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Mac OS X 10.6.2 Update Points to New MacBook Pros

Liam Cassidy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:32:47 +0000

Two Spanish Apple sites are reporting that the latest build of Apple’s upcoming update to its Mac OS X Snow Leopard software contains references to as-yet unreleased new models of MacBook Pro.

Build 10C531 lists “MacBook Pro 6,1” and “MacBook Pro 6,2”, an indication of major revisions of the MacBook Pro lineup. The current family of MacBook Pro’s range from 5,1 to 5,5.

Last week’s introduction of refreshed iMacs brought Intel’s new Core i5 and i7 (Nehalem) processors to Apple’s most popular desktop machines, but the refreshed product lineup didn’t include any new MacBook Pros. Applesana suggests that the new MacBook Pro models will likely feature quad core processors based on Intel’s Arrandale architecture which brings i5/i7 technology to a more power-efficient mobile chip.

The last time Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro line was in early June at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Hefty Update

10.6.2 is a significant update to Snow Leopard, bringing a raft of bug fixes and performance improvements to existing functionality. Nothing has been said about new features, however, the user guide for Apple’s new Magic Mouse makes the following reference to Mac OS X 10.6.2:

To use your Apple Magic Mouse and its full range of features, update your Mac to Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or later and install the Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0; or update to Mac OS X version 10.6.2 or later.

Apple’s developers have been working hard. For those keeping count, this is 10.6.2’s fourth developer build in less than a month. The first, 10C514f, was seeded on Oct. 5. Only four days later, on Oct. 9, Apple produced build 10C519f. Developers were treated to build 10C527f just one week after that. And finally, 10C531 brings us to today.

At nearly 500MB, 10.6.2 is a hefty update, addressing an equally hefty assortment of bugs and issues affecting Snow Leopard. Most notably, this update is expected to fix a serious bug that can result in users losing all their personal data. MacRumor’s Doctor Q lists other fixes.

The seed is said to contain dozens of minor bug fixes and performance improvements in these areas: Address Book, AppleScript, AppleScriptObjC, ATS, ColorSync, Component Manager, Core Animation, Core Audio, Core Chinese Engine, Core Data, Core Graphics, Core Text, File Manager, Garbage Collection, Graphic drivers, Help Viewer, ImageKit, IOHIDFamily, Networking, NS Image, OpenCL, OpenGL, OSA, QT Kit, Speech Recognition, Sync Services, and Xtype.

There is no indication yet as to when 10.6.2 will be released, though the speed at which these builds are being developed — and the urgent need for that data-wiping bug fix — mean we probably won’t be waiting much longer.

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Apple Issues Developer Updates for iPhone 3.1, Snow Leopard Preview

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:30:05 +0000

Yesterday evening was a red-letter night for Apple developers, especially if you happened to have both Mac and iPhone developer accounts. That’s because Apple dropped new builds of both iPhone OS 3.1 and Snow Leopard, bringing it to version 10A411. Users with an iPhone developer account can head to Apple’s Developer Connection web site and get iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 and its attendant SDK in the usual way, while Snow Leopard users should find the new build available when they open up Software Update.

iPhone OS 3.1 Beta 2

I wasn’t expecting any massive changes in an incremental decimal point update, and a Beta 2 at that, but apparently this latest build packs at least one big punch. Said punch is the ability for developers to communicate with their device wirelessly while debugging new apps and versions, over Wi-Fi. It’s not something end users will ever see or necessarily appreciate, but it’s hard to understate how much it helps on the development side not to have to depend on a hardware tether anymore.

Theoretically, at least, this clears up the dock connector for use with third-party peripherals that tap into OS 3.0′s new software access features. Hopefully that gets more developers working faster on integrated hardware devices, since it’s the one remaining OS 3.0 feature that has yet to see its potential realized.

One “feature” not everyone will be pleased with is the new beta’s built-in tethering trick block, which cuts off the workaround iPhone owners have been using to get around AT&T’s official reluctance. If it makes it through to the official release, I’m not sure U.S. iPhone users will be in a huge rush to upgrade, especially if the rumors of a $55 official tethering plan prove true. AT&T’s official stance at this point is that those particular rumors are not true.

Some additional improvements about which few details are available are battery life improvements, and more access to video functions for developers, which hopefully brings us one step closer to “true” augmented reality capabilities.

Still included in Beta 2 are the Voice Control via Bluetooth and non-destructive video editing features first introduced in Beta 1, which came out June 30.

Mac OS X “Snow Leopard” Build 10A411

This appears to be yet another minor update on the road to the Snow Leopard GM candidate, with all the usual bug fixes, security enhancements and stability improvements associated with that kind of build. The last update did see some UI tweaks, but at this point no new feature additions should be forthcoming.

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Release Timeline for Snow Leopard Leaked

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:00:01 +0000

In case you were getting excited about Snow Leopard coming out anytime soon, or maybe holding off on a hardware purchase in anticipation of a WWDC ’09 release, you might be disappointed by the news that it likely won’t make it into the hands of consumers by that early June date. AppleInsider is reporting that the release schedule of the new Mac OS has many stages, the last of which won’t take place until two months after the Developer’s Conference.

What we will see June 8, if AppleInsider’s source is to be believed, is a major developer update to Snow Leopard that will be the first release to be “feature complete,” including all interface changes and functionality additions withheld from prior builds. In other words, they’ll be able to show off a product at WWDC that will look pretty much like what consumers will be getting two months later.

Between now and then, there should be one more build, which will bring “major updates” to what we’ve already seen. Then, after the release at WWDC, we should see one more release prior to the Gold Master build in order to work out any remaining kinks.

All of this means you won’t be able to get your hands on Snow Leopard until late summer or fall of 2009, when Apple generally releases hardware updates. Which in turn means that if you’re waiting to pull the trigger on a new computer purchase, you have to be willing to wait almost 6 months. It also means that Snow Leopard will drop much closer to the projected release date of Windows 7, so we could be in for quite the OS grudge match.

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