Not content to let Microsoft hog the spotlight with updates on Windows 7 development, Apple continues on with its development of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, adding in a few last-minute features we're just hearing about. Apple looks to be leveraging its iPhone know-how, bringing location-based technology and multi-touch support to the upcoming operating system refresh.

Apple's been emphatic that Snow Leopard isn't really about adding in a ton of new features, but will deliver notable improvements in system speed, instead. Despite that, apparently there are plans for a handful of new features, including the ability for programs to access a system-wide location register. This could let apps like Google Earth easily get your position and use that data in the program. Without GPS hardware, Apple's going to have to pull some interesting tricks, such as using information gleaned from the network, including WiFi power levels and IP lookups, to estimate where you are.

System extensions for multi-touch are an obvious upgrade, building support for future touchscreen displays into the OS. This is throwing some serious fuel on the fire for those holding out hope for a MacBook tablet.

The speed improvements aren't as exciting as features you can play with and directly interact with, but they're much more important. Apple's finally taking full advantage of its switch to Intel hardware by building a framework for optimizing processing across the multiple cores the Intel CPUs offer. Another technology that makes the best use out of multiple processors is OpenCL, which offloads some heavy number-crunching tasks to the system's graphics processors. Together, they should deliver some serious speed boosts.

There's no word on when to expect Snow Leopard to ship, but signs right now are pointing to a tie-in with the release of the next generation of iMacs. We already saw indications of Apple backing away from the current generation, so maybe it won't be too far off.

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