Apple recently announced a second pre-release build to its upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update. Labeled 9E12, the new build will carry various code corrections that will fix the notorious bug which tends to leave some Macs hanging upon shutdown, as noted in previously released updates. Find out what other details the new update will include in our full article after the jump.

After being announced late last month, Apple has finally released Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2! The update has more than 100 bug fixes and over 300 new features. The update also includes a security update, the first for 2008. Check out the full article for some of these new updates to the Mac OS X Leopard!

Download: Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.2 with Security Update

Apple's upcoming operating system Leopard wouldn't be available until October this year but even this early, we've been hearing a lot about its features and how it differs from the current OS Tiger. And just like in previous OS updates, some consumers are wondering how to emulate those features on Tiger.

Online site AppleTell has an interesting article about the above mentioned "problem" and divulged that there are a couple of existing third party applications that provide users some solution. For starters, here are some of the features that you can add to your Tiger and give it some "spots" so to speak to make it look like Leopard:

• Time Machine: Unfortunately, no current application truly lives up to Time Machine, but an app called SuperDuper seems to do the trick pretty well.
• Spaces: Although Virtual Desktops have been around for a while, Spaces brings them to a whole new level. Fortunately, we don't have to wait until October to use virtual desktops, as two current apps do the job already, VirtueDesktops and Desktop Manager
• Stacks: Even though Leopard’s stacks cannot truly be emulated with an app, there’s a simple trick to getting a piece of stacks in Tiger.
• UI: You can modify Tiger's UI to look like Leopard's with a theme called Liger. Just install ShapeShifter and ClearDock from Unsanity, and download Liger.
• Finder: here are such things as "Finder replacements" that will give your current file browsing experience a boost. Some of these Finder replacements include Path Finder, Macintosh Explorer, and Forklift
• iChat: ChatFX brings many Photo Booth-like effects and the famed blue screen effect over to iChat on Tiger. Although a bit unstable at times, ChatFX gives you a taste of iChat on Leopard.
• Dashboard: With Leopard, you can now clip parts of web pages and put them in Dashboard, thanks to a new feature called Web Clip. Tiger users can clip web pages as well with a widget.

 

Have you fired up your Adium messenger recently? Well, I did just a few hours ago, and lo and behold, it's a version update! The Adium ducks are now quacking up to version 1.1! Although the previous update was released just a month ago, Adium v1.1 has actually been in the making for about a year now.

In fact, one of the biggest changes in this version comes all the way from 2006, built on a student project in the Google Summer of Code. The project has been incorporated into Adium v1.1 in the form of PSMTabBarControl, which allows you to customize your tabbing preferences on the fly. Here's the lowdown of that feature:

• You can arrange your tabs on any side of the message view, not just the bottom. Tabs are arranged vertically when you put them on the left or right edge of the window and horizontally when you put them on the top or bottom.
• Tabs handle overflow better by presenting a chevron (») menu, just like toolbars do.
• Tabs are now spring-loaded, so that if you drag something to a tab that isn't active, it will activate, so that you can position the thing you're dragging precisely within the inputline.
• You can have each tab display the number of unread messages, if any.

Of course, there's more to this, but the Adium team is encouraging all of us to discover the other new toolbar tweaks. Other notes from the changelog include the usual bug fixes and improvements. Aside from it being prettier and faster, there's also the following:

• Changes in the contact list, such as people coming online and going offline, animate smoothly.
• The contact list's ability to hide like the Dock at the edge of the screen has been improved.
• A new type of AdiumXtra, the menu bar icon xtra, has been created to let you customize the appearance of Adiumy in your menu bar; you can download AdiumMenuBarIcons packs from AdiumXtras.com.
• Buzz on Yahoo! and nudge on MSN are now fully supported.
• AIM DirectConnect should be more reliable and less memory intensive; it is now automatically initiated as needed.
• You can now import accounts and chat transcripts from iChat.
• Adium now warns you if you run Adium from the disk image. This will especially benefit new Mac users who aren't accustomed to working with disk images.
• Right-to-left text is handled property on MSN.

Download: Adium v1.1

Apple is slowly but surely opening the seals on the details regarding its upcoming Mac OS X platform release. One of the interesting revelations is about iChat, a messaging tool which will change the way you think about software of its kind.

The iChat application will be much more than a run-off the mill instant messenger. Aside from the ability to send quick messages, users can stream videos, 3D images and slide shows along with digital audio.

Apple says that developers are putting in the last screws to the iChat package, but it also revealed that AppleScript makes the software easy to modify for updates in the future.

"One of the powerful capabilities that the Instant Message framework gives you is the ability to determine if a contact in a user's buddy list is online or not," said the company in a technology overview and adds "you can also get the Address Book data for that contact as well as other status information."

On the techy side, Apple says that developers and users can take advantage of the 'presence' function, which allows the identification of your buddies whenever they're online to alert them of a Theater event or other what nots. iChat may have a few more months before rolling out, but these details already have Mac-heads drooling for more. For more details, follow the read URL.

Here's some good news for those Mac-users who also happens to own an Xbox Live Vision Camera. It seems that someone's been able to confirm that your Xbox Live Vision cam will work on OS 10.4.9.

According to the discussion thread, lOUDsCREAMEr decided to take a chance and bought a Live Vision Cam to see if he could get it to work on his computer without the need for a hack or a driver. Lo and behold, as the picture on the right shows it in action.

Zorkon points out that this is a new feature of the patched 10.4.9, which has support for USB video cameras using iChat. Whether this means that other game-related cameras will work with it is dependent on how much you know about cameras. But it stands to reason that anyone with a Live Vision Camera now has a free OS 10.4.9-compatible cam to use for taking pictures and amateur YouTube videos of the Tunak Tunak Tun dance.

 Apple just came out with the latest update to its operating system called OS 10.4.9, which fixes some compatibility issues as well as added security. The update may not be for everyone, so don't get too excited. Apple recommend it to Power PC users running the OS X tiger and OS 10.4.8 versions.

ZDNet, however, advised everyone to wait a few days before installing the critical update. This is to help users know what they'll be getting into as other people try installing the update. This will protect users from bugs that may come along with the new software.

The update has the following features:

1. RAW camera support
2. Handling of large or malformed images that could cause crashes
- Image capture performance
3. Mouse scrolling and keyboard shortcuts
4. Font handling
5. Playback quality, and bookmarks in DVD Player
6. USB video conferencing cameras for use with iChat
7. Bluetooth devices
8. Browsing AFP servers
9. Apple USB Modem
10. Windows-created digital certificates
11. Open and Print dialogs in applications that use Rosetta on Intel-based Macs
12. Time zone and daylight saving for 2006 and 2007
13. Security updates

We'll update you on how the Macintosh community responds after trying out the new software.

Since its announcement, Apple fanatics - and video enthusiasts in general - have been entranced by what Apple is currently calling its iTV video extender. Speculations,  rumors, and various what-have-yous have surrounded this little doodad, mostly regarding its technical and hardware aspects. We've also done our part in bringing these speculations and rumors into the light (who hasn't, really?) and now, just for some balance, we'll be taking a look at an opinion/analysis piece that deals with Apple's business strategy for the home entertainment market.

On his PBS blog, Robert X. Cringely has written a piece that seeks to cast some light into Apple's strategy for the iTV. He touches on topics such as the lack of a Blu-Ray player bundled with Apple computers and that little USB port on the back of each iTV box ("It's not for a USB hard drive, that's for sure"). Wanna know what he reckons it's for? An Apple iSight camera. This is why Cringely dubs Apple's strategy, "iChat on steroids."

Says Cringely:

"This is the heart of Apple's emerging communication strategy. I was tempted to write "voice-over-IP strategy," except that wouldn't have been correct. For Jobs, this particular road less traveled is about video conferencing, not voice. VoIP is not grand enough, not experiential. If eBay can dominate it, Apple doesn't want to be a part of it, and won't be. Jobs will be much happier enabling a smaller audience to do multi-person chats on their HDTVs."

Cringely doesn't only talk about the iTV. He also throws in a little Leopard into the mix: "All of this comes together with Leopard, the next version of OS X, which will ship in January. iChat, which started back in 2003 as a simple real-time chat client to keep Macs from being frozen completely out of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), has grown a lot since then. iChat now has H.264 video support, and with Leopard it will integrate all the iLife (iPhoto, iCal, iMovie, etc.) functions into a system that can support remote users. So you'll not only be able to see and talk with Grandma, you'll be able to show her pictures and home movies. If Grandma's a corporate executive, you can show her a marketing presentation, too."

Check out the piece. The man has put quite a lot of thought into the topic and puts forth some very good ideas. If you're interested, click on the 'read' link below for the full article.

Well, this isn't exactly new news. And maybe you knew about it before. But I didn't, and a lot of other Mac-users online admit that they didn't either. So we're putting this up here for some of you who haven't heard about it yet:

In any Cocoa application (Safari, iChat, Mail, etc...), you can select any word and hit Apple+Ctrl+D. That's D for "dictionary", obviously. Using the command will cause a small pop-up window to... err... pop up and show you the dictionary entry for the word.

See, the sad thing about this was that I never knew that! Ah, me. [insert sigh of defeat] I had to enter my words in my dictionary widget to get their meanings. I'm sure a bunch of you out there also do the same thing! Now there's actually a faster way! (Given that you're in a Cocoa application, of course.)

A lot of people are saying that some Apple users overlook a lot of features like this built-in dictionary. I'm a living testament to that. And it makes me think, what other features are available that I never heard of? So, from one Mac-user to another, do any of you guys have any cool tidbits that you could share? Y'know. Some useful "betcha-didn't-know" tips and tricks that you've discovered in your journeys through OS X.

Somebody's been poking around Steve Jobs' computer and got a hold of the features of the upcoming Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. The information is not confirmed but that won't stop us from posting it. This is after all the Leak Department. According to the leaked documents (which will put the Mac security system in bad light if proven genuine) the major MacLeopard changelog will be seen in the following:

• Spotlight 2.0
• Dashboard 2.0
• Safari 3.0
• iChat 4.0
• Automator 2.0
• QuickTime 7.2
• Mail 3.0
• iCal 3.0
• Address Book 5.0

See the details of the "supposed" Mac OS changelog after the jump!