Snow Leopard 'Bricks' Some Macs with 'Ball of Death'

Apple has angered thousands of Mac users with the release of Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6 because the new operating system has caused some computers to fail. After a startup failure, users are greeted with a continuous icon described as the "spinning ball of death."

In most cases, a spinning color wheel or beach ball indicates that a system is engaged in a processor-intensive activity. The ball usually disappears after a few seconds. However, when the ball spins for a much longer period, as users of Snow Leopard have reported, it is referred to as the "spinning beach ball of death."

Apple touted the Snow Leopard upgrade as refined. And Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted Apple would sell five million copies of Mac OS X 10.6 through the end of this quarter. The OS was touted as having faster startup and shutdown times, higher resolution for iChat, and a more powerful Safari 4 browser.