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Product Features

• Mac OS X Snow Leopard is built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability as well as industry-leading support for Internet standards
• Improvements include a more responsive Finder, new look and features for Exposé and Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, faster common tasks and installation, a smaller install footprint, and plenty more
• New core technologies unleash the power of today's advanced hardware technology and prepare Mac OS X for future innovation: 64-bit computing, multicore-optimization, OpenCL, QuickTime X, and more
• With virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself--and you--from viruses, malicious applications, and other threats
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, so you can use Mail, iCal, and Address Book at home and at work

Product Description

Mac OS X. It's what makes a Mac a Mac.

Power of UNIX. Simplicity of the Mac.
Mac OS X is both easy to use and incredibly powerful. Everything--from the desktop you see when you start up your Mac to the applications you use every day--is designed with simplicity and elegance in mind. So whether you're browsing the web, checking your email, or video chatting with a friend on another continent, getting things done is at once easy to learn, simple to perform, and fun to do. Of course, making amazing things simple takes seriously advanced technologies, and Mac OS X is loaded with them. Not only is it built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability, it also delivers incredible performance, stunning graphics, and industry-leading support for Internet standards.

Perfect integration of hardware and software.
Since the software on every Mac is created by the same company that makes the Mac itself, you get an integrated system in which everything works together perfectly. The advanced technologies in the operating system take full advantage of the 64-bit, multicore processors and GPUs to deliver the greatest possible performance. The built-in iSight camera works seamlessly with the iChat software so you can start a video chat with a click. Your Mac notebook includes a Multi-Touch trackpad that supports pinching, swiping, and other gestures. And the OS communicates with the hardware to deliver incredible battery life by spinning down the hard drive when it's inactive, by intelligently deciding whether the CPU or GPU is best for a task, and by automatically dimming the screen in low-light conditions.

Elegant interface and stunning graphics.
The most striking feature of a Mac is its elegant user interface, made possible by graphics technologies that are built to leverage the advanced graphics processor in your Mac. These technologies provide the power for things like multiway chatting, real-time reflections, and smooth animations. Fonts on the screen look beautiful and extremely readable. A soft drop shadow makes it clear at a glance which window is active and which ones are in the background. You can preview just about any type of file using Quick Look, and because the previews are high resolution, you can actually read the text. Built-in support for the PDF format means you can view or create PDFs from almost any application in the system.

Highly secure by design.
Mac OS X doesn't get PC viruses. And with virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself from other malicious applications. It was built for the Internet in the Internet age, offering a variety of sophisticated technologies that help keep you safe from online threats. Because every Mac ships with a secure configuration, you don't have to worry about understanding complex settings. Even better, it won't slow you down with constant security alerts and sweeps. And Apple responds quickly to online threats and automatically delivers security updates directly to your Mac.

Built for compatibility.
The versatility and power of Mac OS X make it compatible in almost any environment, including Windows networks. It works with virtually all of today's digital cameras, printers, and other peripherals without the need to manually download separate drivers. It opens popular file types such as JPG, MP3, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. In addition, Mac OS X includes built-in support for the industry-standard PDF format, so you can read and create PDFs from almost any application in the system--perfect for sharing work with colleagues whether they use a Mac or a PC. If you want to run Windows on your Mac, you can do that, too. And Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the only operating system with built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, so you can use your Mac at home and at work and have all your messages, meetings, and contacts in one place.

Innovation for everyone.
Mac OS X comes standard with a wide range of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities experience what the Mac has to offer--including many features you won't find in other operating systems at any price. For example, the built-in VoiceOver screen-reading technology makes it possible for those who are blind or have low vision to control their computer using key commands or gestures on a Multi-Touch trackpad. Mac OS X also offers out-of-the-box support for over 40 braille displays, including Bluetooth displays, and many other accessibility features, such as dynamic full-screen magnification, playback of closed captions, and a scalable screen.

Reliable to the core.
The core of Mac OS X is built on the same ultrareliable UNIX foundation that powers industrial-strength servers, helping to ensure that your computing experience remains free from system crashes and compromised performance. Even upgrading your Mac to the next version of Mac OS X is reliable and easy. It checks your applications to make sure they're compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible. If a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data. Best of all, upgrading doesn't require reformatting your drive; you can keep all your compatible applications, files, and settings. And if something goes wrong when you're using your Mac, Time Machine is there to keep automatic backups of everything on your drive.

Stacks for your stuff
A stack is a Dock item that gives you fast, direct access to folders and files. When you click a stack, the files within spring from the Dock in a fan or a grid, depending on the number of items (or the preference you set). Mac OS X starts you off with premade stacks for downloads, applications, and documents. The Downloads stack automatically captures files you download from Safari, Mail, and iChat. The Applications stack gives you fast access to all your applications. And the Documents stack is a great place to keep things like presentations, spreadsheets, and word processing files. The files in each stack can appear as large icons that preview their contents, so it's easy to find the right one before you click.

Stacks are scrollable, so you can easily view all items, and you can navigate through folders in a stack to see all the files inside the stack. Create as many stacks as you wish simply by dragging folders to the right side of your Dock.

All-new: Exposé in the Dock.
With Exposé now integrated into the Dock, you can view the open windows of a particular application with a click. Just click and hold any application icon in the Dock, and Exposé tiles the open windows of that application while causing the windows of other applications to fade away. The clutter cleared, you can easily find the document you need. A click makes it the active window, and pressing the Space bar gives you a full-screen preview of the window. That's not all you can do with Exposé in the Dock. When you drag a file onto a Dock icon, all the application's open windows pop up, so you can place the file in the right window--perfect if you want to attach a document to an email message.

Introducing the Finder.
The Finder is like home base for your Mac. Represented by the blue icon with the smiling face, it's one of the first things you see when you start working on your Mac. It lets you organize and access practically everything on your Mac, including applications, files, folders, discs, and shared drives on your network. You can also see rich, high-quality previews of the contents of your files. The Finder takes full advantage of the advanced technologies in Mac OS X--such as 64-bit support and Grand Central Dispatch--so it responds more quickly to your actions.

Meet the sidebar.
The sidebar in the Finder window is your starting point when browsing your Mac. If you've used iTunes, you'll feel right at home. Like iTunes, the sidebar is organized into categories to make it easy to locate your stuff--frequently accessed folders, CDs and DVDs, computers on your local network, and so on. With a few clicks, you're on your way to finding what you need. The sidebar also features a handy Search For section. It uses Spotlight search to let you quickly find files you've modified today, yesterday, or in the past week, or find all images, movies, or documents. Just click one of the folders and you'll see an up-to-the-minute list of files. And just like the Dock, you can customize the sidebar with your own search folders.

Instant networking.
Any Mac or PC on your home network automatically appears in the sidebar, allowing you to easily share files between them and even use Spotlight search and Cover Flow to search the other computers. And when you click a connected Mac, you can use screen sharing, which lets you see and control another Mac as if you were sitting in front of it--useful, for example, when you want to show someone how to use an application or feature.

See your files in Cover Flow.
Mac OS X helps you navigate everything on your Mac visually with an innovation called Cover Flow. Using Cover Flow, you can flip through your documents as easily as you flip through music in iTunes or bookmarks in Safari 4. Each file is displayed as a large preview of its first page, so you can actually see the contents of a document before opening it.

Three more ways to view.
You can also see your files in list view, which lets you easily sort them in different ways, including by file name, date modified, or file type. You can see them in column view, which lets you navigate through multiple folders quickly. And you can see them as large icons, up to 512 by 512 pixels in size. Icon view lets you thumb through a multipage document or watch a QuickTime movie right in the Finder, an easy way to find and view your stuff.

Exposé
Instantly view all open windows in stunning style with a single keystroke. Exposé unshuffles overlapping windows on your desktop into an organized thumbnail view, so you can quickly locate and switch to any window or get to any file on the desktop.

From chaos to order.
If you like to work with many applications and documents at the same time, you probably spend time each day poking through your open windows just to uncover the one you need at the moment. Wouldn't it be great if all you had to do was press one key to snap all of that window chaos into order?

That's exactly what Exposé does. With one keystroke, Exposé instantly tiles all your open windows, scales them down, and neatly arranges them, so you can see what's in every single one. And you definitely can see every one, because Exposé preserves the visual quality of the window in its reduced size. To see a full-screen preview, just press the Space bar.

That's not all. Move from one tiled window to the next and you'll see its title displayed at the bottom of the window. When you find the window you need, just click it. Magically, every window returns to full size, and the window you clicked--whether it's a folder, a PDF, a QuickTime movie, or a Word document--becomes the active window.

Opening files is so last year.
Quick Look is the innovative technology that gives you a sneak peek of entire files--even multiple-page documents and video--without opening them. All you have to do is select a file in the Finder and press the Space bar. An elegant transparent window appears, showing you the contents of the file instantly. It's great when you're looking for something specific but don't have time to open lots of files to find it.

See everything.
Quick Look works with nearly every file on your system, including images, text files, PDF documents, movies, Keynote presentations, Mail attachments, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. To see a file in Quick Look, you simply tap the Space bar or click the Quick Look icon in the Finder window. You can view the file in full screen, and you can open the application that created it with a double-click. Best of all, Quick Look works even if you don't have the application that created it--perfect when a colleague sends you a document that you couldn't otherwise open.

A Quick Look back in time.
You can use Quick Look to your advantage when you're searching for files to restore in Time Machine. Once you locate the file you're looking for, use Quick Look to verify its contents before restoring it to the desktop.

The need for speed.
Built into the core of Mac OS X, Spotlight delivers results so quickly because it indexes files on your computer in the background, so you never experience lag times or slowdowns. And when you make a change, such as adding a new file, email, or contact, Spotlight updates its index automatically, so search results are always up-to-the-moment accurate.

Kid-proof the Internet.
Start your kids' web exploration off on the right foot with Safari parental controls. Using the same technology that keeps your inbox free of junk mail, a content filter in Mac OS X takes a quick peek at websites before they load and tries to determine if they're suitable for kids. If they're not, Mac OS X blocks them from view. You can override this filter by creating lists of specific websites you want--or don't want--your children to see.

Mail, iCal, Address Book
Three built-in applications that work as one: Mail, iCal, and Address Book bring the power of Mac OS X to your email, calendar, and contacts. You get elegant, easy-to-use interfaces, lightning-fast searches, and complete integration across the applications and your Mac.

Mail: All your email accounts in one place.
Designed from the ground up specifically for email, Mail offers an elegant user interface that makes it easy to manage all your email from a single, ad-free inbox, even when you're not connected to the Internet. It works with most email standards--including POP3 and IMAP--and most popular email services, such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL Mail. If you have more than one email account, no problem. Just add all your accounts to Mail and you'll be able to access everything from one central place.

Microsoft Exchange Server Support
With Snow Leopard, Mac OS X is the only operating system with built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server. So you can use your Mac--with all the features and applications you love--at home and at work and have all your messages, meetings, and contacts in one place.

Data, detected.
Mail does more than just show email. It also analyzes the contents to help you act on them. Say you get an email inviting you to dinner at Gino's Pizza tomorrow at 6 p.m. Mail not only recognizes that 6 p.m. is the time, it knows that "tomorrow" represents a date on a calendar. So you can add the invitation to your iCal calendar by clicking the date, whether it's an actual date (October 18) or a relative date (tomorrow). It also knows that Gino's is a place, so you can click the address to view a Google map of the restaurant's location. And if the message includes a phone number or email address, you can add it to Address Book with just a click.

Show off slideshows from anywhere.
Why wait for a darkened room and a projector to present vacation photos or Keynote slides? Now you can do it all remotely, right in iChat. Put on a photo slideshow, click through a Keynote presentation, or play a movie--in full screen, accompanied by a video feed of you hosting--while your buddy looks on.

Share and share alike.
Thanks to iChat screen sharing, you and your buddy can observe and control a single desktop, so you can easily collaborate with a colleague, browse the web with a friend, or pick plane seats with your spouse. Share your own desktop or your buddy's--you both have control at all times. iChat initiates an audio chat when you start a screen sharing session, so you can talk things through while you're at it.

Child's play.
With iChat at home, you can enforce your "no talking to strangers" rule using parental controls that allow you to decide who your children can chat with online. Approve the buddies you trust and iChat blocks all attempts to send and receive IMs with anyone else. iChat also automatically hides or displays online status so that only buddies approved by you can see if your kids are online.

iTunes
iTunes plays all your digital music and video. It syncs content to your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. And it's an entertainment superstore that stays open 24/7.

Easy to customize.
With Mac OS X, it's easy to customize and use security features. Setting up secure file sharing, for example, involves a quick trip to System Preferences. FileVault lets you encrypt all the files in your Home folder with just a few clicks and a password of your choosing. The firewall comes preconfigured to block online intruders, but it's easy to make whatever changes you want.

Exercise parental control.
As a parent, you want your kids to have a safe and happy experience on the computer. Mac OS X keeps Parental Control an eye out even when you can't. With a simple setup in Parental Controls preferences, you can manage, monitor, and control the time your kids spend on the Mac, the sites they visit, and the people they chat with.

Don't go phishing.
Phishing is a form of fraud in which online thieves try to acquire sensitive information such as user names, passwords, and credit card details by creating fake websites that look like legitimate companies. The antiphishing technology in Safari protects you from such scams by detecting these fraudulent websites. If you visit a suspicious site, Safari disables the page and displays an alert warning you about its suspect nature.

Surf safely.
Mac OS X makes it easy to stay safe online, whether you're checking your bank account, sending confidential email, or sharing files with friends and coworkers. Features such as Password Assistant help you lock out identity thieves who are after personal data, while built-in encryption technologies protect your private information and communications.

Security without the hassle.
Mac OS X won't slow you down with constant Password Assistant security alerts and sweeps. Every Mac ships with a secure configuration so you don't have to worry about understanding complex settings. Just turn your Mac on and start working. When you need to be aware of something, it will let you know. And if you want to change the security configuration, just open System Preferences and make any adjustments.

System Requirements:

General requirements
• Mac computer with an Intel processor
• 1GB of memory
• 5GB of free disk space
• DVD drive for installation
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
• Some features require Apple's MobileMe service; fees and terms apply.
Feature-specific requirements
• Time Machine requires an additional hard drive or Time Capsule (sold separately).
• Photo Booth requires an iSight camera (built in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder. Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance.
• Boot Camp requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista (sold separately).
• Screen sharing in iChat and the Finder requires a 128-Kbps Internet connection (300 Kbps recommended).
• DVD Player requires a 1.6GHz processor or faster for improved deinterlacing.
• iChat: Audio chats require a microphone and a 56-Kbps Internet connection; Video chats require an iSight camera (built in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder; and a 128-Kbps upstream and downstream Internet connection; Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance; Some iChat features offer better performance and quality with higher system capabilities.
• Exchange Support requires Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4. Auto-setup requires enabling the Autodiscovery feature of Microsoft Exchange Server.
• QuickTime X movie capture requires iSight camera (built-in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder.
• QuickTime H.264 hardware acceleration requires a Mac with a NVIDIA 9400M graphics processor.
• Developer tools require 1GB of memory and an additional 3GB of available disk space.
• OpenCL requires NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, or GeForce GT 130; ATI Radeon 4850 or Radeon 4870
• 64-bit support requires a Mac with a 64-bit processor.
• Grand Central Dispatch requires a Mac with a multicore processor.