Macenstein is citing “reliable sources in Elk Grove” claiming that Apple has started training their staff for Snow Leopard support. Macenstein has also posted some screenshots of the Snow Leopard training course.

Rumors have been swirling for quite some time that Snow Leopard was going to be shipping on August 28. I had predicted late Summer but the date has now been confirmed. Apple’s UK online store now lists August 28 as the ship date for the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date disc.

Previously:
8/16/09: Snow Leopard Disc and Retail Packaging
8/2/09: Pre-Order Snow Leopard From Amazon
6/9/09: WWDC Keynote 2009

Update 8/21/09: Apple US and Canada stores also displayed the August 28 ship date but have all since been changed back to September.

Update 8/22/09: Although Snow Leopard build 10A432 has been rumored to be gold master, 9 to 5 Mac is claiming that build 10A435 has been seeded to some developers and features an updated Address Book application with social networking features. If the screenshots are real it would mean that 10A435 would be gold master, not 10A432.

Reading through the comments from 9 to 5 Mac’s article I’ve found that most ADC members don’t have access to this new build but it is possible that the build won’t be pushed to the majority of developers until Monday. It is still possibly just a fake batch of screenshots but I’m not sure if anyone would go through the trouble of faking screenshots of a new build that most readers assumed wasn’t going to exist.

Update 8/22/09: Engadget Japanese has “an anonymous tipster” who claims to have received a Snow Leopard install disc in his recently purchased Mac mini box. There’s no telling whether this is real or not but it’s interesting none the less.

Update 8/22/09: MacRumors adds that several of their readers have had the status of their Snow Leopard Up-to-Date pre-orders changed to “Prepared for Shipment” and continue to indicate a ship date of “By August 28th.”

Update 8/24/09: Snow Leopard Officially Coming August 28