Computer Mechanic

1… Boot Camp now allows Windows partitions to read and copy files from HFS+ partitions. The new version also adds support for advanced features on Cinema Displays and a new command-line version of the Startup Disk Control Panel.

2… The Finder has been completely rewritten in 64-bit Cocoa to take advantage of the new technologies introduced in Snow Leopard. This has resulted in a much smaller OS footprint, taking up about 7 GB less space than Mac OS X v10.5 did. The large amount of recovered disk space has also been attributed to the fact that printer drivers are now downloaded or installed only as needed, rather than being all installed at once. The default install only contains those drivers needed for existing printers and a small subset of popular printers.

3… iChat enhancements include greater resolution video chats in iChat Theater and lowered upload bandwidth requirements.

4… Microsoft Exchange support is now integrated into the Mail, Address Book, and iCal applications. However, only Microsoft Exchange 2007 is supported and customers using prior versions of Exchange must either upgrade or use Microsoft Entourage.

5… Full multi-touch support has been added to notebooks prior to those introduced in October 2008. While the original MacBook Air and other early multi-touch enabled notebooks had support for some gestures, they were unable to use four-finger gestures. This limitation has now been removed in Snow Leopard.

6… Preview now has artificial intelligence algorithms that allow it to infer the structure of a paragraph in a PDF document.

7… QuickTime X, the next version of QuickTime player and multimedia framework, has been completely rewritten into a full 64-bit Cocoa application and builds on the media technologies in Mac OS X, such as Core Audio, Core Video, and Core Animation, to deliver playback. Apple has redesigned the QuickTime user interface to resemble the full-screen QuickTime view in prior versions, where the entire window displays the video and all controls including the title bar fade in and out as needed. QuickTime X also supports HTTP live streaming and takes advantage of ColorSync to provide high-quality color reproduction. If Snow Leopard is installed on a Mac with an nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics card, QuickTime X will be able to use its video-decoding capabilities to reduce CPU load.

8… Safari 4 features Top Sites, Cover Flow, VoiceOver, expanded standards support, and built-in crash resistance, which prevents browser crashes caused by plug-ins by running them in separate processes.

9… Time Machine connection establishment and backups are now much faster.

10… VoiceOver has also been greatly enhanced in Snow Leopard. Reading of web pages is improved with Auto Web Spots — areas of a page automatically designated for quick access. On newer Apple portables, trackpad gestures can be used to control many VoiceOver functions, including the “rotor” gesture first seen in VoiceOver for the iPhone 3GS, allowing for the changing of certain VoiceOver navigation options by rotating fingers on the trackpad. Braille Display support is also improved, with Bluetooth displays supported for the first time.