14 DAY TRIAL // AppleInsider claims to have heard from reliable sources that Snow Leopard would include tools that allow developers to determine the geographical location of Macs, as well as extend additional support for multi-touch to their apps. The tools are allegedly borrowed from the iPhone.
"People familiar with the latest pre-release distributions of the next-gen OS say the software now includes the CoreLocation framework previously available via the iPhone SDK, which will allow Mac applications to identify the current latitude and longitude of the Macs on which they're running," reads the report.
It is known that Macs do not include GPS technology / functionality, like the iPhone 3G. Alternately, Mac will have CoreLocation using an existing networking hardware to achieve the desired results.
Core Location is a software framework in Mac OS X. It is primarily used by applications on the iPhone OS 2.0 for detection of the device's location. It was announced as part of the iPhone Software Roadmap event on March 6, 2008, and was made available as part of the iPhone SDK.
According to the people familiar with Apple's plans, developers writing applications for Snow Leopard will have access to a new set of Cocoa-based programming interfaces. As such, developers will be able to leverage the multi-touch features of the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros within the newly developed applications, says the report.
The source previously revealed Apple's plans for a new multi-touch framework in an article last year titled "Five undisclosed features of Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard." In the report, the source noted that said framework would "consist of code libraries and functions that ordinary developers can use to enhance their applications with the same multi-touch capabilities currently available in Apple-born apps like Safari and iPhoto, and do so with ease."
It is no surprise that this information is surfacing now (provided it is accurate), since Google only recently announced plans to deliver its own software enabling iPhone and Mac users to broadcast their location information over the web, the source suggests.
While other major changes have been hinted at in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the looks and the feel of the latest test builds say another story. Apple is expected to ship OS X 10.6 in the first half of 2009.