The version of Flash included in Mac OS X 10.6 is not the latest version and includes a vulnerability, according to Adobe.

Get the current Flash player here

Fujitsu has posted a compatibility chart for Mac OS X 10.6.

Unfortunately, OCR is not working atm, but there appears to be a fix coming.

Thanks to Matt for this link to MacOS X Hints about a tip to easily change your sound input preferences in 10.6.

Simply hold down option while clicking the sound (speaker) icon in the menu bar!

I have my MacBook Pro set up to require a password when I try to wake my laptop, or use it after the screensaver has come on.

This morning I went to use the machine and it was not asleep, I could tell from the status of the light, and the screen was lit, but there was no screensaver, and no security dialog asking me to log in. No manner of keyboard tapping, pressing ESC, etc helped.

I logged in remotely over SSH and killed the screensaver process, but that didn’t help either.

I then unplugged the mouse from the laptop and suddenly the machine came alive, asking me to log in.

If you use Dropbox, you might want to check out this experimental 10.6 Snow Leopard build.

Using the previous release of Dropbox, I noticed that when sleeping and going to a different wifi network, then waking up, Dropbox would sometimes use 100% of the CPU and get stuck in a loop.

This new version claims to be more 10.6 compatible, and it does start up very quickly!

Snow Leopard uses 64 bit applications throughout the system. This is good for everyone, but sometimes older 32 bit code cannot work hand in hand with newer 64 bit code.

An example of this is System Preference panes. If you try to use an older 32 bit preference panel, System Preferences will quit and re-launch in 32 bit mode.

The next time you launch System Preferences, it will reset to 64 bit so you’ll be re-launching System Preferences often until those older preference panes are re-written.

This compatibility issue applies to all plugins, such as Mail.app plugins, when the host application is delivered as a 64 bit version.

Steve

P.S. Original Mac Book Pros, iMacs and minis shipped in 2006 are 32 bit computers and won’t run into this issue as they cannot use the faster 64 bit code

Time Capsule

1. Backing up over 802.11n to a Time Capsule is much, much, much fast now. Finishing still takes time, but the overall
2. Using the Time Machine UI is much faster to load and to search back through time
3. There is a new “Calculating Changes” phase in the Time Machine menu while a backup is being performed
4. Spotlight only uses 250mb when indexing after a backup, vs the 700mb it used in Leopard
5. There is a bug where sometimes your time machine can show as having no data. The workaround for now is to cancel out of time machine, and enter it again.

Finder

1. The Finder will tell you which application is keeping a disk from being ejectable
2. Navigating around mounted volumes is faster
3. You can choose the default spotlight search via the Finder’s Advanced preferences. Your options are Search This Mac, Search the Current Folder, Use the Previous Search Scope. Under Leopard, Spotlight behaved like the default “Search This Mac” option. I think most users will enjoy the “Search This Folder” option.

Menubar

1. The international menu displays a new palette icon if you are just showing the character or keyboard palettes in the menu

Safari 4

1. Even faster under Snow Leopard
2. 32bit plugins do not work, you’ll need 64 bit versions, or open Safari in 32bit mode by selecting the Safari application in the Finder, choosing “File Info” from the File menu and then checking “Open in 32-bit mode”

Rosetta

1. Rosetta, the technology that allows a Macintosh with an Intel CPU to run programs written for older PPC machines is no longer installed by default. However, if you try to run one of those programs, the Mac will offer to install Rosetta without needing the Snow Leopard DVD

Mail

1. Mail is much faster to launch
2. Mail disables incompatible, 32 bit plugins

Spotlight

1. Spotlight searches are much faster, particularly to bring up applications.
2. You can now type/edit in the Spotlight menu during searches without that annoying lag. The UI is very responsive

Installing

1. You can install onto a non-boot volume without rebooting onto the Snow Leopard DVD
2. The option to Erase and install is gone. Installs are now upgrades only. If you want to erase, you can use the Utilities menu to erase the hard drive.
3. An upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard, with default settings except for turning off extra languages, took 29 minutes
4. When choosing what to install, the Installer can look on the network for “nearby” printers and install those drivers only

Printing

1. The first time you print to a printer, Snow Leopard will query the printer and determine its characteristics.
2. Snow Leopard now displays ink level information right in the print dialog, even for my Canon which never grabbed proper ink information before. Choose Supply Levels from the print options popup menu (You might have to disclose the print dialog first)

System Preferences

1. System Preferences is now 64 bit. Like all plugins, it requires 64 bit preference panes, however, if you choose an older 32 bit pane, System Preferences will offer the option to re-launch in 32bit mode. System Preferences does this every time you launch it.
2. The Login Items section of Accounts now lists global login items (those installed for all users), but does not allow you to delete them. However, this is a great way to get alerted that something system wide is installed.

Screen Sharing

1. If you reboot a remote Mac via screen sharing, the screen sharing app will wait and try to reconnect once the reboot is complete.

Stacks

1. Stacks can now be navigated by keyboard, both by typing the name of a file or folder, or with the arrow keys

Dock Exposé

New to the Dock is Dock Exposé. If you click and hold on an application icon, the windows on your screen will all hide and be replaced with just the windows for the clicked upon application.

Another click restores your windows. This is great for “peeking” at an application’s windows. For example, you can peek at mail to see what is new, or peek at an application, determine you don’t need it open at the moment, choose “Quit” from the menu that popped up when you entered Dock Expose, and then be immediately back to your current working set of windows without the hide/tab/unhide/reorder game.

You can also press TAB while in Dock Expose mode and tab through the windows for each application, one at a time.

You can also mouse over a window while holding down the mouse button in Dock Exposé and then press the space bar. This will let you Quick Look a window.

And lastly, if you see a window you want to focus on, just click it while in Dock Expose mode!

Services

The services menu, found under your Application’s menu, is finally usable. If nothing is selected, the Services menu is empty, other than an option to open the services’ preferences.

However, if you select text, you get options for text only. No more ugly awful menu. And better yet, the menu is broken up into sections, such as stickies, or mail related, or my new favorite, Search with Google, which has the shortcut of command-shift-L.

Run the Snow Leopard installer while booted in Leopard. Don’t boot from the DVD and run the updater that way. I have confirmed that the Snow Leopard updater is smarter if you start it while booted from your Macintosh’s hard disk.

The following bugs/conflicts exist in Snow Leopard 10.6.0:

1. It is reported that the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M is not compatible, and that a user was told to “contact Apple.”
2. If you use a Time Capsule wirelessly, sometimes when entering Time Machine your capsule’s history may not appear. Canceling Time Machine and re-entering it will resolve the issue.
3. I have experienced random hard locks on a MacBook Pro with 9600GT while playing World of Warcraft.
4. 1Password 2 is not 64 bit compatible and thus requires a paid upgrade to version 3 in order to work in Safari 64 bit. You can change Safari to run in 32 bit mode, but you lose the crash protection and it is still not supported by Agile.
5. IRC client Linkinus users will need to upgrade to version 2.0.2
6. iShowU 1.7.2 creates movies that are scaled incorrectly. iShowUHD works better but is a paid upgrade.
7. Mail can hang and not be able to be quit unless force quit.
8. Movies may open with the new QuickTime X player, or the older QuickTime 7 Pro player, which is included to provide functionality dropped by the newer player. If you have movies opening in the older player, select one, choose Get Info from the Finder’s File menu, and use the Open With… section to change which player the movie will open with, then click Change All…
9. The new QuickTime X Player is not smart about opening really tall, narrow movies. It will clip the in-window controls.
10. The System UI agent that does things like updating the iCal icon to have the proper date can silently crash, leaving your iCal dock icon showing the improper date.

If you use 1password and planning to upgrade to Snow Leopard, then you’re looking at a paid upgrade to 1password 3.0. I personally don’t like this, but you’ll really want the 64 bit support, because that allows crappy Flash to crash without taking down the rest of Safari.

Check out their website for more info

That’s right! Apple has announced that Snow Leopard is shipping early.

On Friday I’ll be posting what I know about Snow Leopard!