Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to retail for $29 in September

[AppleInsider]

Apple on Monday offered attendees at its annual developer conference an overview of its nearly finalized Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, which the company said will be available in September as a $29 upgrade for users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

"We've built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before."

To create Snow Leopard, Apple said its engineers focused on refining 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects in Mac OS X. As such, users should notice:

-- A more responsive Finder
-- Mail that loads messages 85 percent faster and conducts searches up to 90 percent faster
-- Time Machine with up to 50 percent faster initial backup
-- A Dock with Expose integration
-- A 64-bit version of Safari 4 that boosts the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins.
-- Snow Leopard also includes an all new QuickTime X, with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video to YouTube, MobileMe or iTunes.
-- Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 6GB of drive space once installed.

For the first time, Apple said system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal, iChat and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard's support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance, and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications.



Meanwhile, Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors. GCD is integrated throughout Snow Leopard, from new system-wide APIs to high-level frameworks and programming language extensions, improving responsiveness across the system. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the incredible power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.

Snow Leopard also builds support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal so you can use these applications to send and receive email, create and respond to meeting invitations, and search and manage your contacts with global address lists. Exchange information works seamlessly within Snow Leopard so users can take advantage of OS X only features such as fast Spotlight searches and Quick Look previews. Snow Leopard is the only desktop operating system with out of the box support for Exchange 2007 and businesses of any size will find it easier to integrate Macs into their organization.



Every Mac includes features and technologies for users with special needs, and Snow Leopard also adds new features that make the Mac experience even more accessible to those with a vision impairment. Apple's Multi-Touch trackpad is now integrated with the VoiceOver screen reader so users can hear and navigate different parts of a window or the desktop by moving a single finger around the trackpad as if it were the screen. Snow Leopard also introduces built-in support for wireless bluetooth braille displays and the connection of multiple braille displays simultaneously to one Mac.



Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard in September 2009 through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a suggested price of $49 (US). For Tiger users with an Intel-based Mac, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09 and will be available for a suggested price of $169 (US) and a Family Pack is available for a suggested price of $229 (US).

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, whichever comes first

Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM and is designed to run on any Mac computer with an Intel processor. Full system requirements can be found here.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[al_bundy]

when some enterprising people get this working on Dell and HP laptops, i'll be all over it. i'm not in a position to buy a high end laptop right now.

[iVlad]

Originally Posted by al_bundy

when some enterprising people get this working on Dell and HP laptops, i'll be all over it. i'm not in a position to buy a high end laptop right now.

bla bla bla...

[NasserAE]

Pricing at $29 is smart move. Count me in for one.

[brlawyer]

Incredible offer from Apple; this upgrade is simply a NO-BRAINER! GO APPLE!

MS IS DEAD. WINDOWS 7 IS DEAD.

[ghostface147]

Windows isn't going anywhere, OS X isn't going anywhere, Linux isn't going anywhere. They all will co-exist just fine in the way they have for years. How much will it cost Tiger owners to get 10.6? Probably $129.

[JimDreamworx]

I doubt that Exchange Support will be a full Outlook client.

Considering Entourage is not.

[webraider]

Originally Posted by brlawyer

Incredible offer from Apple; this upgrade is simply a NO-BRAINER! GO APPLE!

MS IS DEAD. WINDOWS 7 IS DEAD.

Nope.. For the first time in my life I will not be buying an OS from Apple, nor will my next hardware purchase be an Apple until the have Full BluRay support. I mean Full. The pro apps getter be able to author BluRay, I better be able to play it and iDVD better have that functioning added too. To have to boot into Windows to run a BluRay is absolutely Pathetic Apple. It's very possible my next machine will be a PC. At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

[mrk]

Anyone care to speculate how the $49 family pack will cope with a "mixed" household? I have 3 machines to update - 2 from Leopard, 1 from Tiger. Would be nice if I only had to buy 1 pack to upgrade them all.

[DayLight]

can you use the upgrade snow leopard in a clean install or do you have to have leopard preinstalled everytime ?

[zzcoop]

Originally Posted by webraider

At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

IE being a shining example!

[Hattig]

Originally Posted by webraider

Nope.. For the first time in my life I will not be buying an OS from Apple, nor will my next hardware purchase be an Apple until the have Full BluRay support. I mean Full. The pro apps getter be able to author BluRay, I better be able to play it and iDVD better have that functioning added too. To have to boot into Windows to run a BluRay is absolutely Pathetic Apple. It's very possible my next machine will be a PC. At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

whaa whaa whaa whatever.

BluRay licensing is being made simpler, probably for this reason. BluRay has been seen in iTunes messages, it is coming, the question is when.

[CU10]

G4/G5 no more?

[johnmcboston]

Now if we can get some new imacs around the same timeframe....

[Hattig]

Interesting ploy.

Leopard came out at the same time as Vista. The $29 upgrade price at the same time as the more expensive Windows 7 comes out is just there to rub it in.

I was expecting it to be cheaper, but not that cheap.

[shubidua]

You just made my day apple

September can't come sone enough

[hypoluxa]

Originally Posted by CU10

G4/G5 no more?

It appears so. And that is ok by me. My last gen G5 is still kickin and 10.5 on it works fine. I will however be looking into MacBook sometime in the future though.

[al_bundy]

Originally Posted by webraider

Nope.. For the first time in my life I will not be buying an OS from Apple, nor will my next hardware purchase be an Apple until the have Full BluRay support. I mean Full. The pro apps getter be able to author BluRay, I better be able to play it and iDVD better have that functioning added too. To have to boot into Windows to run a BluRay is absolutely Pathetic Apple. It's very possible my next machine will be a PC. At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

until i can legally or otherwise rip a movie i buy from disc to electrons, i'm not buying blu ray so i can rebuy the same content 20 times for different devices. DVD's you can rip

[Nano_tube]

29$ for Snow Leopard is a gracious move on Apple's part. This is pro user and I like it.
I thought they will offer it at 79$.

By the way, I guess those MS ads did their thing. Some serious price drops on those laptops, but only on the laptops! This is what MS was attacking.... of course the economy is doing its thing too.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by ghostface147

Windows isn't going anywhere, OS X isn't going anywhere, Linux isn't going anywhere. They all will co-exist just fine in the way they have for years. How much will it cost Tiger owners to get 10.6? Probably $129.

$169 which includes iLife '09 and iWorks '09.

Current Box Set is listed for Leopard: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB...mco=MzA3MTE3Ng


Source: http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.

If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife ’09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork ’09, Apple’s productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

[minderbinder]

Originally Posted by al_bundy

when some enterprising people get this working on Dell and HP laptops, i'll be all over it. i'm not in a position to buy a high end laptop right now.

I assume people have been trying it with the betas, and probably will with the release getting handed out to developers today. The smaller hard drive footprint and better efficiency and speed will be big plusses for netbook hackintoshes.

[freakboy]

Originally Posted by ghostface147

Windows isn't going anywhere, OS X isn't going anywhere, Linux isn't going anywhere. They all will co-exist just fine in the way they have for years. How much will it cost Tiger owners to get 10.6? Probably $129.

i think its just 29$.

They aren't going to have 2 disks at retail. The upgrade price for a machine bought between now and when SL is released is 9$.

EDIT: OH SHIT ITS NOT! WTF!

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by freakboy

i think its just 29$.

They aren't going to have 2 disks at retail. The upgrade price for a machine bought between now and when SL is released is 9$.

fb

See above.

Tiger upgrade is in a box set for $169 with iLife '09 + iWorks '09.

[lfmorrison]

Originally Posted by CU10

G4/G5 no more?

By this it appears that you're concerned that you won't be able to use your G4 or G5 based Mac anymore come September when Snow Leopard is released.

Rest assured, those computers will not magically stop working on that day. (On the other hand, my G5 iMac died several months ago, apparently due to exploding capacitors, but that's another story...) And all the same apps that ran on them before will still run on them after.

If you're concerned about the end of security support, your fears are also unfounded. Note that Apple is still actively releasing security updates for Tiger.

If you're just concerned about the fact that new OSes are not being released for PowerPC-based Macs, well, all I can say is, this shouldn't be coming as a surprise: We've heard for quite some time now that the Snow Leopard betas would only run on Intel-based systems.

[JavaCowboy]

Is the Finder now 100% Cocoa, or just partially Cocoa? I read different opinions on this.

[Cubert]

So, with the new Dock Expose, will the traditional action menu be no more? In the demo they said you active Dock Expose by clicking on an icon in the Dock and holding the click. Currently, that does the same as a right click or a control-click.

[macxpress]

Originally Posted by freakboy

i think its just 29$.

They aren't going to have 2 disks at retail. The upgrade price for a machine bought between now and when SL is released is 9$.

EDIT: OH SHIT ITS NOT! WTF!

EDIT: Yes it is! From the Apple Press Release on Snow Leopard:

"The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, whichever comes first."

Also part of Snow Leopard's page: Snow Leopard Up-to-date

[ilovemacs]

Originally Posted by webraider

Nope.. For the first time in my life I will not be buying an OS from Apple, nor will my next hardware purchase be an Apple until the have Full BluRay support. I mean Full. The pro apps getter be able to author BluRay, I better be able to play it and iDVD better have that functioning added too. To have to boot into Windows to run a BluRay is absolutely Pathetic Apple. It's very possible my next machine will be a PC. At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

me too...and what the hell happen to final cut studio 3......

[minderbinder]

Originally Posted by ilovemacs

me too...and what the hell happen to final cut studio 3......

What do you mean what happened to it? It's not like anyone expected any word of it today.

[allblue]

Very impressive all round. Apple are such a deft, coherent and classy company it is hard not to be impressed I'd say. What a contrast with that malodorous dinosaur lumbering round up the coast, loudly breaking wind as they brutishly try to stamp on anything that moves.

[Hattig]

My iBook G4 with Tiger is 4 years old. It would have been nice to get Snow Leopard for it, but I can understand why it won't be available, given that the PowerPC part of the market must be around 10% or less now, and many of them will be looking to upgrade in the near future anyway. It might be worse for PowerMac owners, who might have bought for longevity.

Instead I will look at buying a new Mac come 10.6.2, but what shall I get?! Let's see how the money situation is in January.

[macxpress]

Originally Posted by webraider

Nope.. For the first time in my life I will not be buying an OS from Apple, nor will my next hardware purchase be an Apple until the have Full BluRay support. I mean Full. The pro apps getter be able to author BluRay, I better be able to play it and iDVD better have that functioning added too. To have to boot into Windows to run a BluRay is absolutely Pathetic Apple. It's very possible my next machine will be a PC. At least MS tries to support STANDARD technologies.

Just for you:

[kerryb]

I just can't believe the price of $29. All those guys at Mac Night Owl have been whining about not wanting to pay $129 for SL, I guess they were right. Still some great technologies coming in September and happily some always welcome refinements to the GUI, In some way SL might be looked at as version that sheds all the shackles of the Classic Mac OS and become the operating system that the Next Open Step promised. On a purely geek level SL will blow Win 7 out of the water, then again Win 7 is so bogged down with legacy code and bloat it is embarrassing.

[jasenj1]

Looking forward to Snow Leopard & iLife family pack. I think Apple has a habit of updating iLife at MacWorld in January, but they're not participating in that any more, so maybe new iLife with Snow Leopard release?

- Jasen.

[kerryb]

Originally Posted by macxpress

Just for you:

I was looking for a sad violin picture but this is even better.

[Ireland]

Surprising price, but I'll accept it.

[zoetmb]

Apple is very smart. They don't want Macs out there that aren't displaying the ultimate in performance based upon their latest technology, so with pricing at $29, they'll get a very high portion of users to upgrade. The truth is, it probably would have been worth the $129, even though people (especially on here) would have groused about it.

[Mr.Scott]

To: macxpress...

Perfect!!! Best laugh of the day!

[bdkennedy1]

I don't see 10.6 competing with or stealing Windows 7's thunder.

Windows 7 is being marketed as a major new OS and OS X 10.6 doesn't offer anything new or exciting for the consumer that you can see on the outside.

[shanmugam]

$29 it is pretty good deal

Developers please post the what is the performance difference between Leopard and Snow Leopard