Reasons why you'll want Apple's new Snow Leopard OS

Although some might consider it more of a refinement over Leopard, Apple promises to bring the goods with their latest OS, Snow Leopard. As of now, the OS has a street date of early September, giving Mac users just a few weeks to decide whether they'll be upgrading. So what's new with Snow, and is it worth the relatively low $29 to upgrade?

Much of the changes will be noticed with the performance of your machine. Snow's install time will be 45 percent quicker than Leopard. Additionally, you'll notice much faster boot and shut down times, which to me is reason enough to upgrade. Once booted up, connecting to a wireless network and using the Time Machine back up functions will both be much faster as well.

Application wise, Snow brings with it Quicktime X. X will include features previously exclusive to the pay version, now for free. One of those features is video editing! You can even record audio and video using X.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 users will be happy to know the application received improved supported with Snow, integrating Mail, iCal and Address Book. Outlook users will be able to view their calendar, mail and other features through their personal computers as well.

So is it worth it? We think so. Paying 30 bucks for hardware enhancements is always worth it in my mind. While some of you many not care about the application improvements, your better off staying in the Snow.

Thanks, CNET's Erica Ogg