Just when you
were starting to think, "gee whiz, Apple hasn't released anything
in awhile," along comes a slew of minor updates just waiting
to shatter your uptime. Not everyone wants to feel
the thrill of installing new updates the minute they are released,
effectively volunteering to be a guinea pig for the entire Mac
community. But waiting until this weekend before going on an
installing binge would seem to leave enough lead time in place
so that if
any of the new updates end up causing your Mac to randomly get
up and do a tap-dance across your kitchen table, you'll probably
already have heard about it before you hit the "install" button.
So block out a few minutes of your last-minute shopping time
this weekend (or perhaps a few hours, if you're still on dial-up),
and stuff
these stocking-stuffers onto your Mac's holiday platter:
First, we have
the first real update to Panther, with the 10.3.2 update. Close
followers will recall that 10.3.1 was nothing more than a quick-fix
for a few unexpected glitches, and weighed in at little more
than a scant megabyte. Well never fear, the 10.3.2 updater clocks
in at a hefty 36 megabytes, which while annoying to download,
assures us that Apple's developers haven't exactly been leaving
Panther sitting on the shelf since its release. Remember that
Jaguar was updated eight (technically nine) times during its
twelve months of existence, so something tells me that that particular
batch of engineers doesn't get a whole lot of sleep. According
to Apple, the 10.3.2 updater includes:
- improved
file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks
- more robust printing to PostScript printers
- improved font management
- updated Mail and Address Book applications
- new ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- FileVault, FireWire 800, WebDAV and USB Printing improvements
from Update 10.3.1
- previous standalone security updates
Alright, so
it doesn't exactly read like a holiday shopping list, but there
seems to be something for everyone. You can pick up 10.3.2
through Software Update, or download the updater here.
Next up, along
with the news that AOL users can now easily access iTunes from
within their AOL shackles, we have the iTunes 4.2 update. My
first thought was that this updater only made sense if you were
in fact an AOL user, and in fact one of the main features of
version 4.2 is that you can now log into the iTunes Music Store
with their AOL login, instead of creating a separate one just
for iTunes. But 4.2 also allows any user to "view the iTunes
Music Store in a separate window" (sounds vaguely interesting)
and lastly, "includes a number of performance improvements" (which
is the
real reason why every iTunes user should take a moment to update
to version 4.2 here).
iTunes 4.2 hasn't shown up yet in my Software Update, but maybe
it'll like you better than I.
Lastly, we
have the QuickTime 6.5 update, which does a whole lot of cool-sounding
stuff as far as cellphone interoperability, and also (apparently)
corrects that little expiring-codec glitch that popped up last
week. Since you're taking the time to install 10.3.2 and iTunes
4.2 anyway, you might as well make it a trifecta by installing
QuickTime 6.5 here.
It only showed up in my Software Update after I upgraded
to 10.3.2 and restarted, but this could have been merely a coincidence
of timing.
Prior to going
on the update binge today, I was able to brag about uptime that
went all the way back to when I installed 10.3.1. And while it's
fun to be able to show off to your Windows-using friends just
how many days, weeks, months, and centuries Macs can go without
freezing
up or being restarted, there are more important things in life
than uptime. Now, pardon me while I go and try to think of some...
When you're
done with this weekend's Apple-induced homework, feel free to
join the party on the billpalmer.net
discussion boards, or take four seconds out of
your life to join the billpalmer.net
online Mac User Group . Oh, and you can now run
your own inexpensive
text ads on
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billpalmer.net
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