World of Apple, which usually posts entire sets of release notes / seed notes the instant Apple makes a new move in the Snow Leopard area, has “refrained” itself from such activities in exchange of having a closer look at the new OS version. While still very similar to the currently available OS X Leopard version, the latest Snow Leopard build does hide a few noteworthy changes that are sure to appease power users.

According to a (translated) Macitynet.it report, Mac OS X 10.6 Build 10A261 was the newest build arriving on developers' footsteps since December's 10A222 release. As Macity's sources indicate, Mac OS X 10.6 Build 10A26 seemed to contain very few to no noticeable changes. Still, a noticeable improvement in stability was reported.

“The interface has not been revised and currently there are only small changes in System Preferences, have been resolved a few bugs in the Finder and little else,” goes a rough translation of the report. “According to the sources of Macity the impression is that this release is more reliable than those previously distributed.”

However, the aforementioned source has found more than stability improvements within the latest Snow Leopard build, which also indicates development is coming along. Some of those findings include:

1- “Minor UI changes” to the System Preferences
2- The Keyboard Shortcuts Preference pane is now considerably easier to use
3- Application footprints in Snow Leopard are significantly reduced. Almost all of the applications have been rebuilt in Cocoa and 64 bit
4- The majority of running processes are now Intel (64 bit)
5- The new Put Back feature allows deleted files to be returned to the folder they were deleted from
6- You can now navigate the folder structure in Stacks.


Snow Leopard screenshots depicting the above mentioned changes in their actual order
Credits: World of Apple

Also revealed by serious messing around with the new Snow Leopard build was that Mail.app now has a significantly smaller application footprint. Also, there's an option now to open applications in 32 bit mode.

Additionally, what Apple itself has touted as a big feature of Snow Leopard – Quick Time X has yet to make an appearance in developer builds of OS X 10.6. Lastly, All QuickTime Pro features are now enabled in QuickTime by default, which confirms a recent QuickTime / Snow Leopard rumor.