Bites from the Apple, Part 2: Snow Leopard, MacBooks and More

July 4, 2009 · Posted in Apple

In the second part to this week’s Bites from the Apple news wrap-up, we’ll take a look at the many (believe it or not) non-iPhone bits from the WWDC conference, including new details and release plans for the new Snow Leopard Mac OS X operating system and new MacBook family releases as well as some stray items of note (here’s the first iPhone-y part).

On the Snow Leopard front, the OS successor to the current 10.5 Leopard will get released in September for an upgrade price of just $29 (current users of Mac OS X Tiger will need to purchase a Snow Leopard Box Set that also includes the iLife software, which is estimated to cost $169). While Apple is playing down how big an upgrade this is–going so far as to use the term “refinements” instead of new features–there’s a lot that is being refined. Rob Griffiths over at Macworld took a look at the main Snow Leopard refinements page as well as its companion list of additional tweaks and comes away thinking that $29 is quite a bargain. Highlights range big to small–from 64-bit versions of main system applications (like Finder, Mail, Safari, and iCal) and enhanced utilization of multiple-core processors (called Grand Central Dispatch) to Expose built into the Dock and signal strength icons added to the Wi-Fi dropdown menu (seen below from one of many Snow Leopard screenshots posted by Michael Flux; via TUAW).

On the more tangible hardware front, Apple also revised its MacBook family lineup with new MacBook Pro models that take advantage of the built-in, long-life battery that was first introduced by the 17-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. And the Pro lineup now includes the 13-inch aluminum unibody model, leaving the white polycarbonate MacBook as the entry level model. As noted in our keynote wrap-up from earlier this week, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros have dumped the ExpressCard slot (Phil Schiller noted that the user base for this feature was in the single digits) and replaced it with a vastly more usable Secure Digital memory card slot (though the 17-inch Pro keeps the ExpressCard slot). In addition to easier access to SD cards with pictures from your digital camera as well as MicroSD cards from your phone (using an adapter), the SD slot also enables you to boot your system from an SD card formatted as Mac OS Extended and loaded with a bootable version of Mac OS X.

Additionally, as previously noted, the MacBook Air got a bump in processor specs (for both the hard disk drive and solid-state drive versions), and both the Airs and Pros received price cuts in an effort to answer Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters ads (which have been putting a dent in consumers’ perception of value for Apple products).

Reviews of the new MacBook Pros are already coming in, with CNet chiming in separately on the 13-inch and 15-inch models, PCMag also doing separate reviews of the 13-inch and 15-inch, and Gizmodo wrapping the two together and providing some handy benchmark graphs for eyecandy consumption (photo below via Gizmodo).
If you didn’t see this on End User’s Twitter feed, here are 10 Snow Leopard features that weren’t mentioned during the WWDC keynote, including lower iChat bandwidth as well as higher resolution video chats in iChat and multi-touch gestures for older MacBooks.
With the assimilation of the 13-inch unibody MacBook into the MacBook Pro line, Gizmodo also speculates on the future of the MacBook name and wonder whether the much-speculated, long-rumored iTablet might take over that naming convention.
According to Wired’s Gadget Lab, the long-life batteries found in the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros (which provide up to 7 hours of life) are user replaceable, based on discoveries made during iFixit’s tear-down of the laptops.
The Safari 4 web browser went from beta version to public as of the WWDC keynote, and the browser tabs have been returned to their more expected placed below the bookmarks bar rather than placed in the title bar. Apple claims that over 11 million copies of Safari 4 have been downloaded since Monday, but Robert Strohmeyer of PC World (via Macworld) notes that it was pushed out as an automatic update to previous downloaders, so the numbers don’t necessarily tell the story of a wild success.
Head on over to The Apple Blog for some really good in-depth looks at the new QuickTime X and Exchange support in Snow Leopard.
There’s likely to be one more update to the current Mac OS X Leopard operating system before Snow Leopard pounces in September, bringing it to version 10.5.8 (via AppleInsider).
Now that Safari 4 is for reals, your favorite plug-ins will start to filter out with support for the official version and 1Password is one of the first out of the gate (via Macworld).
At some point this summer, I’ll be unboxing a shload of CDs that have been in storage while my home has been under the hammer and I’ll get back to digitizing the 300-odd remaining discs to my iTunes library. Macworld has two articles this week with tips on quickly ripping CDs as well as the basics on using iTunes to rip and burn discs.
My pal/colleague Jeff Carlson takes a look at the new hidden features (including Ken Burns Effect for video) in the recently updated iMovie ‘09 update.
Gizmodo has put together a 3-minute highlight reel of the WWDC keynote, but if you want the full experience you can either stream it in QuickTime from Apple or download it in podcast form from the iTunes store (while the WWDC keynote isn’t appearing in the list of podcasts as of Friday afternoon, it will start downloading if you subscribe to the Apple Keynotes podcast).
And finally… this Mac moment story over at Cult of Mac where the writer gets to introduce a PC user to the wonders of a MacBook Pro has a great punchline.