Snow Leopard notes, update
With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Build 10A432, full review) on Friday, software developers continue to provide updated software for compatibility while other outlets are offering documentation on Apple's new operating system. Early reports indicate that there were short lines outside Apple Stores and that the OS actually sold out in places around the world, including Israel where it went on sale in Israel at 9:00 a.m. Israel Daylight-Savings Time (IDT) at the iDigital Store (local distributors) and promptly sold out. Apple on Friday posted a few Snow Leopard application compatibility lists and provided updated printer drivers from many major manufacturers, but other vendors have yet to deliver compatibility updates, including DYMO who says that it expects to release an update for Snow Leopard compatibility in "early Fall 2009". We have a brief roundup of other compatibility and update notes.
HighPoint Technologies says that drivers for its line of RocketRAID
SATA and SAS Controller are available directly on the Snow Leopard installation DVD, introducing for the first time what it calls "out of the box" eSATA Ready Support for Macs.
Ambrosia Software has released WireTap Studio 1.0.12 (audio recording and management solution), WireTap Anywhere 1.0.5 (take the audio output from any Mac application or hardware input device and bring it into your favorite audio recording application), and Snapz Pro X 2.2.0 (record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime movie or screenshot).
Software MacKiev has posted free Snow Leopard updates for all Software MacKiev's Mac OS X titles that need them, including The Print Shop 2, Kid Pix Deluxe 3X, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and 3D Weather Globe & Atlas.
ATTO Technologies noted support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard for its full line of SCSI, Fibre Channel, SAS/SATA Host and RAID adapters, and iSCSI software, saying that the latest ATTO drivers incorporated in the Snow Leopard operating system installation DVD.
the Mac BU says that its suite of Office 2008 applications are all "tested and ready" for Snow Leopard and that "the bulk of the Word 2008 Spaces issues have been fixed after our collaborative efforts to address the problem."
Peachpit announced four books for the new operating system, including "Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series" (lessons, step-by-step exercises, and reference), "Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Visual QuickStart Guide" ("With plenty of screenshots to clearly illustrate techniques, this reasonably priced guide is a great reference"), "Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide" ("a pocket-sized, handy guide packed with bite-sized chunks of practical information"), and "The Little Mac Book, Snow Leopard Edition" (a "back-to-the-basics approach to Snow Leopard").
318, Inc. has posted a few how-to videos for Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server, including using Wiki and Blog services.
Three-pain viewing for Snow Leopard will have to wait until WideMail and LetterBox are updated. Dane Harnett notes that some users may have to perform some preference editing to restore the subject column in Mail.app after upgrading to Snow Leopard.
SixtyFourSwitcher is a preference pane that allows users to toggle the 64-bit kernel feature of Snow Leopard in Macs that support the 64-bit kernel. According to the author, the 64-bit kernel is "faster than the 32-bit kernel, but it is not backward compatible with older kernel extensions, so it isn't for everyone." SixtyFourSwitcher is free (Modified BSD license), runs on Intel 32 and Intel 64, and requires Snow Leopard or later. Other updates include DiskSpy (a free background app that shows disk activity in the user's menu bar that now supports 64-bit addressing), DiskSpy Solid (a $5 background app that shows disk and network activity in the user's menu bar), FieldLines (a free screen saver that simulates electric field lines between charged particles), Helios (a free screen saver that simulates particle attraction and repulsion between bodies), Hyperspace (a free screen saver that takes users on a virtual trip through a wormhole), Skyrocket (a free screen saver that simulates 3D aural & visual fireworks with optional user controls), and SymbolicLinker (a free system tool that makes it easy to create symbolic links from within the Finder; "since Snow Leopard no longer supports contextual menu items, this version comes with a software service for Snow Leopard users with the same functionality as the old plugin").
Acapela Group and AssistiveWare are offering a public beta of Infovox iVox 2.0 for Snow Leopard compatibility. The update significantly improves performance and responsiveness and adds a number of new voices for the following languages: Arabic, French, German, Flemish, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Turkish. Infovox iVox 1.3, the currently shipping version, is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", but version 2.0 is offered as a free update.
360Workshas released updated versions of its entire product line for compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, including SuperContainer v2.6 (enhances and extends Filemaker's native file-management functions), FTPeek v1.43 (manage upload, download, and manipulation of remote files on any FTP server), Plastic v1.67 (process secure credit card transactions), Textractor v1.64 (extracting plain text from PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel documents), Charts v1.61 (create various types of graphical charts), Patterns v1.66 (perform regular Expression/Regex matching), Email v1.93 (a fully functional email client), Difference Engine v1.74 (color-coded differences between field contents), JDBC v1.69 (use JDBC to access data in any database), Web Assistant v1.49 (allows POST and GET URLs directly from FileMaker), RemoteScripter v1.72 (remotely trigger FileMaker scripts on another computer), ScriptMaster v3.1 (free, general-purpose, modular plugin that comes out of the box with modules for file manipulation, URL and network utilities, Web Services, shell scripting, event/script triggering, etc.).
Vinoteka 1.2.2 updates the wine cellar management software for Snow Leopard, offering tracking for bottles, cellars and tasting notes.
DisplayLink has released an early version of its v1.5 DisplayLink beta driver for Snow Leopard; however, the driver does not support 3D acceleration and the developer says that some features of Mac OS X applications that require hardware OpenGL acceleration, such as Keynote presentations and iPhoto slideshows, will not function properly.
by MacNN Staff
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Many Thanks
Many thanks for this list. I'm doing what I usually do with a major upgrade, waiting until my most used applications issue updates. Articles like this help those of us who play it safe.
Know what my biggest worry is? I use Filemaker 5.5 (yeah, from 2001) under Rosetta for some flat-file databases. For various reasons, later versions of Filemaker don't work under under more recent versions of OS X, but the ancient but serviceable 5.5 does without a whimper. I can't see spending the money for the latest Filemaker and Bento seems weird and feature poor. Will FM 5.5 work with Snow Leopard? Who knows? Online searches drew a blank. Since 6.0 and 7.0 quit working long ago, no one considers 5.5.
There's a market opportunity there. Mac users need a database that runs on Macs and on an iPhone/touch. On the latter the user doesn't have to be able to create databases, just display the data and sync any changes made back to a Mac. In fact, it'd be easiest if we created the iPhone/touch templates on Macs.