Apple receiving orders for new operating system

Apple said Tuesday it started receiving orders for its new operating system called Leopard, which will go on sale on Oct. 26 and cost $129 for a single user license.

The maker of the Macintosh computer and iPod digital player also said the Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack, which is a license for five users from a single household, will retail at $199.

Leopard is expected to boast new features including a file back-up feature called "Time Machine" and improvements to its e-mail and instant messaging software. Another feature allows users to move from their standard desktop view to an archival view showing every change made to a particular file.

Back in April, Apple delayed the release of Leopard, blaming the delay on the need to divert software development resources to the iPhone, which was launched in June.

At that time it said it would ship Leopard in October.