Snow Leopard Announced + Safari 4 Released

ByMike Moffit

Developing… more information and photos coming as we get it!

At WWDC today, Phil introduced Bertrand Serlet to talk about the Mac OS. He announced that Snow Leopard will be available in late September for Intel Macs with either OS 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard.

FEATURES
Apple highlighted many of the features, including speed, refinements and support for other software.

  • Faster installation process: 45% faster and 6 GB smaller
  • Speed improvements for Mail, Safari 4, Spotlight and more
  • Support for Microsoft Exchange Server to Mail, iCal, and Address Book

Snow Leopard will also be available with unlimited client licenses on Mac, Windows, and Linux for $499.99.

PRICING
For Leopard Users:

  • Snow Leopard single-user license will be available for $29.99
  • Snow Leopard Family Pack (five-user license), will be available $49.99

For Tiger users:

  • As part of the Mac Box Set (which includes Snow Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09), the single-user license will be available for $169.99
  • Again, as part of the Mac Box Set the five-user license Family Pack will be available for $229.99
  • Currently, we do not see evidence that a Snow Leopard upgrade is available for Tiger users as a stand-alone piece. However, the price of the Mac Box Set is still cheap, and you get all three!

In addition, for any qualifying new Mac system without Snow Leopard, the Up-To-Date upgrade package will be available to customers between June 8, 2009 and December 26, 2009 for $9.95. Visit www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate for more information.

Safari 4 has been in beta for several weeks, and now is officially released.

FEATURES

  • HTML 5 support for offline technologies and support for advanced CSS Effects
  • First browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test (it examines CSS, JavaScript and XML standards designed for dynamic web apps)
  • Top Sites (I already use this and love it): puts your most-used websites right on a homepage instead of a blank new page/tab
  • Full History Search: search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages
  • Cover Flow: flip through web history/bookmarks
  • In Snow Leopard, Safari will run as a 64-bit app (performance boost of up to 50%)
  • Snow Leopard features a way to make Safari more crash-resistant because it will run plug-ins in a separate process

from Apple’s press release

For more features, click here.
To see what else is new in Safari 4, click here.
Download Safari 4 here (price: free).

Similar Posts

  • WWDC 2011 Sold Out

    Announced just yesterday, tickets to this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference have already sold out. Lasting less than 12 hours, all $1,599 tickets were…

  • New Education Apps for iPad

    At today’s Education Event at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, Apple, via Phil Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, announced some new apps…

  • iTunes 9 is Here!

    Today Apple unveiled iTunes 9, an enhanced update of its popular jukebox/iPod and iPhone management software, and music, video and application store. iTunes…

  • In Like a Lion: 10.7 Coming in Summer '11

    When the image popped up on the web for the Back to the Mac event, the cat behind the Apple was easily recognizable, prompting the accurate speculation that the next incarnation of OS X would be branded “Lion.” Today, Steve announced that 10.7 is indeed on its way, slated for release in Summer 2011.

    Lion boasts dozens of new features, including the Mac App Store, Launchpad, Full-screen apps and Mission Control. Here’s how Apple describes it:

    “We took our best thinking from Mac OS X and brought it to the iPhone. Then we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now we’re bringing it all back to the Mac with our eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system.”

    Mac App Store
    Inspired by the success of the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch and available in 90 days from today, the Mac App Store will allow you to purchase, download and install apps from the store itself—no packaging required! Developers will be able to submit apps for approval as soon as November. We’ll have more on this shortly, since this is a big change from how you’re used to getting apps on your Mac.

    Launchpad
    As Apple puts it, the Launchpad “gives you instant access to your apps—iPad style.” When you click the Launchpad icon in your Dock, your windows will “fade away,” leaving a full-screen view of all of the apps on your Mac. From there, you swipe your fingers to see multiple pages, bringing the functionality of Spaces. If you have just downloaded an app from the Mac App Store, it will automatically appear in the Dock, ready to launch.

    Full-screen apps
    This is a great way to tune out the distractions. Apps can now go full-screen natively, something people have been asking for for a long time (I used to get this question all the time from people who were switching from Windows). You will be able to bring an app to full-screen with one click, switch to another with a swipe, and then back to the desktop with another swipe.

    Mission Control
    Mission Control gives you a “bird’s-eye view of everything” all in one place. Apple describes it thusly: “With a simple swipe gesture, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control. There you can see your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full-screen apps, Dashboard, and even other Spaces, arranged in a unified view.” Anything in Mission Control is accessible with one click.

    No word yet on the price tag of Lion, nor a firmer release date. We’ll be keeping you up-to-date on Lion news as we get it!

  • iPad Launch Ongoing

    We’ll give a full report about the iPad, including our analysis of the utility / projected success of the device after the keynote,…

  • Let's Talk iPhone* Event

    Apple’s “Let’s Talk About iPhone” event got underway at 1PM ET today amid much hype (as per usual, fanboys and girls), and we’ll…