Mac OS X Leopard To Be Released on October 26th

Apple has just announced that they will be releasing Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X (10.5), on October 26.

Apple today announced that Mac OS X Leopard will go on sale Friday, October 26 at 6:00 p.m. at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, and that Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. Leopard is packed with more than 300 new features and introduces a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac.

Here’s detailed information on Leopard’s 300 new features, including Spaces, the new Desktop with Stacks and Time Machine.

In addition to the Apple Store, Daring Fireball has pointed out that Leopard can also be pre-ordered through Amazon. It appears that there is a 16% discount on the single user version ($109) and a 5% discount on the family pack ($189).