Apple's fourth beta of Mac OS X 10.6.4 is clear of issues
Apple on Tuesday issued yet another beta of its forthcoming 10.6.4 update for the Snow Leopard operating system, with the latest release reportedly containing no known issues.
The latest build, dubbed 10F54, is the first of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6.4 betas that does not contain any issues, according to people familiar with the matter. It also includes the same list of fixes found in the previous build, issued to developers last week.
The most recent build, seeded to developers Tuesday afternoon, is said to be a 576.1MB download.
Previous builds had issues related to incorrectly formatted marketing text, though build 10F54 has apparently resolved that problem. Focus areas are said to remain Graphics Drivers, SMB, USB, Voice Over and VPN.
Previous builds also addressed issues that could cause the keyboard or trackpad to become responsive, and also addresses a problem that prevented some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from loading.
Also on Tuesday, Apple issued updates for Java for Mac OS X in both Snow Leopard and Leopard. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20. The 78MB download is available from Apple.
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 7 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating J2SE 5.0 to 1.5.0_24, and updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20 for 64-bit capable Intel-based Macs. It is a 122MB update. J2SE 1.4.2 is no longer being updated to fix bugs or security issues and remains disabled by default in this update.
The latest build, dubbed 10F54, is the first of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6.4 betas that does not contain any issues, according to people familiar with the matter. It also includes the same list of fixes found in the previous build, issued to developers last week.
The most recent build, seeded to developers Tuesday afternoon, is said to be a 576.1MB download.
Previous builds had issues related to incorrectly formatted marketing text, though build 10F54 has apparently resolved that problem. Focus areas are said to remain Graphics Drivers, SMB, USB, Voice Over and VPN.
Previous builds also addressed issues that could cause the keyboard or trackpad to become responsive, and also addresses a problem that prevented some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from loading.
Also on Tuesday, Apple issued updates for Java for Mac OS X in both Snow Leopard and Leopard. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20. The 78MB download is available from Apple.
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 7 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating J2SE 5.0 to 1.5.0_24, and updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_20 for 64-bit capable Intel-based Macs. It is a 122MB update. J2SE 1.4.2 is no longer being updated to fix bugs or security issues and remains disabled by default in this update.
Comments
Any news on additional OpenGL support in 10.6.4.
I hope so and hopefully new card drivers.
Given the history of Mac OS X announcements, can we expect an announcement of 10.7 next month?
Typically I'd say we could based on historical data, but this year's event not having any Mac OS workshops points to no 10.7 demo.
Previous builds also addressed issues that could cause the keyboard or trackpad to become responsive
Does this mean normal OS/X should leave keyboard or trackpad unresponsive? LOL!
Given the history of Mac OS X announcements, can we expect an announcement of 10.7 next month?
It is expected that 10.7 will shift more toward user level features so developers will not need so much heads up. We probably wont see anything until <=6 months until release. If there is a 10.7 surprise it may be related to a new filesystem. Maybe even a developer beta that could run on 10.6. Apple has been quiet since ZFS left the running as an eventual HFS+ replacement. AFP is also probably due for a replacement since it isn't designed to work well outside of sharing an HFS+ filesystem (with the HFS matched API). Most likely the replacement for both will come from UNIX with Apple extensions, but it is anyones guess at this point. I hope they don't end up pushing a new FS out past 10.7 because it release needs a full major release to stabilize. Another possible surprise at WWDC could be some new Objective-C enhancements. Apple has their Clang compiler advanced enough now that they can really start putting in features that they have wanted for years but didn't have enough control under gcc. That would of course also be targeted toward iPhone developers.
WWDC probably will not really return to the Mac until 10.8, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a 10.7 release right after WWDC next year. It will be interesting to see what 10.7 brings. I expect we will at least see improvements to the Dock, Finder, and Software Update (software library shutting down might be a hint a replacement is coming).
It might be interesting to see OS X also run iPad apps with a touch screen. The iPad feels like prep work to move touch to the Mac to me. Maybe we'll see the first hybrid trackpad/touchscreen systems next year? It is hard to imagine it wouldn't happen at this point. It also kinda explains Apples new policy regarding other runtimes (that Adobe is so upset about). Apple might want to make it easy to compile an iPad app for the Intel processor. I've thought the keyboard dock was odd too. Maybe they are trying to get us used to something...
Has anyone else noticed this or is it unique to my machine?
Can I get some volume boost on my mid-2009 MacBook Pro? I notice that going from Leopard on a late-2008 MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard on my current MBP dropped the max volume in OSX by a huge amount. In fact, when running Win7 via Boot Camp, the max volume is even lower. It's so low, in fact, that there's no need to use any other volume setting other than max. I mean, the volume is there in OSX, it is just noticeably lower than my previous MBP that ran Leopard.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it unique to my machine?
I have quite the opposite thing happening on my MacBook early 2008. When I boot into windows, I have my volume close to nothing because it is so loud... In Mac OS X however i have a hard time watching a movie, as the speakers aren't loud enough.
No difference though from 10.5 to 10.6.
Given the history of Mac OS X announcements, can we expect an announcement of 10.7 next month?
I doubt there will be any major announcements. The WWDC itinerary has already come out and there is no mention of anything related to new technologise. All the sessions with WWDC relate to either the iPhoneOS or educating developers how to take advantage of existing technologies included with Mac OS X.
Can I get some volume boost on my mid-2009 MacBook Pro? I notice that going from Leopard on a late-2008 MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard on my current MBP dropped the max volume in OSX by a huge amount. In fact, when running Win7 via Boot Camp, the max volume is even lower. It's so low, in fact, that there's no need to use any other volume setting other than max. I mean, the volume is there in OSX, it is just noticeably lower than my previous MBP that ran Leopard.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it unique to my machine?
Sounds like a hardware problem.
5.3.1 has a serious bug (pass-by-reference actually passes by value, which breaks MediaWiki and many other things). I've been trying for a week to compile or download something other than PHP 5.3.1, running into problems right and left (libiconv.dylib version mismatch, etc.)