In no particular order, my impressions after half a week of using Snow Leopard:

1. The user interface feels far more "instant" than even Leopard's. I love that menus finally seem to render as smoothly as they did under OS 9 and that opening and navigating folders is nigh instantaneous. Makes my trusty 2006-vintage MacBook Pro feel like a new machine!

2. I appreciate that the Time Machine menu bar icon is gray when it is off. I think the MobileMe icon should also follow suit when it is not set to sync automatically.

3. I discovered the new Input Source HUD by accident (and appreciate the after-the-fact illumination by Joe Weaks), which appears when you linger on the "Select the previous input source" shortcut (default shortcut: option-space, defined in the Keyboard preference pane). It seems like it'll be quicker and more accurate to pick from that list than the roulette-style repetitive cmd-opt-space that I ordinarily use. But I'll have to think of another shortcut, since I sometimes need to type sticky spaces.

4. Address Book can now export vCards with notes and photos.

5. I saw a black and white beachball cursor once!

Technorati Tags:

Apple, Mac, Snow Leopard, UI