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There are some never-ending ‘wars’, you know, like Autobots over Decepticons, girls are smarter than boys, and Mac vs Windows. Right now, we are in the latter phase.
Windows marked out the date in October for its general release of new operating system Windows 7, but were pipped by the folks at Apple who unleashed their latest OS,Snow Leopard in September.
Both platforms have their share of staunch followers, and for those individuals, fair warning is now given - there may be cause for offense ahead as a brief comparison of the two new operating systems will be given.
Down to the bare-essentials, both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, also known as Mac OS X v10.6, are much smaller programs. This means, less space is taken up on your device after it’s installed.
Apple to Apple, the Snow Leopard takes up less than half the disk space compared to the previous version, the Leopard (Mac OS X v10.5.8).
While I have yet to install the Windows 7, my experience of loading the release candidate proved to be quick and painless.
The process of installing the new Apple operating platform also proved much faster and relatively easy.
I managed to load the Snow Leopard into a Macbook pro running a Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, in about an hour. But it’s not a good idea to simply pop in the Snow Leopard disc and walk off.
Once the machine is re-started, you might be confused as there is no discernible difference, with even the files and folders you had before the installation remaining as they were.
To be very sure, you need to check the System Profiler under software which should read Mac OS X v10.6.
Of course, the easier way is to simply dive straight in and explore.
The Dock will now include Expose, which means it’s easier to search your Mac as all you need to to is click and hold an application icon in the Dock. This allows you to view in a grid or stack format which you can scroll through before opening up that one you need.
Especially useful for the Asian region and all those who want to take up or brush up on Mandarin as a second language, is the Snow Leopard’s smart and intuitive use of the trackpad to recognise Chinese script.
In the past, Mandarin input was through the keypad using Hanyu Pinyin which though easier, isn’t the best way to keep up with the language.
Now, Snow Leopard allows users to literally write Chinese characters on the trackpad and see it on-screen along with a choice of other characters to make up the relevant word.
A personal favourite which I'm sure most will also love, is the new QuickTime.
We all know it as a player, but now it's much more than that.
You can now carry out simple edits of clips that you open in Quicktime with a simple to use interface.
It's just a matter of choosing the thumbnail of the part you want to keep or cut. If it's too long, just drag the portions to shorten them.
With the new Quicktime you can even record what's on-screen, yes, even a movie that you're streaming.
But rights aside, you wouldn't want to upload or share a screen capture recording as it's almost like the pirated movies hawked on the street after someone sneaks a camera into a cinema to film what's on the screen, along with patrons getting up for popcorn or a toilet break.
Those who use Microsoft at work and Apple at home, will also love the Snow Leopard's ability to interface with Outlook so it's much easier to access email, calendars and contacts.
Best of all, the Snow Leopard will have your machine running noticeably faster, and that starts from the moment you boot-up.
The down-side to all of this is that the new operating system can only be used with newer Macs that run on Intel chips.
So if you've been holding on to a well-used, much-loved, Mac-oldie, it's time to make a stand - hold on or move on.
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