14 DAY TRIAL // Along with the release of any major OS update, Apple rolls out the Server version too. Not surprisingly, Apple has also set up the Mac OS X Server website for Snow Leopard, which offers some insight on the new features it brings from its ice-cold dome to the rock-solid OpenCL foundation. Some highlights below:
Cal Server 2: the calendaring and scheduling service offers group and shared calendars, push notifications, and the ability to send invites to non-iCal Server users; a web-based app lets folks access their calendars when away from their computers.
Podcast Producer 2 is an "end-to-end solution" for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts, according to Apple. The new workflow editor leads users through all the key steps involved in creating a successful podcast, which includes selecting videos, transitions, titles, effects, adding watermarks, and overlays to specifying encoding formats and target destinations.
Address Book Server lets you share personal and group contacts across multiple computers, but also access contact information remotely without needing an LDAP server.
ZFS: Snow Leopard Server adds read and write support for the high-performance, 128-bit ZFS file system. This includes storage pooling, data redundancy, automatic error correction, dynamic volume expansion, and snapshots.
OpenCL (Open Compute Library) makes it possible for developers to "tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU)," Apple notes. "With GPUs approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations a second, they're capable of considerably more than just drawing pictures," says Apple. This is where OpenCL redirects all this power for use in "high-performance computing applications like genomics, video encoding, signal processing, and simulations of physical and financial models."
Snow Leopard Server builds on Leopard Server's collaboration with wiki and blog templates, and optimizes them for viewing on your iPhone. It adds content searching across multiple wikis and attachment viewing in Quick Look. Snow Leopard Server also introduces My Page, which gives users the ability to access their web applications, receive notifications and view activity streams, all from one place.