Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.3

Apple released the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update today and it's massive 300-500+MB. The latest update to Leopard should appear in your Mac OS X Software Update but don't bother with that one unless you like to live on the edge. If you plan to update to Mac OS X 10.5.3 then download the full combo updater.

The Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update is recommended for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, and 10.5.2 Leopard. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1141.
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

If you are nerd and enjoy reading technical documents then check out all of the bug fixes in 10.5.3 here. So here is the Cliff Notes version for the rest of us:

Some highlights include:
* Address book update to synchronize with Google, Yahoo, .Mac and Exchange.
* Includes fixes for Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule.
* Improves 802.1X (Wifi) behavior and reliability and when using Time Machine.
* Improves Active Directory binding and login.
* Eliminates a delay when logging in as an Active Directory user in a .local domain.
* Fixes reliability issues with iCal syncing.
* Fixes an issue in which certain attached hard drives may not show up in the Finder.

Update!

Apple is working on Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update, which repairs a critical flaw in saving files from Adobe's Creative Suite bundle to your local disk or even on a network server volume. According to AppleInsider Apple is preparing the first beta releases of Mac OS X 10.5.4 to arrive in developers' hands ahead of its annual developers conference next week.

Wind power could make Norway "Europe's battery"

Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Norway could be Europe's battery," Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga told Reuters after she was handed the report, which will be considered by the centre-left government in coming months.

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XO-2 $100 laptop unveils new sleek design

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Why PC Coders Avoiding Vista and Mac Coders embracing Leopard

PC World - Business Center: Coders Tell Why They're Avoiding Vista: "Windows developers are confirming the results of a survey released yesterday that found fewer than 1 in 12 programmers currently writing applications targeting Windows Vista."

"None of our customers are saying, 'G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'" said Julian Bucknall, CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express Inc. , referring to one of Vista's most highly-touted features, its new graphical subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation . Rather, "we find most are still sticking with ASP.Net and Windows Forms applications."

"Microsoft tends to dump ten new technologies on us, but only 2 or 3 really stick," said Michael Krasowski, vice-president of PDSA Inc., a Microsoft-focused 20-developer firm in Tustin Calif., citing the Windows DNA Architecture as an example."

"Vista is too bleeding-edge -- not for us, but for our clients," Krasowski said. PDSA's clients include large, blue-chip customers such as Kaiser Permanente and Boeing Inc. "They're all leery of Vista."

"Contrast this against the following article, published in January over at Theocacao. Cocoa developers are champing at the bit to implement their products using the new libraries available in Leopard and pushing the compatibility envelope along with it. More and more applications are Leopard-only."

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Make your Mac's Speech Recognition work for you

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Don't give Microsoft the remote control - fight against DRM

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BitLocker Feature in Windows Vista.

The BitLocker Feature of Vista explained. The BitLocker Drive Encryption is a full disk encryption feature included with Microsoft's Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 operating systems designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes. How to recover data from a corrupted disk volume, encrypted with BitLocker, can be had here.

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