Upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard with Snow Leopard, a simpler, more powerful, and more refined version of Mac OS X. It delivers a wide range of enhancements, next-generation technologies, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and new accessibility features. Apple Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is the world's most advanced operating system, finely tuned from installation to shutdown.

Mac OS X. It's what makes a Mac a Mac.

• Power of UNIX. Simplicity of the Mac.
  Mac OS X is both easy to use and incredibly powerful. Everything--from the desktop you see when you start up your Mac to the applications you use every day--is designed with simplicity and elegance in mind. So whether you're browsing the web, checking your email, or video chatting with a friend on another continent, getting things done is at once easy to learn, simple to perform, and fun to do. Of course, making amazing things simple takes seriously advanced technologies, and Mac OS X is loaded with them. Not only is it built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability, it also delivers incredible performance, stunning graphics, and industry-leading support for Internet standards.
• Perfect integration of hardware and software.
  Since the software on every Mac is created by the same company that makes the Mac itself, you get an integrated system in which everything works together perfectly. The advanced technologies in the operating system take full advantage of the 64-bit, multicore processors and GPUs to deliver the greatest possible performance. The built-in iSight camera works seamlessly with the iChat software so you can start a video chat with a click. Your Mac notebook includes a Multi-Touch trackpad that supports pinching, swiping, and other gestures. And the OS communicates with the hardware to deliver incredible battery life by spinning down the hard drive when it's inactive, by intelligently deciding whether the CPU or GPU is best for a task, and by automatically dimming the screen in low-light conditions.
• Elegant interface and stunning graphics.
  The most striking feature of a Mac is its elegant user interface, made possible by graphics technologies that are built to leverage the advanced graphics processor in your Mac. These technologies provide the power for things like multiway chatting, real-time reflections, and smooth animations. Fonts on the screen look beautiful and extremely readable. A soft drop shadow makes it clear at a glance which window is active and which ones are in the background. You can preview just about any type of file using Quick Look, and because the previews are high resolution, you can actually read the text. Built-in support for the PDF format means you can view or create PDFs from almost any application in the system.
• Highly secure by design.
  Mac OS X doesn't get PC viruses. And with virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself from other malicious applications. It was built for the Internet in the Internet age, offering a variety of sophisticated technologies that help keep you safe from online threats. Because every Mac ships with a secure configuration, you don't have to worry about understanding complex settings. Even better, it won't slow you down with constant security alerts and sweeps. And Apple responds quickly to online threats and automatically delivers security updates directly to your Mac.
• Built for compatibility.
  The versatility and power of Mac OS X make it compatible in almost any environment, including Windows networks. It works with virtually all of today's digital cameras, printers, and other peripherals without the need to manually download separate drivers. It opens popular file types such as JPG, MP3, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. In addition, Mac OS X includes built-in support for the industry-standard PDF format, so you can read and create PDFs from almost any application in the system--perfect for sharing work with colleagues whether they use a Mac or a PC. If you want to run Windows on your Mac, you can do that, too. And Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the only operating system with built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, so you can use your Mac at home and at work and have all your messages, meetings, and contacts in one place.
• Innovation for everyone.
  Mac OS X comes standard with a wide range of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities experience what the Mac has to offer--including many features you won't find in other operating systems at any price. For example, the built-in VoiceOver screen-reading technology makes it possible for those who are blind or have low vision to control their computer using key commands or gestures on a Multi-Touch trackpad. Mac OS X also offers out-of-the-box support for over 40 braille displays, including Bluetooth displays, and many other accessibility features, such as dynamic full-screen magnification, playback of closed captions, and a scalable screen.
• Reliable to the core.
  The core of Mac OS X is built on the same ultrareliable UNIX foundation that powers industrial-strength servers, helping to ensure that your computing experience remains free from system crashes and compromised performance. Even upgrading your Mac to the next version of Mac OS X is reliable and easy. It checks your applications to make sure they're compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible. If a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data. Best of all, upgrading doesn't require reformatting your drive; you can keep all your compatible applications, files, and settings. And if something goes wrong when you're using your Mac, Time Machine is there to keep automatic backups of everything on your drive.
• Fully featured, fully loaded.
  Mac OS X comes in a single, full-featured version that includes a large collection of beautifully designed applications. They not only let you surf the web, conduct video and text chats, manage your contacts, and accomplish other day-to-day tasks--they also work together to make you more productive and let you have more fun.

WHAT'S NEW IN SNOW LEOPARD:

• Refined, not reinvented.
  Mac OS X is renowned for its simplicity, its reliability, and its ease of use. So when it came to designing Snow Leopard, Apple engineers had a single goal: to make a great thing even better. They searched for areas to refine, further simplify, and speed up -- from little things like ejecting external drives to big things like installing the OS. In many cases, they elevated great to amazing. Here are just a few examples of how your Mac experience was fine-tuned.
• A more advanced, more nimble Finder.
  The Finder has been completely rewritten in Cocoa to take advantage of all the modern technologies in Mac OS X, including 64-bit support and Grand Central Dispatch. It's more responsive from top to bottom, with snappier performance throughout the Finder. And it includes new features such as customizable Spotlight search options and an enhanced icon view that lets you thumb through a multipage document or watch a QuickTime movie.
• New look, new features for Expose and Stacks.
  Expose is refined and more convenient. It's now integrated in the Dock, so you can just click and hold an application icon in the Dock and all the windows for that application will unshuffle so you can quickly change to another one. Expose also has a whole new look. Windows are displayed in an organized grid, making it even easier to find what you're looking for. And stacks -- Dock items that give you fast access to a folder of files -- are now scrollable, so you can easily view all items. You can also navigate through folders in a stack to see all the files inside it.
• Quicker Time Machine backup.
  Introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, the revolutionary Time Machine made backing up your hard drive easy for the first time. Time Capsule took backup even further with its wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine. Now 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.
  With Snow Leopard, 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, saving precious moments when you're trying to head home or to the airport.
• Faster, more reliable installation.
  Upgrading your Mac has never been easier. For Snow Leopard, the entire process has been simplified, streamlined, and is up to 50 percent faster, yet more comprehensive and reliable.2 For example, Snow Leopard checks your applications to make sure they're compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible. In case a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data.
• 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 songs3 or a few thousand more photos.
• Another leap forward for QuickTime.
  QuickTime X is the next-generation media technology that powers the audio and video experience in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It includes a completely new QuickTime Player application with a clean, uncluttered design, a new trimming interface, and easy uploads to YouTube and MobileMe. And it delivers more efficient media playback, HTTP-based live streaming, and greater color accuracy.
• Innovative Chinese character input.
  Until Snow Leopard, if you wanted to enter Chinese characters on a computer, you had to type in the phonetic spelling of Chinese words and the computer would convert them into proper Chinese characters. Snow Leopard offers a breakthrough new way to enter characters: You write them directly on the Multi-Touch trackpad in your Mac notebook. They'll appear on the screen in a new input window, which recommends characters based on what you drew and lets you choose the right one. The input window even offers suggestions for subsequent characters based on what you chose.
• More reliable, higher-resolution iChat.
  Having a video chat using iChat is more reliable and more accessible than ever in Snow Leopard.4 It includes technology to address many common router incompatibilities that can interfere with connections. And if iChat can't make a direct connection, it will use the AIM relay server to create a successful chat session.
  Now more people can have high-resolution, 640-by-480-pixel video chats, because the technical requirements are less demanding: You need only one-third the upstream bandwidth previously required -- 300 Kbps instead of 900 Kbps. And finally, iChat Theater now offers 640-by-480 resolution, four times greater than before.
• The right service at the right time.
  The Services menu in Mac OS X lets you use features of one application while working in another. In Snow Leopard, services are more simplified, streamlined, and helpful. The Services menu is contextual, so it shows just the services appropriate for the application you're using or content you're viewing rather than all available services. You can access services with a right click of your mouse or Control-click of your trackpad. You can configure the menu to show only the services you want, and you can even create your own services using Automator.
• Automatic updates for printer drivers.
  Snow Leopard makes sure you always have the most up-to-date driver so you can get the most from your printer. When you plug in a printer, Mac OS X can download the latest driver available over the Internet. And it periodically checks to make sure it has the latest driver. If not, it downloads the newest version through Software Update. Easy.
• Automatic time zone setup.
  If you're traveling around the world, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your computer is set to the correct time zone. Snow Leopard takes care of that for you. Using the Core Location technology, it locates known Wi-Fi hotspots to set the time zone automatically, so you'll always know the right time no matter where you are.
• Easy PDF text selection.
  Here's an enhancement that exemplifies the pursuit of perfection. When using a PDF viewer such as Preview, have you ever tried to copy text from a PDF document that has more than one column? It's almost impossible. Instead of selecting only the text you want, your cursor selects all the text across the page, so you end up with a mix of words from every column.
• Faster, more powerful Safari.
  Safari 4 is the latest version of the blazing-fast web browser. It renders web pages at high speed and delivers a range of new features, including full history search, smart address and search fields, an innovative way to display your top sites, industry-leading support for web standards, and more.
• More reliable disk eject.
  Snow Leopard improves the reliability of ejecting discs and external drives. Sometimes when an application or process is using the files on a drive, Mac OS X prevents you from ejecting it, but you don't always know why. In Snow Leopard, you'll get fewer of those errors and when you do get them, you'll see exactly which application is using the drive, so you can quit it and eject the drive properly.
• More efficient file sharing.
  The Bonjour technology in every Mac makes file and media sharing virtually effortless. Now Bonjour in Snow Leopard makes sharing more energy efficient. If you have a computer in your home or office that shares files -- like media files for your Apple TV -- you have to leave the computer on all the time, which isn't very energy efficient. With Snow Leopard and a compatible AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule base station, however, your computer can go to sleep yet continue to share its files with other computers and devices, waking when you need it and sleeping when you don't.

FEATURES

• Dock + Finder
  The Dock in Mac OS X provides fast, one-click access to frequently used applications, folders, files, and even downloads from the Internet. The Finder makes working with your files and documents as easy as browsing your iTunes library.
  The Dock at the bottom of the screen gives you quick access to your most frequently used applications, files, and folders. With its visually appealing, high-resolution icons, the Dock practically begs to be clicked. When you do, your applications spring to life instantly, and a bright signal tells you which applications are open. You can also use Expose from the Dock to instantly see all the open windows for an application.
• Expose
  Instantly view all open windows in stunning style with a single keystroke. Expose unshuffles overlapping windows on your desktop into an organized thumbnail view, so you can quickly locate and switch to any window or get to any file on the desktop.
  With one keystroke, Expose instantly tiles all your open windows, scales them down, and neatly arranges them, so you can see what's in every single one. And you definitely can see every one, because Expose preserves the visual quality of the window in its reduced size. To see a full-screen preview, just press the Space bar. That's not all. Move from one tiled window to the next and you'll see its title displayed at the bottom of the window. When you find the window you need, just click it. Magically, every window returns to full size, and the window you clicked--whether it's a folder, a PDF, a QuickTime movie, or a Word document--becomes the active window.
• Quick Look
  Instantly preview the contents of your documents without ever opening them. Flip through multipage PDFs, watch full-screen video, view photo slideshows, and more. With a single click.
  Quick Look is the innovative technology that gives you a sneak peek of entire files--even multiple-page documents and video--without opening them. All you have to do is select a file in the Finder and press the Space bar. An elegant transparent window appears, showing you the contents of the file instantly. It's great when you're looking for something specific but don't have time to open lots of files to find it.
• Spotlight
  With Spotlight, you can find anything on your computer as quickly as you type: files, email, contacts, images, calendar events, and applications. And because it's built into the core of Mac OS X, search results update instantly whenever files change.
  Spotlight is the lightning-fast search technology built into Mac OS X that makes it easy to find what you're looking for, even if you don't know where to look. Conveniently available in the Mac OS X menu bar, the Spotlight search field gives you instant results as you start typing, encompassing not only files, folders, and documents but also messages in Mail, contacts in Address Book, iCal calendars, items in System Preferences, applications, and even dictionary definitions. Spotlight searches aren't confined to your computer--you can also search other computers on the network.
• Safari 4
  Experience the web with the fast, easy-to-use web browser. With its simple, elegant interface and support for the latest Internet standards, Safari gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the web.
  Safari 4 in Snow Leopard outraces all other browsers. On even the most demanding Web 2.0 applications, Safari delivers blazingly fast performance using the new Nitro Engine. For example, thanks to 64-bit technology in Snow Leopard, JavaScript performance in Safari 4 is up to 50 percent faster than the 32-bit version of Safari. In addition, Safari offers top-flight HTML performance--the best on any platform--loading pages up to 3 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and almost 3 times faster than Firefox 3.5. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.
• Mail, iCal, Address Book
  Three built-in applications that work as one: Mail, iCal, and Address Book bring the power of Mac OS X to your email, calendar, and contacts. You get elegant, easy-to-use interfaces, lightning-fast searches, and complete integration across the applications and your Mac.
• iChat
  Included with Mac OS X, iChat is a rich instant messaging application that works with your AIM or MobileMe account and makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using text and video, whether they're on a Mac or a PC.
• iTunes
  iTunes plays all your digital music and video. It syncs content to your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. And it's an entertainment superstore that stays open 24/7.
  Forget rifling through stacks of CDs or flipping through channels. iTunes puts your entire music and video collection a mere click away, giving you an all-access pass to thousands of hours of digital entertainment. Browse. Organize. Play. All from your Mac or PC.
• QuickTime X
  Watch pristine-quality video in a clean, uncluttered window. Record and trim your own movies. And easily share them over the web.
  Completely redesigned in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, QuickTime X debuts a brand-new version of QuickTime Player, the application used by millions to watch a wide range of video formats and files. Using the power of the Core Animation technology in Mac OS X, QuickTime Player offers a clean, uncluttered interface with controls that fade out when they're not needed. And large thumbnail images make navigating chaptered movies simpler than before. Instead of text-only chapter names, QuickTime Player displays frame-based thumbnail images for each chapter marker, so it's easy to navigate your chaptered media.
• Photo Booth
  Take fun photo snapshots and video clips with your built-in iSight camera using Photo Booth. Send them to your friends, use one as an iChat icon, add them to your Address Book, or organize and edit them in iPhoto.
  Photo Booth is a fun application that makes it easy to take photos using the built-in iSight camera in your Mac. Just look into the lens, smile, and click. Before it snaps your photo, Photo Booth flashes your display with bright white to add more light to your face. Take a single snapshot or use the burst mode to take four quick pictures.
• Time Machine
  Never again worry about losing your digital files. Time Machine automatically saves up-to-date copies of everything on your Mac--photos, music, videos, documents, applications, and settings. If you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything.
  Time Machine works with your Mac and an external hard drive. Just connect the drive and assign it to Time Machine and you're a step closer to enjoying peace of mind. Time Machine will automatically back up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on a given day--so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.