AppleInsider is reporting a few details about the next upcoming Mac OS X release, Snow Leopard. In the article the regularly accurate rumour site details Apple’s plans to rewrite the Finder, increase Microsoft Exchange support and introduce a new feature called ImageBoot.

The Finder in Mac OS X Leopard is one of the few remaining Carbon-based applications, in Snow Leopard the Finder is said to have been completely rewritten in the superior Cocoa.

Snow Leopard is said to be in the hands of a few select developers who have begun testing pre-release copies with labelled builds starting at 10Axxx.

AppleInsider also details that Microsoft Exchange support will be greatly increased in Snow Leopard, iCal, Address Book and Mail will all benefit from more tightly integrated Exchange support, such as events scheduling, adding contacts to Address Book and automatic Mail configuration.

Finally AppleInsider reveals a feature that hasn’t been touted previously called ImageBoot, said to be based on NetBoot Apple’s technology which allows Macs to boot from a remote disc over a network. ImageBoot allows users to set up numerous disk images on secondary partitions or external hard drives and select at boot up time which image they which to boot from.