Confirming weeks of speculation, Apple announced on Monday that OS X 10.6, better known as “Snow Leopard,” will be available starting Aug. 28. Snow Leopard, which Apple is touting as a refinement to its predecessor, named “Leopard,” was originally scheduled to be released in September. Could the launch date have been moved up following a survey suggesting students prefer netbooks and Windows laptops to Macs? At its World Wide Developers Conference, held in San Francisco in June, Apple announced that Snow Leopard would be released in September.