OS X :: Glimpse At Snow Leopards More Subtle Refinements

While many of the changes present in betas of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard have been discussed at length by Apple followers, one tester has taken to the web with observations on some of the more subtle refinements spread through the most recent build of the next-gen operating system. AppleInsider reader inewton1974 pointed us to an annotated Flickr album of nearly four dozen Snow Leopard screenshots he published a bit earlier in the week. He begins by noting that the software's setup assistant will now warn users if they don't supply a password hint and claims that QuickLook capabilities have been built into universal Open and Save dialog windows.

Another interesting discovery is Apple's use of transition effects within the new Cocoa-based Finder. In particular, the Clean Up command for tidying Finder windows reportedly "slides" icons into place instead of shifting them abruptly. This is described as a "a neat visual effect," and several others similar to it are likely to follow. The Finder also present an slider control for resizing icons in the lower right-hand corner of windows displayed in icon mode, as can be seen in the first screenshot below. Additionally, it's noted that a QuickTime preference pane is absent from Snow Leopard, as are any preferences from within the QuickTime X Player itself, leading to renewed speculation that Apple may do away with its premium QuickTime Pro offering entirely. A series of screenshots with inewton1974's observations follows:.......................