Mac OS X were released on a Friday (October 26, 2007 for Leopard and April 29, 2005 for Tiger). Of course, Apple could release Snow Leopard on September 15th to rain on Microsoft's release of the Zune HD. Take our reader poll and give us your best guess for when Snow Leopard will arrive. [via MacRumors] %Poll-33188%
Ask TUAW: Recovering video files, moving from an old Mac to a new one, MobileMe Sync and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about recovering video files from a corrupt SDHC card, transferring files from an old Mac to a new one, MobileMe sync, virtual machines and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions. Matt asks: I recently shot video with a camera that records it to an SDHC card. Unfortunately, that card is now corrupted and when I try to download the video to my computer, it doesn't show up. How can I recover the video from the card? I know how you feel because this exact thing happened to me recently. We shot a bunch of great video interviews for another site I work with, and one of the SDHC cards became corrupt. Fortunately, all was not lost but recovering the video, at least for me, was a two step process. This is the method that worked for me, even though there are probably other tools available; I was under a deadline and needed to get this worked out fast so looking for the best free apps or the best deal wasn't an option. However, it did work and all the video was recovered with no loss.
Snow Leopard build 10A432 goes 'Golden Master,' mischievous sources claim
It's been nary a fortnight since Amazon started taking pre-orders for Snow Leopard and now, according to the kids at Mac4Ever, a handful of "reliable sources" (their words, not ours) have stepped forward to proclaim that the OS has gone golden, meaning that this final iteration (reported as build 10A432, for those of you keeping track) is the one that will hit the stores in September. Additionally, MacRumors reports that in the time since this little bomb dropped benchmarks for the build have popped up -- and quickly disappeared -- at the Geekbench database. Make of all this what you will, dear readers. [Via MacRumors]
Ask TUAW: Migration, syncing, backing up, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column! This time we've got questions on migrating to a new Mac, using a Time Capsule for wireless backup, speeding up podcasts, syncing two Macs, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Snow Leopard is the top Amazon pre-order
We're eagerly awaiting Snow Leopard at the TUAW offices, and we're not alone. It's currently the number 1 pre-order item at Amazon. While there's no official release date available, Amazon notes that Snow Leopard can be expected "...sometime in September." What's interesting is that Apple's $29US release will be issued only a month before Microsoft's Windows 7 (in fact, reader Chris Tebb points out that many Amazon users checking out Snow Leopard go on to buy Win 7). Microsoft hopes to dig itself out of the hole created by public reaction to Vista, while Apple is giving Mac OS X Leopard a shine. For more on Snow Leopard, check out the official page and our own continuing coverage. [Via MacDailyNews]
Snow Leopard pre-orders now being taken at Amazon
We could've sworn it was already available for pre-order, but seeing as Google cache is telling us otherwise, we thought it best to give you a heads up that Amazon is now accepting monies for Mac OS X 10.6 a.k.a. Snow Leopard. Nothing new about the date and price from what we heard at WWDC this year, it's still listed for September at $29. Five-user family pack is $49, Server version is $499, and you can bundle a single or five-user pack with iWork and iLife for $169 and $229, respectively. We don't anticipate the OS being in short supply come launch, but if you need a peace of mind and Snow Leopard on day one, pull out your credit card and direct your browser Amazon's way. [Thanks, Luis M]
Ask TUAW: OpenCL support in Snow Leopard, Boot Camp, automatic importing into iPhoto, and more
Wednesday means it's time for another Ask TUAW! For this edition we've got questions about what Macs will support Snow Leopard's forthcoming OpenCL acceleration, using Boot Camp with multiple partitions, connecting a Mac mini to HDMI, automatically importing images into iPhoto, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
Ask TUAW: Taming unruly windows, updating OS X, booting from an SD card, and more.
We're back with another edition of Ask TUAW. This time around we've answering questions about how to resize windows too big for the screen, "compulsive" updating, booting from an SD card, Open GL in Snow Leopard, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.Steph asks:I recently switched from an iMac to a MacBook Pro and now many of my windows are sized to big for the screen of my laptop. I can't reach the corner to resize them and clicking the "Plus" sign in the corner doesn't help. What can I do?Fortunately, this is very easy to fix. Instead of clicking on the "Plus" sign (the green button) in the top left corner of the window you are trying to resize, Option-click it and the window will fill your new screen size instead.John asks:I realize there's a method for updating Mac OSX all the time and sometimes I get the window popping up saying I have updates. Should I always update immedietly when it tells me I have some?
Apple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program
If you purchased a new Mac or Xserve on or after June 8th, Apple just announced that you'll be able to take advantage of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date Program. Under the terms of this program, if you purchase a Mac or Xserve on or after the cutoff date, and Snow Leopard is not included in the box, you'll be eligible to receive an upgrade DVD for only US$9.95 (shipping is included in price). The program web page is currently stating that additional information will be posted tomorrow (June 16th), and we'll be sure to keep you in the loop if any changes or additions to the program are announced.
Snow Leopard: Party like it's 1998
On October 17, 1998 Apple released Mac OS 8.5, the first operating system that ran solely on Macintoshes with PowerPC processors. As far as system software upgrades go, this was the end of the line for any Mac built before the Power Macintosh 6100, introduced in March 1994. Earlier Macs ran on some variation of 680x0 processors and were supported mostly via emulation in a PowerPC environment. Emulation works, but it also slows things down. By 1998, Apple decided it just couldn't support 680X0 emulation for a number of reasons, but chiefly among them was speed. What happened was just what you would expect. In user groups, USENET and the Internet (which was only starting to explode), apoplectic non-PowerPC Mac owners threatened class action lawsuits and the rending of garments. Of course, most Power Mac users loved the newfound speed introduced in Mac OS 8.5, thanks to code optimized for PowerPC processors and jettisoned emulation support. It took Apple only four years to introduce the PowerPC chip and make any Mac without it obsolete. Technology moved on. In September Apple will release Snow Leopard, which will only run on Intel based Macs, thus cutting off PowerPC support. This time it took eleven years from inception to extinction (well, three for the Intel transition), but even so I can hear the hue and cry machine cranking up. Once again, the major reason for dropping legacy support is speed. Technology has moved on. Whenever something like this happens there is a potential for a marketing meltdown, but this time Apple is doing something brilliant. It is going to sell Snow Leopard for $29. When I saw this on the video stream of the WWDC keynote address my jaw dropped, my eyes glazed and only later did it start making sense to me. Apple first introduced Mac OS X in 2001, and excluding the free update to Mac OS X 10.1 from Mac OS X 10.0, a new version of the OS has been released roughly every 18 months, always at a price of $129. The sales pitch is always the same: with each new version, OS X gets new features and an "enhanced computing experience" which largely depended upon how much you like the new features. Mac OS X 10.6 will be the fifth major release in eight years, and some users are complaining about feature overload. There will always be users who want four ways to do the same thing, but for others, feature-laden releases are overwhelming and the glimmer and excitement of a new OS X release has faded. What a perfect time to work under the hood, set up the core of the operating system for the future and stabilize what's already there! But of course you can't make everyone happy. I would expect a large group of users to not be mollified by a nicer QuickTime and an improvement to Stacks. In effect, where's the beef? The beef is under the hood this time.
Multi-touch coming to older MacBooks? Not so fast.
Mac Life and Gizmodo are both reporting that Snow Leopard will add multi-touch gestures to all older MacBooks and MacBook Pros. This has gotten a lot of people's hopes up that three- and four-finger multi-touch gestures will be back-ported to all Apple portables that previously did not have them. Unfortunately, this is incorrect. Apples own information on Snow Leopard's enhancements reads, "All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures." (emphasis added) This raises the question, what's the difference between a multi-touch trackpad and a regular one, and which models have it? The multi-touch trackpad was introduced with the first MacBook Air in early 2008. Not only does it allow two-finger scrolling like older models, it also allows advanced three-finger gestures like swiping to go back in Safari. One month later, the early 2008 MacBook Pro received the same trackpad, with the same gestures. The multi-touch trackpad gains this new functionality because it has an embedded controller chip, identical to the one in the iPhone and iPod Touch, which allows advanced input from more than two fingers at once. Later, the unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros debuted with multi-touch trackpads, but also introduced new four-finger gestures, which will not be officially supported in the older MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros until Snow Leopard's release. The original MacBook Air and early 2008 MacBook Pro are the only machines which will gain additional gestures via Snow Leopard. The only reason these notebook models are able to gain these gestures via software updates, while earlier MacBook Pros and all plastic MacBooks are not, is because they possess the multi-touch controller chip in their trackpads. Just to break it down, this is a list of the only, and I mean only, notebooks that support multi-touch gestures, either now or after Snow Leopard: MacBook Air (all models) Early 2008 MacBook Pro Late 2008 17" MacBook Pro Unibody MacBook (all models) Unibody MacBook Pro (all models) If you have a MacBook Pro manufactured before early 2008 or any plastic MacBook, then Snow Leopard or not, multi-touch isn't coming your way...
Snow Leopard build 10A380 screenshots
Michael Flux has posted some pictures of Snow Leopard build 10A380, and there are some interesting things worth pointing out. The stack frame now has a attractive border between it and the shadow which looks quite nice. Also, an option for folder actions now appears in the Finder's contextual menu. There's a cool feature in Safari that lets you create a note from any selected text. I'm also happy to see that the Image Capture app no longer looks completely out of place and matches the other apps. Also, Preview's "Contact Sheet" view is very cool. Think of a PDF's pages being displayed in a big grid.What's very nice to note, and what I'm most looking forward to, is the list of apps that Michael describes as looking the same but operating much faster, including Address Book and Font Book. I love what Apple's doing with this update in tidying up Leopard and making it tighter, faster and more efficient. I can't wait to buy this.
Make your display's gamma in Leopard match Snow Leopard
John Gruber mentioned in a recent post about Apple's Snow Leopard list of Enhancements and Refinements that one of the small adjustments to Snow Leopard will be that the default gamma on displays will switch from the typical 1.8 value to 2.2, which is what is used on TVs as well as being the long-standing default gamma value in Windows. Gamma affects the visual contrast you see on your screen, and a higher value indicates a higher level of contrast. The cost of this higher contrast is that you lose some detail on the less luminous parts of your screen. If you're interested in seeing what this is going to look like in Snow Leopard, or switching your gamma setting now so that you're used to it ahead of time, here are the steps to do it using the Display Calibrator Assistant: Head into System Preferences, and click on the Displays icon. Click on the Color tab, and press the Calibrate... button. On the Introduction window that opens, click Continue On the next screen, "Select a target gamma", choose "2.2 Television Gamma" Click Continue leaving your Target White Point set to Native (or whatever yours is set to) Now name the new profile you've created, click Continue and then Done. Lastly, you can now choose to switch between your default color profile, and your newly created profile with the gamma set to 2.2. I realize this might seem terribly obvious to some users, but for others playing with color profiles is not ground they've previously covered. If you're one of those people, this tip is for you.
