OK kids, today’s the day.  Apple releases Snow Leopard, and it’s looking really hot. 

Primarily the thing that’s looking like a big plus for anyone, like photographers, who are taxing their system resources by crushing huge amounts of, or just huge, files, is the increase in efficiency and size on the disk.  Here are some numbers:

-72 sec startup on a MacBook Air, (vs. 100 Leopard).
-Applications open faster- Safari: 3sec., for example, and half that if you open the app again. 
-The OS is half the size (around 5-7GB) of Leopard, the install is purported to be only 15 minutes.

As far as features and, well, Apple calls them “Refinements”, the complete list is here, from Apple.

Some of the ones that photographers may love are…

Finder-
Spotlight:

-Change search locations.
-Change the default behavior of Spotlight to have it search the currently selected folder or your most recent search location.
-Adjust view options for Spotlight results just as you can with any Finder window. Modify the default view as well as the size, labeling, and alignment of icons.
-Search iPhoto Faces and Places in Spotlight.
-Spotlight now indexes Faces and Places in iPhoto '09.  Search for pictures of your friends by simply typing their name in Spotlight.  You can even search for your photos based on where they were taken

System-
-Automatic updates for printer drivers.
When you plug in a new printer, your Mac with Snow Leopard can download the most up-to-date driver over the Internet. It periodically checks to make sure it has the latest driver, automatically downloading the newest version through Software Update.

-Faster Time Machine backup.
The initial Time Machine backup using Time Capsule is up to 80 percent faster.

-Nearby printers.
Print dialogs now display nearby printers so you can quickly identify and configure the most conveniently located printers on your network

-Gamma 2.2.
The default gamma has been changed from 1.8 to 2.2 to better serve the color needs of digital content producers and consumers.  (I’m sure Bill Atkinson is happy about that…  back story coming soon.)

-More efficient file sharing.
With Snow Leopard and a compatible AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule base station, a computer that acts as a file or media server can go to sleep yet continue to share its files with other computers and devices, saving energy.

-QuickTime X- Greater color accuracy.
QuickTime X takes advantage of the proven capabilities of ColorSync to color-manage your media. Modern media files are color-managed to your display for the best playback experience and when shared to your iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV.

Preview-
(This looks really interesting.  Not even so much as what it can do, but what it means Apple is thinking about Preview, iPhoto and Aperture, and rumors of the giant merging and cross-pollination of all three.)

-Import from scanner.
Snow Leopard simplifies scanning by putting scanned data directly into Preview. Now you can scan, view, and correct your files and images in Preview. The scanning interface even detects the placement of images or documents on the scanner to automate the selection of regions to scan.

-Enhanced search.
Preview uses Grand Central Dispatch to improve search performance, presenting results immediately, even while the document is being indexed.

-Digital Asset Exchange support.
Collada Digital Asset Exchange (.dae) files are a popular way to share 3D models and scenes between applications. Preview now displays these files with OpenGL-powered 3D graphics, so you can zoom and rotate around a 3D scene and play viewpoint animations. You can also print the scene or save it as an image or movie file. And you can use Quick Look to display them as well.

-Higher-quality image scaling.
The Adjust Image Size command in Preview uses the advanced Lanczos interpolation algorithm to provide higher-quality scaling with fewer blurry artifacts compared with traditional interpolation methods.

-Soft Proof with Profile.
Preview makes it easy to see what your images will look like when printed, on the web, or even on a printing press. Using readily available color profiles, Preview applies an on-the-fly color simulation, enabling you to quickly and easily soft-proof large numbers of images.

-New annotations toolbar.
Get easy access to all the annotation tools in Preview, including shapes, comments, links, strikethrough, and highlighting, as well as two new annotation types: text and arrows.

-Multiple documents in a single window.
Open multiple PDFs in a single document window so you can easily view and search related documents together.
Multiple documents images view

-Contact sheet for images.
Open multiple images in a single document as a contact sheet, for a convenient thumbnail view of everything.
Image correction histogram.

-Image adjustment controls in Preview now display a live RGB histogram of the current image, giving you additional feedback on how adjustments will affect the image.
 

The system requirements are pretty modest.  It’s an Intel-only package, but the general list is:

General requirements

Intel Core 2 Due
    * Mac computer with an Intel processor
    * 1GB of memory
    * 5GB of available disk space
    * DVD drive for installation
    * Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
    * Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and terms apply.

The detailed list is here, on the Apple site.

What about your programs…  will it run everything reliably for you?  Please, spare yourself a whole lot of grief by NOT upgrading your essential workstations- if you’re going to do it, do it to systems that you can afford to have downtime on if something is buggy, but here is the list of applications that have passed and failed.

…and for the record, John Nack’s blog claims “official support for CS4 Suite”, here, and Capture One 4.8 passed.  Epson printer software, not looking so good, and ColorBurst and Imageprint don’t get listed.  No surprise there- printers and OS upgrades never seem to play nice out of the gate, it usually takes a few months for everyone to catch up. 

Oh, and my 15-year-old boy will be happy to know that WarCraft III will work just fine…

All in all, it looks hot, and well worth the price of admission.  A whopping $30.