Weighing in at an impressively sized minimum download of 437.2MB (Much larger if you haven’t updated in a while), Apple released the latest updates for Mac OS X Snow Leopard sometime yesterday. The size of the update is more than justified, however, with the long list of fixes and tweaks it brings along with it.

Updates of note include, but are in no way limited to the following:

• Improve the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X
• Address compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
• Address an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail
• Resolve an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications
• Resolve an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers
• Improve performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode
• Improve sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand
• Address a color issue in iMovie with HD content
• Improve printing reliability
• Resolve issues with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
• Improve the reliability of 3rd party USB input devices
• Fix glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera

Don’t have Snow Leopard yet? Pick up your copy today!

Stacks were a great new feature introduced to the Dock along back when Leopard came out. By now, you probably rely on them as much as I do, but most people don’t know any functionality beyond viewing a folder directly from your Dock in either Fan, Grid, or List mode. Here are a few fun tricks to make your Stacks usage more enjoyable.

• Recent Items
  Why this is not a default stack, I do not know, but it is something I’ve added to every Mac I use and is great. Using the following terminal command, you can add a stack which will display your choice of the latest applications, documents, servers, favorite volumes, or favorite items.

  defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{ “tile-data” = { “list-type” = 1; }; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”; }’
  killall Dock

  

• Fan & Grid Highlighting
  This terminal command will set your stacks to highlight the item you’re on when in Fan or Grid mode. Not sure why this isn’t the default, because it looks a ton better.

  In Snow Leopard:
  defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean YES
  killall Dock

  In Leopard:
  defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES
  killall Dock

  

• Altered List Highlighting in Snow Leopard
  Just like the above command adds highlighting to the Fan & Grid views, this one changes the appearance of a the list view (albeit only in Snow Leopard) to better match your new highlighting for the Fan & Grid stacks.

  defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -boolean YES
  killall Dock

  

• Slow Motion
  This little trick serves absolutely no purpose or offers any benefit other than looking cool. If one of your Stacks is set to view in either Fan or Grid mode, you can hold down the shift key when you click it and you get the joy of watching it pop open in slow motion instead of the speed with which you are used to. Obviously can’t get you a screen shot of this one, so just try it out.

There you have it! I hope you find these Stack enhancements and tricks helpful, useful, or at least nice to look at. Note, if you want to change the highlighting of those stacks back to the defaults simply change the “YES” to a “NO” in both commands.

I got my copy of Apple’s newest Incarnation of Mac OS X yesterday, impressively shipped to me by Apple for free via FedEx Priority Overnight. I haven’t put it through a thorough workout quite yet, but first impressions are very important for any new OS, and Snow Leopard has so far impressed me.

The install was as simple as ever, essentially just clicking install and accepting the ToS. It took about 40 minutes to complete on my iMac, reboots itself when it’s done, and that’s all there is to it. The absolute first thing I noticed once it rebooted was a speed boost. Booting up, opening programs, the Finder, Spotlight search, and just about every other major aspect of the operating system is noticeably faster. I didn’t pay close attention to exactly how much disk space I had used before the install, but it freed up at least 5 gigs of space from Apple cutting some of the fat out of the OS. Just about all of the changes between Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6) are under the hood, but very next thing I noticed was what is more or less the only visual tweak: Stacks. The the grid that the stacks on your dock appear in got a visual overhaul and, at least in my opinion, look a lot nicer. I am so far very impressed with what I’ve seen, even though most of the major changes are in the background and won’t necessarily be noticed by the casual user.

As with any major update to any major operating system ever, third party programs written for prior versions of the OS are bound to have issues. Snow Leopard is in no way immune to this. Apple has a handy short list of known issues for some major applications, but as I don’t use any of specific versions listed on that site, I didn’t run in to any of those known issues. Instead, I noticed immediately that my awesomely useful iStat Menus were gone, but iSlayer already has a compatable v2.0 in the works that they say will be available soon. I also immediately noticed that the non-standard buttons on my Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 have stopped working. I’ve managed to get one of the buttons working again, but I’ll have to wait until Microsoft decides to release an update, which will supposedly be “on or before 10/2/2009“. Other than those two issues, I’ve yet to notice any other incompatibilities.

Unless you have a vital use for the programs that Apple lists as not working, I highly recommend upgrading to Snow Leopard. There are no major user interface changes, so the learning curve for users upgrading from Leopard is exactly zero and the speed boost is well worth the $29 to upgrade.

Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard – $29
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User) – $49
Mac Box Set (with Snow Leopard) – $169

I’ve gotta admit, I’m pretty excited about Apple’s forthcoming new incarnation of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard (10.6). It certainly isn’t going to be wowing anyone with visual changes and enhancements as prior releases have, but what Snow Leopard packs under the hood is enough to excite me. Pretty much everything about the operating system, even including the non-essential bundled applications, has been recoded to minimize the footprint, utilize 64-bit processing, and all around just move faster. They’ve slimmed it down so much that it will reportedly free up an additional 7GB of space on your hard drive. Needless to say, I’m excited to try it out and will post a review here once I’ve had the chance to put it through its paces. Best of all? Apple just announced the release date and it’s earlier than expected: August 28th!

Want it as soon as it’s available?
Pre-order your copy today from Amazon.com:
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard – $29
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User) – $49
Mac Box Set (with Snow Leopard) – $169