World of Apple

OS X 10.5.2 Work Continues

Apple has once again released another build of Mac OS X 10.5.2 to developers.

Build 9C30 once again lists “no known issues” with Time Machine remaining one of the key areas of testing as well as audio input, Back To My Mac, Bluetooth, Safari, and graphics drivers.

iPhone US Smartphone Share Rises to 28 Percent

According to a report by market research firm Canalys, Apple has managed to garner approximately 28 percent of the US smartphone market during the fourth calendar quarter of 2007.

According to the report iPhone’s 28 percent share placed it second in the US market behind only RIM’s with 41 percent share.

“When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders,” said senior analyst Pete Cunningham. “What it must demonstrate now is that it can build a sustainable business in the converged device space, expanding its coverage and product portfolio.

During January’s Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced during his keynote that Apple had won 19.5% of the smartphone market during the 3rd quarter of 2007.

Although Mac OS X 10.5.2 has been expected any day it appears that Apple has continued the bug squashing process. Apple has very recently seeded another build of Mac OS X 10.5.2 to developers, and as with the previous build Mac OS X 10.5.2 build 9C27 is reportedly free of known issues.

The build now reportedly features over 130 improvements and bug fixes with the latest round focusing on the Finder sidebar, desktop backgrounds, iChats bluetooth functionality, Time Machine and disk space management.

As with previous builds Apple has asked developers to focus on key areas; Audio Input, Bluetooth, the Finder, Graphics Drivers and Spotlight.

According to MacRumors, Apple has seeded another build of Mac OS X 10.5.2. The new build (9C23) comes just two days after the previous and continues to list “no known issues.”

Build 9C23 is reported to fix issues with CoreGraphics, DVD Playback, File Systems, BackupCore and Web Content Filter.

The release of Mac OS X 10.5.2 is expected imminently.

BabyGotMac.com details some features that will accompany the already huge upcoming update to Mac OS X Leopard.

The ability to share a DVD/CD with the MacBook Air has been added to Mac OS X 10.5.2.

Ability to share DVD/CD’s to MacBook Air

Time Machine can reportedly use a disk connected to an Airport Extreme base station for backups, Time Machine now has a dedicated drop down menubar and once again has the ability to backup to network drives.

Time Machine can now backup to a remote network drive

Time Machine has its own dedicated menubar drop-down

Time Machine can now use external drives connected to Airport Extreme base stations for backups

Under Desktop preferences the menubar can either be translucent or not.

Ability to adjust appearnce of menubar has been added

MacRumors writes that a new build has been released to developers today (seed 9C20) and lists no known issues. Graphics driver updates have also reportedly been separated from the OS X 10.5.2 update.

MacRumors notes of unconfirmed reports that Apple is aiming for a public release of Mac OS X 10.5.2 this coming Friday.

Macfixit has published confirmation that the MacBook Air will be the first Mac to have the ability to boot wirelessly.

During Apple’s demonstration of the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008 they dubbed a new feature called “Remote Disc”, this allows for discs to be accessed in another optical drive over the network from the MacBook Air. Included with this functionality is the ability for the MacBook Air to wirelessly boot off of a Remote Disc shared drive.

MacRumors adds that Mac OS X 10.5.2 is likely to add wireless booting to all Macs according to their sources.

AppleInsider reports that the next update for Mac OS X Leopard is likely to pack nearly one hundred “code corrections and enhancements.”

During last weeks Macworld Expo, Apple quietly released a new seed of Mac OS X 10.5.2 numbered 9C16. The accompanying notes back up AppleInsider’s article with an almost endless list of fixes.

The seed note asks developers to focus on the following areas; Active Directory/Directory Services, AirPort, AppKit, Application, Firewall, Audio, Automator, Back To My Mac, Chinese Input Methods, CoreData, CoreFoundation, Dashboard Widgets, Data Detectors, Directory Services, Dock, Finder, Foundation, Grammar Checking, Graphics Drivers, High Level Toolbox, iCal, iChat, iDisk, Keyboard Layouts, Mail, Networking, Parental Controls, Podcast Producer, Printing/CUPS, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, SMB, Spotlight, SQLite, Terminal, Time Machine, X11.

Issues fixed in the seed are listed as:

• Border now draws correctly when 2-up printing

• Preview Image and scrolling horizontally with keys

• CFNetwork and Proxy error messages

• NTFS Volume and System UIServer fix

• DVDPlayback and second display hookup

• Preview PDF and Mail Document fix

• Resolved tabbing issue with PDFView

• Fixed issue with Time Machine Preferences

• Icon Services and file attachments

• Time Machine and resumed backups

• Images captured in tethered mode fixed

• CoreAudio Toolbox and EstAudioFileRead

• ImageCapture and file creation

• SharedFileLists and SMB guest issue resolved

• BackupCore and backup preparation

• Japanese localization and CUPS

• NSTextView and scroll bar thumb scrolling direction

• SMB File Server and name resolving order

• CFNetwork and Windows proxy ISA server fix

• Fixed deinterlacing issue with DVDPlayback

In previous seeds of Mac OS X 10.5.2 the following fixes were made:

• CoreData Framework and NSFetchRequest
• AD DS Plug-in
• HLTB Menus
• Memory leak with Rosetta
• X11.app and customized menu commands
• AirPort shared printer fix
• Disk Utility and FAT32
• HFS and allocated space
• Fix to Process Manager and VISE
• NSNavigationServices and NavServices from a Cocoa application fix
• Reprinting Hold jobs and CUPS
• Fixed issue with Text Input Sources
• Mail Message Body Display issues with certain font types
• DAVKit and iCal redirects
• Calendar Store Framework and CalRecurrenceRule fix
• CoreText Font and PUA unicode characters now work correctly
• rsh jobs no longer waits for backgrounded processes to complete
• Fixed issue HLTB and Finder
• Fixed issue with AppleEvents
• ImageIO preiew issue in Finder fixed
• HIClock now accepts user entries
• smb now handles “%” in password field
• Fixed issue with CUPS and reverse page ordering
• NSTableView and special keys now works correctly
• AF_UNSPEC& null address Networking issue fixed
• Resolved issue with Xquartz and CPU cycles
• Fixed exception issue with KeyChainAccess
• Quartz Composer no longer brings up an error when saving a composition
• Fixed ScreenCapture issue
• Addressed issue with Web Content Filter and Parental Controls
• CUPS no longer prints a blank page when 2-up print setting is selected
• CoreData Framework fix to XML data creation
• Fixed Quick Look plug-in loading issue
• Mail to iCal Data Detectors now work correctly
• Fixed issue with Finder and column view
• Core Audio fix now allows empty m4a files to behave correctly
• Fixed horizontal scroll issue with Finder and Spotlight
• Fixed iChat audio issue with fast user switching
• Core Data apps now save correctly when no document changes have been made
• Fixed issue with Firewall customization settings
• Fixed Active Directory binding issue
• NSTable View -selectAll setting now works correctly
• HLTB Dyhmanic Menus now behave correctly
• Resolved issue with HIImageView
• Fixed issue with ATSCreateFontQueryRunLoopSource
• Mail now treats flags correctly
• Fixed day selection issue with NSDatePicker
• Invalid RR queries problem now resolved
• Input issue with NSTokenField fixed
• Archive & Install problem with Sync Services Translators resolved
• Fixed Spotlight issue with arithmetic expressions
• Fixed problem with Podcast Producer and Wiki running via SSL
• HLTB ApplyTHemeBackground memory leak fixed
• Fixed Numbers printing issue with CoreGraphics
• Fixed permissions problem with NFS
• NSManagedObject now implements dictionaryWithValuesForKeys correctly
• Fixed memory leak in CoreData Framework
• Bitmap-only fonts now work correctly in QuickDraw
• Issue with MusicSequenceSaveSMFData fixed
• SMB File Server reboot issue resolved
• Fixed issue where running a MAC application from a NTFS volume may not work correctly
• NSXMLNSNumberTransformerName now handles NSDecimalNumbers correctly
• Addressed issue with ToDo recurrences and iCal Synchronization
• Issue with NSNavigationServices and kNavCBTerminate resolved
• Fix to AppKit and popup menus
• CTFontCreateCopyWithFamily() now works correctly
• Fixed issue with Tamil IM
• Networking issue with records over sockets fixed
• HIShape symbols in HLTB fixed
• Fixed window flicker issue with PrintManager
• NSArrayController and Lazy Fetching issue resolved
• Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder now works correctly when there’s a / in the title
• Fixed issue with “Find Next” and the spelling panel
• Issue with NSTreeController resolved
• Resolved issue with local SOCKS proxy and iChat
• Logged iChats now open quickly

As of the latest seed there are only two issues remaining unfixed. The update currently weighs in at 450.8MB for the Delta release.

List view in Mac OS X 10.5.2

Macenstein has published a screenshot and accompanying article regarding the first build of Mac OS X 10.5.2 that hit Apple’s developer site on Tuesday.

The screenshot reveals that Apple has added the option to include a List-View in stacks.

Also added is the ability to display the traditional Folder icon instead of the “stack” of icons in the Dock.

According to the source, “you can display it as a stack or an icon so you know what you’re looking at. The animations seem smoother now, too. Grid view looks bit better as well.” writes Macenstein.

In just under a week since Apple last seeded Mac OS X 10.5.1, another build of the first update to Mac OS X Leopard has reached developers hands for testing.

The latest build labelled 9B16 has “no known issues” in its current state, a note accompanying the seed mentions a fix for a serious bug in which file loss can occur in the Finder when moved between directories.

Developers are asked to focus their testing on Time Machine, Mail, iCal, Back To My Mac, Bonjour, AirPort, gaming graphics, networking and the Finder.