List of Snow Leopard reviews

The reviews have been trickling in, most of them quite positive. There’s one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on: Snow Leopard’s price point makes it an easy, obvious upgrade. Read what they have to say about Snow Leopard below:

• Ars Technica – John Siracusa “This time around, Apple goes light on the glitz in favor of some heavy work under the hood.”
• Associated Press – Peter Svensson “Snow Leopard will likely be a no-brainer upgrade, given the low price”
• Chicago Sun Times – Andy Ihnatko “A speedy no-brainer upgrade”
• CNET – Jason Parker “With a ton of technological improvements, Snow Leopard is worth the $29 upgrade fee”
• Computerworld – Michael DeAgonia “Apple’s Snow Leopard opens door to a fab future”
  
• Engadget – Joshua Topolski “If you’re a Leopard user you have virtually no reason to skip over 10.6“
• Gizmodo - Brian Lam “Lightened and enlightened”
• InfoWorld – Tom Yager “Perfection, refined”
• MacFixIt – Topher Kessler “As far as my recommendation goes, I’d say go for it and install the new OS”
• Macworld – Jason Snell “Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade adds Exchange support and a host of tweaks”
• New York Times – David Pogue “Apple’s sleek upgrade”
• PC World – Randall C. Kennedy “Snow Leopard is a pale imitation of Windows 7″
• SlashGear – Vincent Nguyen “At $29 it’s frankly a no-brain decision for OS X Leopard users”
• The Apple Blog – Darrell Etherington “a nice collection of system refinements and improvements”
• USA Today – Edward C. Baig “Many of Snow Leopard’s refinements are subtle”
• Wall Street Journal – Walt Mossberg “Apple changes Leopard’s spots”
• Wired – Brian X. Chen “the $30 price is more than fair for the number of performance improvements Snow Leopard delivers”

Did I miss any? If you want your review on this list, leave a comment with the web address and I’ll add it as quickly as I can.

Snow Leopard available on August 28th

Rumours of a pre-September release of Snow Leopard have proven themselves to be true, as Apple today announced the official release date of Leopard’s successor. Apple retail stores and Apple authorized resellers will carry Snow Leopard this Friday, and Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. It will be available as an upgrade for Leopard users for only $29.

Not that it matters whether you actually do have Leopard at all. A confirmed report states that the $29 upgrade disc will even work on a newly formatted drive, despite Apple’s implications of otherwise. Although this might end up breaching a ToS agreement, savings of over $100 by skipping the official Snow Leopard box set and still getting the full-blown OS makes upgrading difficult to resist. What to expect? Quicker startup, shutdown, and application speed, full 64-bit and multi-core support, OpenCL, better Universal Access support, and support for Microsoft Exchange.

[via Apple]

Snow Leopard disc packaging leaked

It looks like the packaging for Apple’s next major release, Snow Leopard, has been leaked on the internet, hinting to us that launch time is coming up quick. While there’s no official release date yet, you can wager a hefty sum that it’s going to be released at the upcoming September event, or as some sources even indicate, earlier. The packaging itself on the other hand shows a change of design to depict an actual snow leopard on the cover, ditching the X logo. As far as Apple’s history in design consistency goes, it’s uncertain that this will be the final disc packaging.

[via MacRumors]

Take Google Chrome for a test drive

ARTICLE OUT OF DATE: YOU CAN DOWNLOAD CHROME DIRECTLY FROM GOOGLE HERE

We’ve all been waiting for it. As Google Chrome for Mac and Linux veers right around the corner, many of us will take a sigh of contentment to finally be able to run it on an operating system other than Windows. Even Google co-founder Larry Page called the lack of a Mac version embarrassing, mentioning that he has to use VMware on his Mac just to run it.

The good news is we have a precompiled, binary version of the latest build for those who want to have a feel of Chrome on a Mac. Except that it hasn’t even reached an open beta, so it will be buggy. Read the rest of this entry »

SmackBook with Leopard Spaces

Also compatible with Snow Leopard!

SmackBook was originally a name given to the method used to switch between virtual desktops in Richard Wareham’s Desktop Manager using the MacBook’s built-in motion sensor. You would “smack” the MacBook on the side, and the sensor would read the movement and trigger the program to go to the desktop corresponding to the direction of the smack. Leopard’s spaces has made Desktop Manager nearly obsolete, but thanks to Jason Shen we can once again use it for SmackBook thanks to a script he’s written.

First you will need to download a few files:

1. smackleopard.command, the file that contains the sensitivity information and calls for the system event to switch spaces, and
2. AMSTracker, the command-line program that retrieves acceleration data from the Sudden Motion Sensor

Read the rest of this entry »

Take Screenshots in Mac OS X

Rather than having a single Print Screen key to copy the entire desktop to the clipboard like in Windows, OS X has a series of key combinations that you can use to perform various screenshotting tasks.

• Command + Shift + 3: Takes a screenshot and saves it on the desktop
• Command + Shift + 4: Allows you to select a portion of the screen and saves it on the desktop
• Command + Shift + 4, then space bar: Allows you to select a window and saves it on the desktop

• Command + Control + Shift + 3: Takes a screenshot and saves it on the clipboard
• Command + Control + Shift + 4: Select a portion of the screen and saves it on the clipboard
• Command + Control + Shift + 4, then space bar: Select a window and saves it on the clipboard

Aside from using those key combinations, OS X has its own utility for taking screenshots called Grab. It supports several features like timed capture and the ability to change the pointer type when taking the screenshot. The application is located at /Applications/Utilities/Grab.

Restore Missing Components with Archive and Install

After purchasing your Mac you may notice some components of the OS missing, as did I. This may be because of a faulty Leopard installation on the Mac that didn’t install all the applications or utilities. The easiest way to restore them is to do an Archive and Install. This is similar to doing a repair installation on Windows; it installs a new copy of Mac OS X whilst giving you the option to preserve your settings.

The following explains how to do an Archive and Install:

1. Insert Disc 1 of your Mac OS X install disc into your computer (it should have come with your Mac).
2. Restart your Mac (Apple menu > Restart…).
3. As your Mac is booting, hold down the C key on your keyboard. This forces OS X to boot from the disc.
4. Once the disc has booted, select your language of preference and continue.
5. After accepting the license agreement, select the destination disk OS X is installed on and click on the Options button.
6. Make sure the Archive and Install radio button is selected, and preferably the Preserve Users and Network Settings checkbox as well. This will import existing user accounts, their home folders, and your network settings into the new system.
7. Accept the settings and click on continue to complete the installation.

Once the installation is complete, there will be a new folder on the Macintosh HD entitled Previous Systems, which contains existing system files before the Archive and install. This folder can be deleted if unneeded as it just takes disk space.