As of midnight EST last night, you can now pre-order Snow Leopard at Amazon.com.  The hotly-anticipated new version of OS X, with native Exchange support and 64-bit versions of its most popular applications, is set to be released in September–but you can get ahead of the pack by pre-ordering the Upgrade version, the Family Pack, the Server version, or one of the Box Sets.

Among the new features of Snow Leopard are better multicore support and the latest versions of iLife applications (Garageband, iCal, iChat, etc.) and Safari 4.  New technology in this version of OS X includes Quicktime X, a version of Quicktime with improved playback and codec support, and OpenCL, a framework that can efficiently split application processes between multi-core CPUs and video hardware.  Learn more about what’s new in OS X here.

Apple’s made an interesting choice with their aggressive pricing on this new version.  With Windows 7 just around the corner and collecting mostly positive buzz, Cupertino’s value proposition of getting the latest version of their OS for under $30 is a pretty sharp move.  They’ve made strong gains in the shadow of the flop that was Windows Vista, more than doubling their market share since the Intel chip transition, but with the landscape about to become truly competitive again, Apple will have to stay on their toes to preserve those gains.  If they can sell the idea that you shouldn’t pay the price of a new OS for what amounts to a service pack, they’ll have a strong angle come launch when the comparisons between Snow Leopard and Windows 7 begin in earnest.

If you’re ready to make the upgrade, or are considering making the switch to the new OS X, check out our pre-orders on Snow Leopard at Amazon.com today.

–Aric A.

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