Snow Leopard 28 August launch date announced (Credit: Apple)

Apple will ship its newest operating system to customers a little earlier than expected. The company has announced that Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be available this Friday, 28 August.

Apple made it clear from the beginning that Snow Leopard was not as much about adding new features as it was about refining the code in the operating system.

For instance, according to Apple, 90 per cent of the Mac OS X code has been worked on for the Snow Leopard release. This isn't just application code, it also includes working on the Finder, making it more responsive.

Apple says that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous operating system and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. No doubt this has to do with the refinements in the operating system, but Snow Leopard also only supports Macs with Intel-based processors, not the older PowerPC processors.

As for speed increases in Snow Leopard, Apple said that its Mail application loads messages twice as fast, Time Machine does its initial backup 80 per cent faster, and the included 64-bit version of Safari is up to 50 per cent faster.

Snow Leopard also supports Exchange Server 2007. This means that you can use Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal out of the box with Exchange.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard will cost AU$39 as an upgrade for Leopard users. Snow Leopard Family Pack for a single household with a five-user licence will be available for a recommended retail price of AU$69. For Mac OS X Tiger users, the Mac Box Set, which includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09, will cost AU$229; as a Family Pack, AU$299 .

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorised Reseller between 8 June 2009 and the end of the program on 26 December 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of AU$14.95. Users must request their Up-to-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by 26 December 2009, whichever comes first. More information on the upgrade packages is available at www.apple.com/au/macosx/uptodate.

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(Credit: CNET.com)

In fact, the Palm Pre is not only recognised by iTunes, it also syncs seamlessly with iTunes, according to a report on Forbes.com. There is one caveat: the Pre cannot handle Apple's DRM protected songs. Still it's quite a nice feature to have if you plan to purchase a Pre and have all of your music in iTunes.

One of the features that Apple has long touted about its hardware and software combination is how seamlessly the two work together. This gives users the ability to sync pictures, movies, videos and data to devices or to the "cloud" with little or no configuration from the user.

It makes sense that Palm would have the know-how to be recognised by iTunes. After all, Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein is an ex-Apple executive himself. Rubinstein was the head of Apple's iPod division before leaving the company, giving him an intimate knowledge of the device and supporting technology.

Apple has been very quick to jump on developers who have tried to circumvent its control over the iPod and iTunes in the past, and they could very well do it again.

Considering how vehemently the company has protected it in the past, it seems hard to imagine that Apple would give an iPhone competitor like Palm access iTunes without a fight.

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