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Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6

Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6

Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh and current major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server certified Unix operating system.

Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, the goal with Snow Leopard was to improve performance, efficiency and reduce its overall memory footprint instead of to add new end-user features. Much of the software in Mac OS X was extensively rewritten for this release in order to fully take advantage of modern Macintosh hardware. New programming languages, such as OpenCL, were created, allowing software developers to utilize graphics cards in their applications. This is also the first Mac OS release since the introduction of System 7.1.2 that does not support the PowerPC architecture, as Apple now intends to focus on its current line of Intel-based products.

How to get Mac OS X Snow Leopard

With every new Mac.

Beginning August 28th 2009, every new Mac computer comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard.

If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, just purchase Mac OS X v10.6.3 Snow Leopard and follow the simple installation instructions.

Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.

If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set, which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6.3 Snow Leopard; iLife, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork, Apple’s productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard System requirements

  • Mac computer with an Intel processor
  • 1GB of memory
  • 5GB of available 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.

New look, new features for Exposé and Stacks

Exposé is refined and more convenient. It’s now integrated in the Dock, so you can just click and hold an application icon in the Dock and all the windows for that application will unshuffle so you can quickly change to another one. Exposé also has a whole new look. Windows are displayed in an organized grid, making it even easier to find what you’re looking for. And stacks — Dock items that give you fast access to a folder of files — are now scrollable, so you can easily view all items. You can also navigate through folders in a stack to see all the files inside it.

Quicker Time Machine backup

Introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, the revolutionary Time Machine made backing up your hard drive easy for the first time. Time Capsule took backup even further with its wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine. Now Mac OS X Snow Leopard makes Time Machine up to 80 percent faster and reduces the time it takes to complete your initial backup to Time Capsule.

Faster, more reliable installation

Upgrading your Mac has never been easier. For Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the entire process has been simplified, streamlined, and is up to 50 percent faster, yet more comprehensive and reliable.2 For example, Snow Leopard checks your applications to make sure they’re compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible. In case a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data.

The 64-bit transition

The entire computing industry is moving from 32-bit to 64-bit technology, and it’s easy to see why. Today’s Mac computers can hold up to 32GB of physical memory, but the 32-bit applications that run on them can address only 4GB of RAM at a time. 64-bit computing shatters that barrier by enabling applications to address a theoretical 16 billion gigabytes of memory, or 16 exabytes. It can also enable computers to crunch twice the data per clock cycle, which can dramatically speed up numeric calculations and other tasks. Earlier versions of Mac OS X have offered a range of 64-bit capabilities. Now Snow Leopard takes the next step in the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Built-in applications are now 64-bit

Nearly all system applications — including the Finder, Mail, Safari, iCal, and iChat — are now built with 64-bit code. So not only are they able to take full advantage of all the memory in your Mac, but the move to 64-bit applications also boosts overall performance. Together with other refinements and improvements in Snow Leopard, this means that just about everything you do — from launching applications like QuickTime to running JavaScript in Safari to opening image files — will feel faster and more responsive.

Ready for the future

The 64-bit support in Snow Leopard makes Mac OS X completely ready for whatever computing enhancements might arrive in the future. For example, Snow Leopard is ready to support up to 16 terabytes of RAM — about 500 times more than today’s Mac computers can accommodate. That may sound like more RAM than you’ll ever need, but who can predict the requirements of high-performance computers in the future? Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes prepared for anything.

More secure than ever

Another benefit of the 64-bit applications in Snow Leopard is that they’re even more secure from hackers and malware than the 32-bit versions. That’s because 64-bit applications can use more advanced security techniques to fend off malicious code. First, 64-bit applications can keep their data out of harm’s way thanks to a more secure function argument-passing mechanism and the use of hardware-based execute disable for heap memory. In addition, memory on the system heap is marked using strengthened checksums, helping to prevent attacks that rely on corrupting memory.

A graphic shift in performance

Now a new technology in Mac OS X Snow Leopard called OpenCL takes the power of graphics processors and makes it available for general-purpose computing. No longer will graphics processors be limited to graphics-intensive applications such as games and 3D modeling. Instead, once developers begin to use OpenCL in their applications, you’ll experience greatly improved speed in a wide spectrum of applications.

For example, sophisticated financial modeling techniques can be incorporated into desktop accounting software and personal finance software. Media applications can perform complex, intensive operations with larger video and graphics files. Games can have more realistic physics simulations. And scientists and researchers can tackle far more challenging problems using their everyday Mac computers.

Snow Leopard was announced by Steve Jobs on June 8, 2008 at WWDC 2008 but was not publicly unveiled until the following year on June 8, 2009 at the same conference. On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase from Apple’s website and its retail stores at the price of $29 for a single-user license. As a result of the low price, initial sales of Snow Leopard were significantly higher than that of its predecessors. The release of Snow Leopard came nearly two years after the introduction of Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard,” the second longest time span between successive Mac OS X releases.

How to Upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard on a Mac

If your Intel Mac is more than one year old, when you upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system take a little extra time to do a clean install and migrate your user files and settings afterwards. This will leave behind all the old system files you no longer need. It will also make your system run like the day it was new.

  1. Make a reliable back-up of your system before you begin. If you run into any problems, you can alway restore your system to the way it was before you began. Turn on Time Machine and make sure that it is set to back up the entire disk. Click on the Time Machine icon in the application folder and select the options button. Make sure that there are no folders listed in the Do not backup window. Once the backup is complete you can begin the Snow Leopard installation
  2. Now start up your Safari Web Browser. Go to the following web site by copying the following web address and pasting it into the address bar. Download a copy of CarbonCopy Cloner. This program will create an exact copy of your disk which will be used by the Snow Leopard installer to restore all your user information. Once you have downloaded the program, run it and follow the direction on how to make a copy of your hard drive.When the copy is done, reboot your Mac with your external drive still connected, holding down the option key to boot from the backup drive. Now you can confirm that everything is there.
  3. Unplug your backup drive and insert the Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD and begin the installation by following the on screen directions.
  4. You will be presented several installation options. Select the erase and install option. This will remove all your information from the drive and check the disk for any errors. Follow the remaining onscreen prompts and you will be up and running on Snow Leopard in no time.
  5. When the installation is complete you can use the built in migration assistant to copy all your settings over from the cloned version of your system.Boot up Snow Leopard and you’ll be presented with an option to migrate files and settings. Select “Other Mac” and plug your external drive back in.

    That is it. You have now completed your upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Converting DVD To AVI On Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Do you want to know how to convert dvd to avi on Mac OS X Snow Leopard? AVI format is created by windows and It is an uncompressed format which provides great quality. Read this article to find out how you can rip dvd to avi format on Mac.

  1. First of all, you need to download and install Wondershare DVD Ripper For Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Please scroll down and find the download link in “Resources’ section.After downloading, please mount the installer file and you should be able to install the software easily. After installing, please run the software and you should see this screen.
  2. Now, please insert the dvd in dvd drive which you want to convert into avi format. After inserting dvd, please wait for a moment and let your computer read it.
  3. Now click on “Load DVD” button in the the mac dvd ripper. This command will load all the chapters from the DVD including titles, subtitles etc.. You can see all the chapters and preview them If you want.

  4. Select output format to convert dvd to mac on Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

    Please select the chapters that you want to rip and skip others. If you want to rip the whole dvd, please select all the chapters or vice versa. The software will rip only those chapters which are selected. if you want to merge the ripped file into one long file, please select “Merge into one file” check box.

    Now you need to select the destination format. Please click on “Format” combo box and select “*.AVI” format. Please see this screen shot to know where the “Format” drop down list is.

  5. After selecting output format, please choose the “Output” folder. The output folder is the folder where the software will save converted files. Please click on “Browse” button and select the output path accordingly.
  6. Click on “Start” button to start converting dvd to avi format on Mac. The software will now extract all the data from DVD to your hard disk in original quality. This software also supports trim, crop, effects and lots of other useful features. I hope it was very easy to convert dvd to avi on Mac.

AVI To MP4 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Are you looking to convert avi files to mp4 format on Mac OS X Snow Leopard? Mac doesn’t provide an in-built way to convert between different formats and for this reason, you need to use a video converter for mac to do this! This article will outline how can you convert avi to mp4 on mac with great ease and retain the original quality of video.

  1. First of all, you need to download and install a Video Converter for Mac. In this article, we’ll use a very known and powerful video converter. Please scroll down the page and you can download it from the Resources section. Make sure that you choose the right version for your Intel or Power PC Mac.
  2. AVI To MP4 Converter For mac. After downloading the video converter, please install it in your system. Installing the software is very straight forward and you just need to go through some very easy and basic steps. After installing, please run the software. You’ll see a screen similar to this :
  3. Now you need to add the AVI files which you want to convert to MP4 format. Please click on “Add” button and locate the AVI files which you want to convert. Add those files in the software and you can even preview them to make sure you are converting the right ones. Though the software doesn’t modify the original AVI file in anyway but just creates another file with MP4 format.
  4. After adding the AVI files into the software, you need to select the output format. Please click on “Format’ combo box and you can choose any format from 100+ formats in the list. This software supports almost all video and audio formats so not only you can convert avi to mp4 on mac, but also you can walk between hundreds of different formats on Mac.
  5. After selecting the destination format, please select the output path by clicking on “Browse” button. This button is location next to the output path edit box. After selecting the output path, you are ready to convert the video. Please note that there are lots of other things you can do including trimming the video, cropping out black sides, applying effects on the video etc.. However you don’t need to use those functions unless you really want to make changes to the video.
  6. if you want to combine all video files into a single mp4 file, please make sure that you check the check box which say “Apply To All”. Now click on “Start” button and that’s it. The software will convert your avi file into mp4 format and you can find the converted file in output folder.

Changing Default Programs in Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Changing the default programs for a file type in Mac OS X Snow Leopard is intuitive and easy. Learn how to change the default program association of a JPG file as an example. Changing file type associations is done in the same way for any file type.

  1. In an open Finder window, select the file which has the default program association you wish to change. After you select the file, go to “File” and “Get Info” in the Mac OS X menu bar.
  2. Once you have opened the “Get Info” window, you will be given a number of choices in arrowed/tabbed drop-down windows. The fifth option is “Open With.” Click on the arrow to expand the window, and you will see a multiple-selection clickable dialog box that shows the current application selected for the file association.
  3. Let’s say, for example, the file you wish to change the file association for is a JPG file. The current association is for a JPG file to open in Preview, but you wish to change it to Photoshop. Select the pop-up dialog box and you will be presented with the available applications on your computer that can read a JPG file. Drag down and select Photoshop and click. Photoshop should now be selected in the “Open With” pop-up dialog box.
  4. Selecting Photoshop only changes the association of just the file selected. To change the file association of all the JPG files, click on the “Change All” button, and you will be presented with a warning window that will ask if you’re sure you want to change the file type association. If you are sure, click “Continue.” All of your JPGs will now open with a simple double-click in Photoshop.

Installing Quicktime 7 On Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Apple’s video program, Quicktime, underwent some major changes during Apple’s transition to the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. Although many people like the new iteration of Quicktime (called Quicktime X), other people do not like it because it lost a lot of features that its predecessor, Quicktime 7, has.

If you are among the group of people who wish to revert back to Quicktime 7, don’t fret. There is a way to do just that. Follow these quick and easy steps to get Quicktime 7 back:

  1. Put the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system disk into your computer. If you bought a brand new Mac, this is one of the cds that came included with the computer.
  2. Open the folder labelled “Optional Installs.” Inside you will see a file called “Optional Installs.mpkg.” Open this file.
  3. In the menu that comes up, find Quicktime 7. You will then be able to install Quicktime 7 on your computer.
  4. Once installed, open the Utilities folder on your computer. Quicktime 7 will now be there!

Changing Your Mac OS X Snow Leopard Computer Name

This article will show you how to change the name of a Mac running Snow Leopard in regards to all aspects of a given network.

  1. Open Network Preferences. Open “System Preferences” from the Apple menu or the dock and click on “Network”.
  2. Click the “Advanced” button to access the WINS settings for the Mac. (Your screen may look different than mine depending upon which network adapters are in use, but the “Advanced” button is always in the same place in the lower right.)
  3. Specify WINS NetBIOS and Workgroup names. Click on the WINS section of the advanced network preferences and type in the “NetBIOS Name” (ie. the new Mac computer name) and “Workgroup” (this should match the workgroup name specified on Windows computers on your network.) Click the “OK” button to save the advanced settings and then the “Apply” button to save the network settings.
  4. Return to the “System Preferences” window and click on “Sharing”.
  5. Type in the new Mac computer name in the “Computer Name” text field at the top of the window. If sharing is turned on the text describing the type of sharing should reflect your newly changed name.
  6. Change hostname via the terminal. I found at this point that my sharing name and my terminal prompt were stuck using my old computer name. I ultimately determined this was due to the name being cached on the network. In order to fix this I began by changing my hostname via the terminal. Open the “Terminal” application and enter in the command: sudo scutil -set HostName [NewMacComputerName]
  7. Next flush the DNS cache on the Mac by entering the command: dscacheutil -flushcache
  8. Finally reboot the Mac and if your home router provides DNS services like mine does reboot that as well.

How to Repair Disk Permissions in Mac OS X Snow Leopard

During normal use of your Mac, these permissions can be modified from their default values for a number of reasons. It is good practice to periodically “Repair Permissions”, which sets the permissions back to their default values. This keeps Mac OS X Snow Leopard running smoothly and often both solves and prevents a wide variety of problems.

  1. Open the “Disk Utility” application by double clicking “Macintosh HD” on your desktop, double clicking the “Applications” folder, and then double clicking the “Utilities” folder. The “Disk Utility” application is located in this folder. Double click on “Disk Utility” (see image) to open the application.
  2. When the Disk Utility application opens, click on “Macintosh HD” on the left side of the window (see image). On the top of the window, make sure you are on the “First Aid” tab.
  3. At the bottom of the window, click on the “Repair Disk Permissions” button. The system will begin repairing permissions.
  4. Disk Utility will report the progress and permissions that have been repaired in the center of the screen.
  5. When complete, Disk Utility will print “Permissions repair complete”. At this point you have successfully repaired your Mac OS X Snow Leopard Disk Permissions. You can now exit Disk Utility and continue to use your Mac as normal.

How to Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Snow Leopard was released by Apple in August on 2009. If your Intel Mac currently has Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you can upgrade to Snow Leopard. The Box Set is for Tiger users and also contains iLife 09 and iWork 09.

  1. Insert the Mac OS X Snow Leopard disk into your Mac’s DVD drive. You will see an installation icon appear.
  2. Double click the icon for Mac OS X installation. You will see the welcome window and the licensing agreement.
  3. Read the software license agreement. If you agree, choose that option. You will now see a pane where you can choose a disk.
  4. Choose the Mac OS X disk.
  5. Choose customize if you want to select certain options, such as fonts and printer drivers. Click OK after you have customized.
  6. Finally, click install then enter your Mac password in the pane that will open to install Mac OS X 10.6. This will close any applications that you have open and will install Snow Leopard.

How to Rip DVD On Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Want To Rip DVD on Mac OS X Snow Leopard? DVD Ripping on Mac is very easy provided you have the right dvd ripper for Mac. It is essential that you focus on quality and dvd ripping speed while selecting a dvd ripper for Mac. You may not be happy to spend a day just trying to rip a single DVD so you should be fully aware of what you are using. This tutorial will outline how to Rip DVD On Mac with their latest operating system, Snow Leopard.

  1. First of all, you need to download a DVD Ripper For Mac. I would strongly recommend downloading and installing Wondershare DVD Ripper For Mac from the resources section on this page. Just scroll down the page and you’ll see the download link in “Resources” section. This software is one of the most powerful dvd ripper for Mac.
  2. After downloading, please install the software. Installing is pretty straight forward. You need to click on the installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions thereon. You don’t need to be a tech to install the software.
  3. Once you have successfully installed the software on Snow Leopard, please insert the DVD in DVD Drive which you want to rip. Now, please run the software and click on “Load” DVD button. Clicking on this button will show you a dialog box where you need to choose the DVD. Please select the DVD and then in right panel, please select “Video_TS” folder. This is the folder where the movie files reside on a DVD.
  4. Loading the DVD in this Mac DVD Ripper will show you all the chapters and its sub titles. Now you can fully control what you want to Rip. You can either rip the full chapters or the sub titles. You just need to check the check boxes which you want to rip. Most likely, you want to rip the whole DVd so select all the chapters.
  5. Now before you start ripping dvd on Mac, you can do several other enhancement to the DVD Video. You can adjust brightness, contrast and other factors on the fly. You can also crop out black portions from the video and make the video look bigger. This software supports Trim, Crop and many other effects. You can also merge several chapters together while ripping the DVD on mac.
  6. Now you need to select the format in which you want to rip the DVD. Sometimes, you may just want to rip the dvd in Mp4 format on you mac or you may want to rip it for your iPod, iPhone and other similar devices. There are lots of formats you can choose from. It is very unlikely that you won’t find a format of your choice in the software. You need to click on the “Format” combo box and choose the desired format. In the later version of this software, the formats are categorized so It is very easy to find your desired format.
  7. Now select the “OutPut Folder” where you want the files to be ripped. Make sure to select the drive which has ample space on it. Now everything is set and you are ready to start ripping the DVD. click on “Start” button and that’s it! The software will start ripping the dvd and you can preview what is being ripped. You can also see elapsed time and remaining time in the software.
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