The much awaited upgrade to OS X Leopard 10.5 will soon be launched by Apple for just 29$.

Here’s a quick look on what Snow Leopard has to offer over its previous iteration :

• A new Finder – It has been rewritten in scratch and is more powerful, better and efficient than before.
• Better stacks – The signature feature of Mac OS just got much better and useful than ever before.
• Dock Expose – Much like the original Expose, this new tool is meant for productivity.
• Quicktime X – A new video tool for Snow Leopard that does everything from editing to composing.
• More accessible – People with disabilities can now use their Mac with much ease and comfort.
• Exchange Support – The new OS comes with built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server.
• 64-bit Power - Apps would now be able to make greater use of the multi-CPU.
• OpenCL – More power to enhanced graphic applications and utilities.

According to Apple  Snow Leopard’s Finder is more responsive, Mail loads messages twice as fast, Time Machine will complete initial backups 80 percent faster, and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 is 50 percent faster than its predecessors.  QuickTime X comes with a redesigned player that lets users view, record, trim and share video. Better Multi-Processor and OpenCL support.

This Monday, Apple launched an update to its OS X Operating System which includes lots of bug fixes and security enhancements.

The Update is 312Mb and can be dowloaded either via the Software Update section of the OS or via Apple Downloads.

Apple provides a detailed Changelog for its OS X related updates. Here’s the Official Changelog :

General

• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
• Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
• Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
• Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
• Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
• Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
• Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
• Improves Speech Dictionary.
• Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
• Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

• Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
• Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

• Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
• Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

• Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
• Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
• Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
• Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
• Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
• Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

• Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
• Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
• Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
• Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
• Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
• Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
• Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

• Improves overall sync reliability.
• Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
• Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
• Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
• Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

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