Finer Things in Mac

Holding the Option key while clicking F-key controls for display, keyboard backlighting, and volume settings will open their respective System Preferences panes.

For image files in Finder’s icon view (including on the Desktop), with an aspect ratio so narrow that they would render as a very thin line if previewed, the Finder shows them as a regular icons instead.

When the battery in a connected Bluetooth device gets to less than 20% capacity, the bluetooth menu bar item flashes a battery icon.

If you quit Mail with message windows minimized to the Dock, those same messages will reappear in the Dock when you reopen Mail.
Editor’s note: This is something I’ve done with Mail for a while; I use it as a way to remember things I need to do based on correspondence. I thought it was something [...]

PDF icons display navigation arrows if the icon size is set above 64×64 pixels. These appear on the desktop and in the Finder.

When you select something on the desktop in 10.5 Leopard, the selection box vanishes when you release the mouse button. In 10.6 Snow Leopard, the selection box fades out with a subtle animation.
Editor’s note: The Finder does not appear to exhibit this anywhere else in Snow Leopard. A selection in a Finder window in [...]

The new Magic Mouse software update changes the mouse icon in System Preferences to a Magic Mouse.

Hold the Shift key when launching Exposé, Spaces, Dashboard, minimizing a window into the Dock, or even when using a Dock Stack, and you will get a slow version of the feature’s animation.

In Snow Leopard, Preview can display GPS information and a map in its Inspector.

As you can see, the context menu on the Dock blurs out the text behind it, much like Vista window management.