Briefly: Hazmat scare at Apple; Mac OS X 10.5.7; iPhone 3.0 beta 5
A building on Apple's Cupertino campus was evacuated Wednesday when an envelope containing a suspicious white powder was discovered. Meanwhile, the company has pushed out new betas of Mac OS X 10.5.7, iTunes 8.2, and iPhone Software 3.0.
Apple hazmat scare
The Santa Clara County fire department arrived at Apple's Building 4 on De Anza Boulevard at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday dressed in hazmat gear after they were called to the scene following the discovery of a suspicious envelope, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
An employee reportedly found the envelope, which contained an unknown white powder, in the Apple cafeteria. Preliminary test turned up no signs that the substance was hazardous but it was taken to a Santa Clara County lab for further evaluation.
Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update
Apple on Monday began distributing Mac OS X 10.5.7 build 9J60 on its internal network and subsequently made the pre-release software available for broader testing on Tuesday.
This sixtieth build of the Leopard operating system update corrected just one additional issue with a programming method that lets developers import the contents of a URL to their applications. Again, the lone issue with the software is incompatibility with the current public beta of Safari 4.0.
Mac OS X 10.5.7 includes well over 100 bug fixes, and AppleInsider has also recently learned that it will address issues with certain prior-generation Mac Pros and the ATI Radeon 4870 graphics card required for compatibility with Apple's new 24-inch LED Cinema Display.
Reportedly, the company prematurely marketed this graphics card to certain Mac Pro owners before appropriate software support was ready, which caused issues with iPhoto, VMWare Fusion, and putting the systems to sleep. Apple support representatives have apologized to affected customers and informed them that Mac OS X 10.5.7 will address the issue.
These support representatives further informed these customers last Friday that Mac OS X 10.5.7 would arrive "very shortly" or "within about a week."
iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5
Meanwhile, Apple on Wednesday evening released to iPhone developers iPhone Software 3.0 beta 5 build 7A312g, which was accompanied by iPhone SDK beta 5 build 9M2735 and iTunes 8.2 beta 10.
No major changes have turned up in any of the new betas, though a person familiar with beta 5 of iPhone Software 3.0 says the option to turn MMS messaging on or off -- which never worked to begin with -- is disabled in the distribution and that the tethering solution detailed on some iPhone hacking blogs no longer works.
Xsan
Apple also recently issued build 9M1041 of its Xsan networked file system. The release focuses on compatibility with the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Apple hazmat scare
The Santa Clara County fire department arrived at Apple's Building 4 on De Anza Boulevard at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday dressed in hazmat gear after they were called to the scene following the discovery of a suspicious envelope, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
An employee reportedly found the envelope, which contained an unknown white powder, in the Apple cafeteria. Preliminary test turned up no signs that the substance was hazardous but it was taken to a Santa Clara County lab for further evaluation.
Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update
Apple on Monday began distributing Mac OS X 10.5.7 build 9J60 on its internal network and subsequently made the pre-release software available for broader testing on Tuesday.
This sixtieth build of the Leopard operating system update corrected just one additional issue with a programming method that lets developers import the contents of a URL to their applications. Again, the lone issue with the software is incompatibility with the current public beta of Safari 4.0.
Mac OS X 10.5.7 includes well over 100 bug fixes, and AppleInsider has also recently learned that it will address issues with certain prior-generation Mac Pros and the ATI Radeon 4870 graphics card required for compatibility with Apple's new 24-inch LED Cinema Display.
Reportedly, the company prematurely marketed this graphics card to certain Mac Pro owners before appropriate software support was ready, which caused issues with iPhoto, VMWare Fusion, and putting the systems to sleep. Apple support representatives have apologized to affected customers and informed them that Mac OS X 10.5.7 will address the issue.
These support representatives further informed these customers last Friday that Mac OS X 10.5.7 would arrive "very shortly" or "within about a week."
iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5
Meanwhile, Apple on Wednesday evening released to iPhone developers iPhone Software 3.0 beta 5 build 7A312g, which was accompanied by iPhone SDK beta 5 build 9M2735 and iTunes 8.2 beta 10.
No major changes have turned up in any of the new betas, though a person familiar with beta 5 of iPhone Software 3.0 says the option to turn MMS messaging on or off -- which never worked to begin with -- is disabled in the distribution and that the tethering solution detailed on some iPhone hacking blogs no longer works.
Xsan
Apple also recently issued build 9M1041 of its Xsan networked file system. The release focuses on compatibility with the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Comments
IMO Apple is making 10.5.7 perfect for what? All of three months before people update to SNOW?
Apple should have made the fixes earlier in on the OS and make minor changes as the updates come to an end.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
I understand its for the people who don't want to update to SNOW, but for the most part, most people will update and it would have been nice to enjoy and more stable OS from Apple earlier on!
RUMOR: 10.5.7 should be out after Snow Leopard...
IMO Apple is making 10.5.7 perfect for what? All of three months before people update to SNOW?
Apple should have made the fixes earlier in on the OS and make minor changes as the updates come to an end.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
I understand its for the people who don't want to update to SNOW, but for the most part, most people will update and it would have been nice to enjoy and more stable OS from Apple earlier on!
Stop yer jibber-jabba..... Microsoft should have released a stable OS before any of its updates and SP's. There will always be bugs and patches to fix them.... in any OS.
you sound sooo silly..."Apple why are you bothering to fix Leopard, when Snow Leopard will be out soon???" um because Apple is committed to a good customer experience?? Honestly....just stop posting, it's embarrassing.
The down side of a terrorized populace is the propensity to overreact to small things.
white powder in a cafeteria, I wonder what it could possibly be?
I just got off the phone with Apple support to complain about my ongoing problems with the graphics out from my 15" macbook pro (unibody) via a dual-link dvi into a 30" monitor. It tends to flash, go fuzzy, gain translucent grey snow and become unreadable about every 5 minutes (sleep or unplug/replug of the monitor fixes this temporarily).
Well, in the past they've told me that they are aware and investigating. Today I was told that "according to engineering, they're hoping that the update slated for the next week or two should fix this" Which means to me two things:
1) Apple is directly indicating that the update will be here shortly
and
2) The expected fixes for graphic cards will (hopefully) encompass existing issues with macbook pro's (as well as the other reported fixes for mac pro's)
RUMOR: 10.5.7 should be out after Snow Leopard...
IMO Apple is making 10.5.7 perfect for what? All of three months before people update to SNOW?
Apple should have made the fixes earlier in on the OS and make minor changes as the updates come to an end.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
I understand its for the people who don't want to update to SNOW, but for the most part, most people will update and it would have been nice to enjoy and more stable OS from Apple earlier on!
WTF?
This is an idiotic rant, even for you.
RUMOR: 10.5.7 should be out after Snow Leopard...
10.5.8 will be out before or around Snow Leopard is released this fall.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
Great logic!
is it possible that they will add Safari 4 support at the last moment, eg. by releasing the final version of it? Or we'll have to choose between S4 beta and 10.5.7 update? I got used to S4...
My guess is that we will see a new Safari beta at the time of the release or a little before.
RUMOR: 10.5.7 should be out after Snow Leopard...
IMO Apple is making 10.5.7 perfect for what? All of three months before people update to SNOW?
Apple should have made the fixes earlier in on the OS and make minor changes as the updates come to an end.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
I understand its for the people who don't want to update to SNOW, but for the most part, most people will update and it would have been nice to enjoy and more stable OS from Apple earlier on!
I find it hard to believe that Apple will let 3-4 months go by without another update (August or September SL release time frame).
They continue to update 10.5 because of us PPC users who won't be able to go to SL.
I just want to know how long before they figure out that the white powder is someone's non-sugar sweetener.
The down side of a terrorized populace is the propensity to overreact to small things.
white powder in a cafeteria, I wonder what it could possibly be?
I confess - it was mine. Now my weekend is ruined. Gotta go back to my dealer.
How did Steve Ballmer's snortable Levitra get there?
I can CONFIRM that MMS and tethering still works for Canadian (Rogers) iPhone users. Nice...
Anything you notice about b5? snappier?
I just want to know how long before they figure out that the white powder is someone's non-sugar sweetener.
The down side of a terrorized populace is the propensity to overreact to small things.
white powder in a cafeteria, I wonder what it could possibly be?
Sweet n' Low laced with Anthrax
Flour laced with Anthrax
Cocaine laced with Anthrax
Anthrax laced with Sweet n' Low
I find it hard to believe that Apple will let 3-4 months go by without another update (August or September SL release time frame).
They continue to update 10.5 because of us PPC users who won't be able to go to SL.
There is also something to be said for incorporating fixes and such from the new version into the old version as well so that on the one hand more of your user base can pick up at least some of the enhancements and so that you don't have too big a back lash of why wasn't such and such feature included in the last update.
It's not like you just snap your fingers and things get done - writing and testing code takes time. and some of the enhancements rather than fixes may only have been dreamed up - or some shortcoming only recently identified. If there was some major flaw or promised feature in 10.5.0 that did not see daylight until 10.5.7 that might be a different story.
• iPod Invisia — http://www.truveo.com/IPod-Invisa/id/1420190730
• Unaired iPhone skit — http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/leaked/th...red-321328.php
• iPod Invisia — http://www.truveo.com/IPod-Invisa/id/1420190730
• Unaired iPhone skit — http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/leaked/th...red-321328.php
RUMOR: 10.5.7 should be out after Snow Leopard...
No it should come out when all of the targetted issues have been addressed. The whole idea of these releases is to fix things.
IMO Apple is making 10.5.7 perfect for what? All of three months before people update to SNOW?
By it's very nature software can seldom be perfect. Given the complexity in modern OSes it's a surprise that they don't have more issues.
Apple should have made the fixes earlier in on the OS and make minor changes as the updates come to an end.
You can't fix problems you don't know about. Even if you do know of an issue the fix might not be obvious. Your statement demonstrates a shallow grasp of software engineering or simply complex systems.
The OS should have been more flawless at 10.5.2 and not 10.5.7.
Heck even Apple has more or less said that they weren't happy with 10.5. Thus one of the focuses of 10.6 will be performance and stability. Even so you still have to expect issues with Snow Leopard when it is released. It's the nature of the beast.
I understand its for the people who don't want to update to SNOW, but for the most part, most people will update and it would have been nice to enjoy and more stable OS from Apple earlier on!
Well yeah and winning the lottery and retiring on a South seas island has a lot of appeal. But rational people realize that is not likely to happen. Rather what you need to consider is how many other OSes have few problems. Not problems addressed but existing known issues. In that light Mac OS/X looks pretty good. Mind you I'm a long time Linux user at home and a windows user at work, so I believe I can rightfully put Mac OS on it's platform and promote it as being very stable.
As a side note I'm comfortable with Apples release schedules for the updates as it leans towards the Linux way of doing things. That is update/release often. If they could be just a tad more agressive with security issues all would be perfect. On the other hand Apples packaging of releases into 10.5.xx distributions does mean you have a better idea of how a specific system is configured and what problems it may have. With Linux and MS figuring out the star of the system software is somewhat more difficult.
Can Apple do better? Who can't, the question is are they doing better or worst than the competition. I'd have to say their appraich is pretty good with respect to incremental updates of the OS.
Dave.
Now what? snow....iphone.....snow.....iphone......snow...... iphone....snow ......iphone....snow......iphone......gee.....