Apple has only said September as the release date for Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, but some people are reporting that it may be released ahead of schedule.  With the possible release date being just around the corner, this gives people just a little bit of time to figure out if they want to update their Mac’s or wait.  Are the new features worth the $29 upgrade?

Apple has not updated the Mac OS X site yet with a release date.  The only thing they have is a contact form to get notified as soon as it is available.Features:

• 45% faster installation
• faster boot times
• quicker shutdown
• speedier process when joining wireless networks
• faster backups to Time Machine
• built-in applications now in 64-bit
• OpenCL
• video editing inside Quicktime X
• improved Microsoft Exchange Server support

That’s just a brief overview of the features.  I’m looking forward to the new Quicktime X and video editing.  Lots of the Quicktime Pro features were put into Quicktime X, so there should be a lot more there now.  So is it worth it to upgrade?  I’d say yes, for $29 why not.  There are some people who won’t want to upgrade right away, waiting for the first update to fix any issues.  Beyond that there really is no reason why you should’t upgrade.  The price is right and the feature set is great.  I’ll be upgrading as soon as it comes out.

Tags: Microsoft Exchange Server, OpenCL, Quicktime X, Snow Leopard