We’ll be posting our own review of Snow Leopard next week after we get to spend some quality hands-on time with it. In the meantime, here are some reviews from around the web:

* “Wired.com – 6 Things You Need to Know About Mac OS X Snow Leopard”:http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/6-things-snow-leopard/

* “Gizmodo – Snow Leopard Review: Lightened and Enlightened”:http://gizmodo.com/5346418/snow-leopard-review-lightened-and-enlightened

* “Wall Street Journal – Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots”:http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090826/apple-changes-leopards-spots/

* “New York Times – Apple’s Sleek Upgrade”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html

* “C|Net – Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard”:http://reviews.cnet.com/macintosh-os/apple-mac-os-x/4505-3673_7-33676737.html?tag=mncol;txt

* “Engadget – Snow Leopard review”:http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/26/snow-leopard-review/

* “Physorg First Look: New Mac ‘Snow Leopard’ software not a dramatic change”:http://www.physorg.com/news170527795.html

And then there’s this ridiculous link-bait article over at PC World. Personally, this makes me glad Small Dog Electronics no longer advertises over there!

“Snow Leopard Is a Pale Imitation of Windows 7”:http://www.pcworld.com/article/170783/snow_leopard_is_a_pale_imitation_of_windows_7.html

This is “special” but not really “a special.” We wanted to let you know that, from today on, Small Dog Electronics is including an OS 10.6 Snow Leopard installation disk with every new-condition Mac we ship.

For previous-generation machines, such as the “2.0 GHz unibody MacBooks”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72290, Snow Leopard won’t be installed on the machine, but *will be included on an installation DVD.* This way you can choose if you want to run Snow Leopard now or wait a couple of weeks to read Snow Leopard reviews before you install it.

Want to learn more about Snow Leopard? “Click here for all the details!”:http://www.smalldog.com/snowleopard

Did you know that it’s possible to burn to one CD or DVD multiple times? The trick is to use the “Leave Disk Appendable” option in Disk Utility, located in the Utilities folder on every Mac. First step is to create a folder and fill it with the stuff you want to burn. From there, open up Disk Utility (*Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities*), pull down the File Menu, select New, and then Disk Image From Folder in the sub-menu.

When the resulting window opens, find that folder you just created and click the Image button. Select a destination for your image, and click Save. The disk image, ending with .dmg, will shortly appear on your desktop and along the left side of the Disk Utility window. Click once on its icon in Disk Utility, then click the Burn button at the top left of the Disk Utility window.

Here’s the trick: When you click the Burn button, a dialog box will pop up asking you to insert a disc–go ahead and insert the disc, then click the blue triangle on the right side of the window and click the box next to Leave Disk Appendable before hitting Burn. Next time you need to burn a disk, just repeat the process; when you get to the final step, the button will say Append instead of Burn.

I installed Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as soon as possible this morning. Installation took just over 45 minutes. As others have noted, Snow Leopard is sightly (but noticeably) faster and more responsive than Leopard with nice usability touches scattered about. For example, I like having Expose available in the Dock, and I appreciate how windows gathered by Expose are highlighted when moused over. The new contextual menus in the Dock pop are easier to scan. I really like QuickTime X; playback of HD video is silky smooth, and the new minimalist playback pane is excellent.

Bootup time is improved by about 20 seconds, and it’s 20 seconds I can really feel. Also, because of the substantial under-the-hood improvements in Snow Leopard, I expect speed enhancements to be more pronounced in the near future with application and general software updates.

Out of curiosity, I launched an old version PowerPC version of Dreamweaver to see what would happen. Snow Leopard simply asked asked if I wanted to install the Rosetta code required to run older PowerPC apps. I chose not to, to save hard drive space; it’s nice to know I have this option in the future, though I don’t anticipate installing or uing older PowerPC-based software.

We’ll test Snow Leopard in depth and report our findings in a future article!

Surprise! OS 10.6 Snow Leopard has been released early–today, August 28! Here at Small Dog Electronics we are very excited about Snow Leopard, even though Apple is not heavily promoting its launch with pre-press, etc.

Snow Leopard is designed to make day-to-day tasks on your Mac easier, faster and more accessible. It delivers a wide range of enhancements, next-generation technologies, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard is the most powerful and refined version of Mac OS X ever.

*How to Purchase and Upgrade to OS 10.6 Snow Leopard*

Snow Leopard is an upgrade for Leopard users and requires a Mac computer (duh) with an Intel processor, 1GB of memory (though at least 2GB is highly recommended), 5GB of available disk space, and a DVD drive for installation. “Visit our RAM Finder if you want to add RAM to your Mac before upgrading to Snow Leopard.”:http://www.smalldog.com/ramfinder

*If you’ve purchased a qualifying Mac or Xserve on or after June 8, 2009 that didn’t include Mac OS X Snow Leopard,* you can upgrade to Snow Leopard for $9.95 exclusively from Apple via the Mac OS X Up-to-Date Program. “Click here to get details of this offer and download the PDF.”:http://www.smalldog.com/snowleopard

*If you have OS 10.5 Leopard installed on a Mac purchased before June 8, 2009,* you can upgrade to the Snow Leopard Single User Edition, on sale for $29.99. “Click here to see this.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/74329

*If you have multiple Macs running OS 10.5 Leopard,* you can upgrade to Snow Leopard with the Snow Leopard Family Pack. This can be installed on up to five Macs and is on sale for $49.99. “Click here to see this.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/74330

*If you have Mac OS 10.4 Tiger or earlier,* the only way to upgrade to Snow Leopard is with the Snow Leopard Mac Box Set. This includes OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, along with iWork ’09 and iLife ’09. Purchasing those separately would cost $289! See the Snow Leopard Mac Box Set on sale for $169.99 “by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/74331

*If you have Mac OS 10.4 Tiger or earlier running on multiple Macs,* the Snow Leopard Mac Box Set is available as a Family Pack that can be installed on up to five computers for $229.99. “Click here to see this.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/74332

*Our Favorite Features*

Some of the most exciting new features and overall system enhancements in OS 10.6 Snow Leopard include:

* 64-bit support, the next big step for the Mac. All key system applications are now 64-bit so they can take advantage of all the memory in your Mac.

* Out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange. Mac OS X Snow Leopard delivers built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, something even Windows PCs don’t have.

* Smaller footprint. Snow Leopard takes up less than half the disk space of the previous version, freeing about 7GB for you–enough for about 1,750 more songs or a few thousand more photos.

* The Finder has been completely rewritten using Cocoa to take advantage of the new technologies in Snow Leopard, including 64-bit support and Grand Central Dispatch. It’s more responsive from top to bottom, with snappier performance throughout the Finder.

* Quicker Time Machine backup. Snow Leopard makes Time Machine up to 80 percent faster and reduces the time it takes to complete your initial backup to Time Capsule.

* Faster to wake up and shut down. Your Mac wakes from sleep up to twice as quickly when you have screen locking enabled. And shutting down is up to 80 percent faster.

* QuickTime X: As the next generation of media players, it’s built on new core technologies and advances modern media and Internet standards.

* More efficient file sharing.

* Multi-Touch gestures in older Mac models. All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures.

* A new technology called Grand Central Dispatch takes full advantage of multicore systems by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors.

* Universal Access: Every Mac comes with built-in technologies designed to help people with disabilities experience it. Innovations in Snow Leopard advance accessibility even further.

It’s a pleasant surprise that Snow Leopard is being released earlier than expected. We will feature in depth reviews of Snow Leopard in our newsletters as soon as it’s released.

Not sure if your Mac qualifies for Snow Leopard? Email “sales@smalldog.com”:mailto:sales@smalldog.com with any questions!