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Well, Snow Leopard is here and a couple RustyBrick employees went to the Apple Store on launch day to grab our copies. So, let's dscuss the purchasing, unboxing and installation experience.
Purchasing:
We strolled into the Apple Store in West Nyack, NJ (located in the Palisades Mall). We were greeted by one of employees, told her we wanted "10.6" and we were directed to a large table, sectioned off by those elastic security ropes you see at stores to keep lines of people together. For some reason, we couldn't touch the copies stacked neatly on the table. The lady had to reach and grab them... Maybe because they're not sensored and they don't want people walking out with them? Not quite sure... (Also note, I didn't take a photo because the Apple Store does not allow photography to be taken in the store, so we kept in store photography to a minimum. Sorry.)
Wesley, my RustyBrick co-worker wanted the Snow Leopard Box Set for his Mac Pro. I wanted the regular Snow Leopard upgrade. Mike, another RB'er, tagged along for the ride. The Box Set is different than the upgrade. It has Snow Leopard upgrade, iLife '09 and iWork '09. I went for just the upgrade because I already have the other programs. Firstly, I was surprised at the outer packaging. Very minimal. Both packages were not much bigger than a CD. My upgrade copy was as thick as a standard CD jewel case. Wesley's Box Set was about twice as thick, but still only about 1" thick. Each was plastic shrink-wrapped. To the left, you can see both versions and the Apple handheld checkout thing. (Which runs on Windows Mobile OS, by the way.) So, a couple credit swipes later, we were off and rushing back to work. But first we stopped for Chinese in the food court, because they have tasty Chicken Teriaki.
Packaging:
| The way Apple packages their products is unique. Mac fans always describe the unboxing as an "experience". So does Snow Leopard upgrade stack up to other products? Well, as mentioned previously, the box is very small. After tearing through the shrink wrap and opening the box, you pull out a large insert from the exposed tab. The insert is emblazoned with the classic "Designed by Apple in California." After pinching the sides, you slip out contents of the insert exposing the following: Instruction Book, Support Information, Apple Stickers and, of course, the Snow Leopard CD.The Instruction Book really isn't much of an Instruction Book; its more of a list of all the new stuff the CD contains. The CD is protected by a thin plastic sleeve. So, as far as packaging is concerned, it's not bad for a cheap $29 upgrade CD. It probably would've been even better in a traditional large software box, but I generally just end up throwing them out anyway. |   |
Installation:
Installation is even more fool-proof this time around. I inserted the CD and was greeted with a window with an icon to begin the installation. The window says "this will install Snow Leopard, yada yada". OK. You choose which HDD you want to install it to (in my case, just the one) and installation begins. No restart required. So, I started the stopwatch at 2:10pm and the installation reported "1 hour and 12 minutes remaining". Now, this seems high. Other reports regarding installation said somewhere between 20 minutes and 45 minutes. But, I wait it out. 18 minutes pass (my computer says 55 minutes remaining)... but then my computer suddenly restarts by itself. (Luckily, I already closed all open applications, but I figure it would've prompted me to close anyway...) 
I figure I just set the World Record for Snow Leopard installation! But no, unfortunately, it loads back to up to the installion screen again. (And this time, only the installation screen, no OS..) It now reports 33 minutes. 25 minutes later, I finally get the coveted "Less than one minute remaining" and then finally "The installation is complete".
When my computer restarts, I get nervous. I've heard some stories from other Snow Leopard users reporting loss of settings including resetting of wallpapers, forgetting wireless networks/passwords, etc. But luckily, I see my wallpaper, which means I'm probably in good shape. The classic flying through space "Welcome/Wilkhommen" intro video plays, like it always does and then I'm done. Time from beginning to end took me 51 minutes. (3:01pm ending time)
All in all, it was a cinch, pop in CD and hit Go. Very Apple-esque. But what does Snow Leopard change? What new stuff does it bring to the table? Well, you're going to have to wait for the next post!
Alex worked on several successful e-commerce websites before joining the RB team. He graduated from SUNY Purchase with a Bachelor's in Math & Computer Science.
This article is under Apple, Mac Operating System
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