Upcoming Garage Sale: Starts Friday, September 18!

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

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!

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

Our Governor in Vermont, Jim Douglas announced that he is not seeking re-election, which will really throw open the election for next year. I disagree with Governor Douglas in many public policy issues, but I have tremendous respect for him as a public servant and as an individual. We share a passionate love for our state and for Vermonters and that really does transcend politics. We all wish him well.

It looks like rain for this weekend but I hope to get out on the bikes at least a little bit and perhaps I’ll just have to check out one of the fairs in our state. Meanwhile, I have some work to do in my shop at home. I just found a 1970 Norton Commando to restore as a winter project so I want the shop to be ready for some late night mechanics.

Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
_Don, Kali & Ed_

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.