10.5

Chrome to drop Mac OS X 10.5 support

Just as Apple finished up OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion, Google said yesterday that its Web browser will stop supporting OS X 10.5, aka Leopard.

Leopard debuted in 2007 after a long gestation period. Apple's OS updates arrive more frequently these days -- roughly annually -- and Chrome comes even more frequently with a six-week update cycle.

"Please note, on Mac we now require 10.6 or higher, and this release will not be available if you are on 10.5 or lower," said Chrome team member Jason Kersey in a blog post yesterday … Read more

Apple releases Flashback removal tools for OS X 10.5

In September 2011, Apple stopped software support for OS X 10.5 in favor of OS X 10.6 or later, including security updates for the older OS. However, in light of the recent malware attacks that have left users of OS X 10.5 vulnerable to exploit, and perhaps following recent criticism of its approaches to security, Apple has issued new tools to help users of OS X 10.5 better secure their systems.

After Flashback malware hit headlines in early August, a number of security companies released Flashback detection and removal tools that automated the manual steps for … Read more

OS X 10.5 Leopard may lose Firefox in 2012

In a recent discussion about the support of OS X 10.5 for its popular Firefox Web browser, Mozilla developers have been considering the removal of support for Leopard.

Leopard is now four years old, and the prediction by the Mozilla development team is that by the time Firefox 13 is released in June of 2012, the number of users running the operating system who would install it will have dropped to less than 10 percent of the Firefox Mac install base. In addition, technical challenges would make continued support for OS X 10.5 an unnecessary burden on Mozilla'… Read more

Cloud-savvy iTunes sails in ahead of iOS 5

A day ahead of Apple's big release for iOS 5, the new version of iTunes lays the groundwork for the desktop hooks to the next version of the mobile operating system. The big new feature in iTunes 10.5, which you can download for Windows and Mac, is support for iCloud, Apple's service for syncing data wirelessly.

The iCloud change is significant. The free service enables you to store music and video purchases in Apple's cloud service, and make them available across your iOS devices or computers with iTunes installed. Automatic downloads are also supported in this … Read more

Apple seeds iTunes 10.5 beta 8, iWork for iOS beta 3 to developers

Apple has released the newest beta seed of iTunes 10.5 as well as iWork for iOS 3 to developers for testing.

Developers can now download both releases from the Developer Center Web site. iTunes 10.5 beta 8 includes a number of security improvements and bug fixes, focusing on iTunes Match (currently in beta as well). Developers can also test the ability to back up to iCloud from inside iTunes.

Developers should be aware that while testing the backup feature, Apple may occasionally delete all information from iCloud, meaning developers should keep a backup of all their information locally. … Read more

Apple releases Migration Assistant update for Leopard

Last month Apple offered an update for the Migration Assistant utility for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which increased compatibility with transferring data a new Mac that ships with OS X Lion. Today Apple followed suit for OS X 10.5 Leopard by issuing an update for its Migration Assistant tool as well.

The update should be available through Software Update, but can also be downloaded from the Apple Support downloads site. The download is 4.98MB and requires OS X 10.5.8 to install, so if you are planning on migrating to a newly purchased system and … Read more

Apple issues security update to QuickTime, now version 7.6.9

Apple has updated its QuickTime software, now at version 7.6.9, to fix vulnerabilities where a maliciously designed file could execute arbitrary code or lead to the application terminating.

As Apple describes in its knowledge base article:

"Description: A heap buffer overflow exists in QuickTime's handling of JP2 images. Viewing a maliciously crafted JP2 image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking. For Mac OS X v10.6 systems, this issue is addressed in Mac OS X v10.6.5. Credit to Nils of MWR … Read more

Apple issues security, raw, and MainStage updates

Along with yesterday's release of OS X 10.6.5, Apple issued a few other updates for currently supported software. These include a security update for OS X 10.5 "Leopard," an update to the MainStage music production application, and a digital raw compatibility update.

Security Update 2010-007 "Leopard Client" (240.74MB)

This update is a patch for OS X 10.5, which incorporates the same security updates that were addressed in the OS X 10.6.5 update. Apple's description of the update is the standard one that it "improves security," … Read more

Possible fix for Harman Kardon iSub problems with PowerPC Macs

When Apple released some of the final updates to OS X 10.5 for PowerPC systems, a number of Harman Kardon iSub owners found their speaker systems no longer worked properly with their computers. The problem appeared to be a driver-related error but neither Harman Kardon nor Apple stepped up to fix the issue and owners had to resort to other speaker systems.

Recently, an open-source project "iSub Fix" has become available, which is a small driver replacement for PowerPC-based Macs running OS X 10.5.8, which should get the iSub working again. The package comes with … Read more