Apple's final Mac OS X 10.6.2 update breaks support for Intel's Atom CPUs, according to an OSNews report. The company's intent was unclear as the software was under development. Early builds dropped compatibility for the components, although subsequent versions seemingly returned the support.
Hewlett Packard has announced it will be providing real-time support throughout the HP forums for users who have recently upgraded to the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. HP has scheduled a time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on September 9th where its Mac-connection team will be monitoring the HP Mac printing and scanning board on the company’s forums, in order to help customers with support issues for their HP products such as scanners and printers.
Apple's latest release, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, has been benchmarked with positive results by normally Linux-focused Phoronix.com. The test suites cover over 100 profiles (only 60 were used in this round due to Snow Leopard incompatibilities) that can be applied to both Linux and Mac OS X, ranging from games to video playback and encryption tests. The tests cover two Mac setups, an older 1.83GHz 32-bit EFI Mac Mini with an Intel graphics processor and a newer 2.0GHz 64-bit EFI Mac Mini that supports OpenCL through its GeFORCE 9400M graphics processor. Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Mac OS X 10.6.0 were compared in the test.
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.
Apple may be on the verge of shipping its Mac OS X Snow Leopard, if one user's claims of receiving an install of next of the next-generation operating system with his Mac Mini are to be believed. The user claims to have received the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard install DVD, then next version of Apple's operating system, when he purchased his Mac Mini in Japan. First noted by the Japanese version of Engadget, the photos and screenshots apparently confirm various slip-ups by Apple indicating that Snow Leopard is ready to ship very soon -- perhaps as early as next week.
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.
