Apple has released their first update to Leopard today. The 10.5.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac. The final build number of Mac OS X 10.5.1 is 9B18. Grab it now from Software Update or Apple.
Finally! Apple today announced they will be shipping Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard at 6pm on Friday 26th October at all Apple Stores worldwide.
Update: The page was taken down almost immediately after we posted it.
You were all asking for them, so here they are. The brand spankin’ new desktop backgrounds in Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. Enjoy!
Update: Images have now been removed at the request of Apple Inc.
Some of you have been requesting this so here it is! Ripped straight from the WWDC discs. We did try to get you the new screen savers but they don’t seem to work on anything but Leopard. Oh well. Clicky the thumbnail for the full widescreen shot - it can fit up to a 30″ display.
Apple today released the following statement regarding delaying the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard from WWDC this June to October.
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard’s features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones.
Apple is to hold a Special Event in late-March where they will unveil Mac OS X 10.5 and the new Leopard-dependant iLife ‘07 and iWork ‘07. All 3 releases are expected to be in stores 3-4 weeks later. Recently Apple has rapidly been increasing the number of builds internally and has made progress faster than expected. New features in 10.5 include “Time Machine”, Spaces, an updated GUI and HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc support. New features in iLife ‘07 include PhotoBooth 2 and updated versions of the other apps. iWork ‘07 will feature a brand new app called “Lasso” which is a spreadsheet/chart application, Pages 3 and Keynote 4.
Apple today seeded Mac OS X 10.5 build 9A321, which is around 4-5 days older than the build seeded recently only to internal Apple employees. Apparently the reason an older build was supplied is so as not to give away new features that will be previewed at Macworld in January.
Apple yesterday seeded a new version of Leopard (build 9A326) to internal Apple employees. This latest build is reported to have fixed bugs from the last build (9A303) such as Quicktime crashing, printing problems and issues with .Mac such as iDisk synching. Apple continues to gloss over the interface, refining it even more and there is an overly presence of black gloss. This build is also completely stable on Apple’s latest Core 2 Duo MacBook and MacBook Pro. Apple is trying to gear down development to get this build out to developers before the New Year. New “internal” features include improved Core technology, faster boot-up times and support for external flash memory as temporary system memory (similar to Microsoft Vistas tech). Boot Camp 1.2 is included in the build but no readme was accompanied and we cannot identify any new features, it appears the same as the current 1.1.2 beta to us. Spotlight has got new meta search abilities including the ability to search other Macs on a network. Safari 3 has improved RSS support, with ability to view videocasts and listen to podcasts in browser. iSync is not present in the build it has been replaced with a new Sync Manager. TextEdit also features support to export and open new Word 2007 documents.
Update: For those wanting screen shots, sorry we won’t post any because we really don’t want have to deal with Apple Legal for like the millionth time. Just wait until January or the proper developer release.
Here’s another of Apple’s “secret” Leopard features. With the launch of the iTunes Movie Store next week, Apple is preparing to evolve iTunes beyond its current state to be the ultimate media player. Next week, there will be a “Movies” link in the iTunes store, like the current “Music Videos” link to direct users to the new Movie section. It is then expected to get its own dedicated tab on the sidebar as “Movie Store” in a future iTunes update. Other features of the new iTunes 6.0.6 (or iTunes 6.1?) will include support for the new iPod nanos. Then in Leopard, iTunes will evolve alongside Front Row 2. Both Stores should be accessible from the FrontRow menu. The “iTunes Music Store” will be renamed as the Store is now not just music… The search features in the Store are also to recieve a facelift, with predictable searches (ala Google Suggest). Do bear in mind though, that all this can change by the time of Leopard’s launch - currently scheduled for April 2007. Now did that make any sense?…
Update: Who was right, who was right! Well sort of.
Developers are reporting that Apple has seeded an update to Leopard via the Software Update panel. It weighs in at 46.4MB and is simply called “Leopard Developer Preview Update 1.0″. The update is described as:
This Software Update delivers improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X Leopard Developer Preview and is recommended for all users.
Mac OS X Leopard was shown off at WWDC and a preview copy has been released to developers. It is expected to be released next Spring.
Seems Steve forgot to mention like the most important new feature in Leopard, new iChat smileys! We’ll have to wait until Leopard comes out next Spring whilst those lucky developers get to use them… today…
These are the Leopard Preview discs that the developers got at WWDC. As you can see there are 2 discs, the server version and the consumer.
I know we’ve had exclusives for the past 2 years on Mac OS X builds (check MacRumors.com if you don’t believe us… *sigh*), but this year we really can’t be bothered and also our source won’t be there this year. You may have also noticed we’ve posted no WWDC predictions this year either. I know some of you stick by us here at MacShrine (and we thank you!) but the rest still can’t get over the iPod video mess in April, which is a real shame because if they had got over it we might have been in a better mood to actually post some rumors! To clear up our credibility we will shortly be posting an item on everything we HAVE gotten right, and boy, it’s a lot. MacShrine wish to anew after WWDC - so please, just love us!
IMPORTANT: THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED IN MAY 2006, BEFORE LEOPARD’S DELAY WAS ANNOUNCED. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT IF ALL YOU ARE GOING TO SAY IS WE ARE “LATE”. LEOPARD IS COMING OCTOBER 2007. THANK YOU.
We’ve received unconfirmed reports that Apple is to reveal launch details for it’s next-generation Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” at WWDC. According to the source, Apple will complete it’s Intel move by WWDC with the release of the new Intel PowerMacs and so the era of Mactel will truly begin. Mac OS 10.5 will be Apple’s most advanced OS to-date, concentrating more on the techincal side than eye-candy. New features will include radically improved Spotlight technology more tightly integrated with the Finder, more official Cocoa widgets, improved filesystem, Blu-ray support, Automater 2.0, optimized support for Intel processors, iChat 4 with whiteboard and tabs, new Front Row to be included as standard and the final release of Boot Camp. The November release date was chosen to bring strong holiday sales and so at least 2 “point fixes” would be released before updated iMacs and Mac minis come in January. It is expected to retail at $129.99.
Update: Sudeep has posted an interesting list of features he wishes to see in Leopard. It’d be great to see it all in Mac OS 10.5.
Reliable sources have informed MacOSXRumors.com that Apple is developing virtualisation software that could be added to Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard. The technology will allow users to create and run virtual machines with Mac OS X, Linux or Windows on any Intel-based Mac. The software, which is said to be code-named “Chameleon”, will be made available in “Client” and “Server” versions. The Client version will have similar features to Virtual PC and will be included with Leopard Client while the Server version will act as a virtualisation server and will come with Leopard Server. Apple may also sell the solution separately just as it currently sells Apple Remote Desktop. Sources also claim that Apple is developing the technology hand in hand with partners such as Intel and Microsoft. They don’t know if Apple’s software will be compatible with Intel’s virtualisation technology announced last year but the possibility that Apple’s software becomes inter-operable with Virtual PC and VMWare has been mentioned. Also they don’t know if Apple will use Rosetta technology so as to make the creation of PowerPC based virtual machines possible. So basically “Chameleon” is Apple’s VMWare.
TUAW writer David Chartier has an interesting post about the possibility of Apple previewing Mac OS 10.5 Leopard at Macworld. I don’t think anyone has actually considered this before, but after reading his points, it really does make sense for Apple to at least give a “one more thing…” preview of their new OS. Apple generally has a 4 month gap from previewing and realising major OS updates, if Apple was to launch alongside Microsofts Vista next Summer, they would have to preview it in January. Hehe, 2006 is going to be one hell of a year and that’s a fact!
