Apple seeds Snow Leopard build w/Cocoa Finder, more

10/26, 12:05am

New Snow Leopard build

Apple's second build of Snow Leopard, which was released to developers earlier this weekend, brings a number of changes to the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, including a new "simplified" installation experience, preliminary support for HFS+ file system compression and 64-bit kernel, a rewritten Cocoa-based Finder for performance improvements, a new default gamma setting for viewing colors, and basic reading and editing support for Microsoft Exchange in Mail, iCal and Address Book. Apple also noted other multi-core enhancements and low-level kernel operating system changes, including those to queue management in Grand Central its technology for enabling developers to better leverage multi-core processors. The pre-release software, offered to developers for testing, is the second version made available, following the initial preview release at WWDC in June; the final version of operating system, designed for Intel-based Macs only, is expected to ship as Mac OS X 10.6 next year.

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