Apple OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Unleashed
Interested customers and solution providers can order OS X 10.6 through the Apple Store today. The family edition of Snow Leopard costs $49 while an instance for a single user to update the operating system costs $29.
The low cost of the software update may be due to the fact that OS 10.6 isn't packed with as many features as some of the previous iterations of Apple's operating systems.
When Apple released OS X 10.5 Leopard, the Cupertino Crew focused on the sheer number of features that would be included with the upgrade. For this release, Apple has taken something of a different tack, instead focusing on the value of the architectural changes that come with Snow Leopard.
Snow Leopard will include Grand Central, a set of technologies that add support for multicore processors and parallel computing, as well as full 64-bit support.
Excited devotees can also look forward to added security in Snow Leopard as Apple yesterday revealed that OS X 10.6 would include a built-in antimalware feature. The tool will provide antivirus and Web-scanning tools aimed at fighting the recent proliferation of Mac-specific malicious attacks.
Even while Snow Leopard allows Apple fans to update for the relatively low cost of $29, online retail outfit Amazon.com was not to be outdone. Amazon cut its price from $29 for a single user upgrade to $25, representing a 14 percent savings. Meanwhile, the price of the family pack edition of OS X 10.6 dropped to $44 from $49.