Snow Leopard: Days 1-2

Thanks to a pre-order from Amazon on August 3, a copy of Snow Leopard arrived on my doorstep August 28. The install was uneventful–typical of Mac OS X installs. I put in the DVD, clicked through a few dialog boxes, went to run a couple of errands. When I got back, I logged in as usual.

So far, I haven’t noticed many differences between Leopard and Snow Leopard.  The few of note:

• Hard drive space.  Before installing Snow Leopard, I had around 14GB of free space.  After installing Snow Leopard (and the latest version of XCode) I have 27GB of free space.  It’s quite a bit more freed space than the 7GB Apple advertised
• Printing.  I have a HP LaserJet 1022.  I had to re-install it after upgrading to Snow Leopard and use an Apple driver.  It still works just fine.
• Battery Status.  Apple added information on battery health.  Since my MacBook Pro is closing in on 3 years old, the “Service Battery” message is most likely correct.  Apple Support already has a thread about it.  Another thing I’ve noticed which may also be new to Snow Leopard is that I’m getting battery life percentages for my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as well.
• Character/Keyboard Viewer.  A new widget in the upper-right of the screen.  I haven’t found any particular use for it yet.
• Mail.  When I first started it, the app prompted me for some sort of upgrade.  Once it was done, the notes from my iPhone showed up under a Reminders item.
• Quicken.  I’m still using Quicken 2007 for Mac, so I saw a little prompt about Rosetta when I first launched it.  What I really need to do is get out of Quicken 2007 into something else, but that’s a subject for another post.

I can’t say I’ve noticed any speed differences one way or the other so far–but it’s only been a couple of days.