Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.4 fixing several issues with Spaces, Expose, iCal, Safari and AirPort.

AirPort reliability on 5GHz networks has been improved, in addition to a fix for slower performance problems in Logic Studio and MainStage. iCal reliability when it comes to the software’s handling of meeting requests, cancellation notices, and syncing with the iPhone has been improved. Performance issue with Safari is now fixed.

General

• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server.
• Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
• Addresses an issue that may result in a partially installed X11 application.
• Improves L2TP VPN client reliability.

AirPort

• Addresses AirPort reliability issues with 5GHz networks.
• Addresses AirPort issues that may result in slower performance in Logic Studio or MainStage.

iCal

• Improves overall iCal reliability for meeting requests, cancellation notices, delegation, and syncing with iPhone.
• Resolves an issue that prevents deleting an iCal event without notifying the creator.
• Addresses an issue in which events in all calendars affect availability.  A checkbox now enables information-only calendars to be transparent from free/busy lookups.
• Resolves a UI issue preventing delegated calendars from showing up as a separate window.
• Addresses an issue with copying and pasting attendees from one event to another.
• Resolves an issue in which iCal may not delete events after a specified time interval, even when set to do so in iCal preferences.
• Addresses an issue in which To Dos cannot be marked private.

Safari

• Addresses a potential performance issue when loading secure web pages.
• Resolves issues that may be encountered when accessing secure web pages with client certificates that reside on a smart card.

Spaces and Exposé

• Addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.
• Fixes an issue in which dragging an application from the list of application assignments in Spaces System Preferences does not assign the application to the desired space.
• Resolves an Exposé issue that may result in only a subset of windows being shown.

Source: About the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update

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Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, at the age of 52 bid an emotional farewell to Microsoft. He’ll remain chairman and a part-time Microsoft employee. So what is the future of Microsoft without the founder?

From Reuters: This is what Gates said on leaving Microsoft, For me, this will be a big change. For 33 years, I’ve essentially had the same job.

Some days, I’m so used to coming in to Microsoft. Even if I have the kids in the car and I am supposed to take them to school, I forget and if I start thinking about work a little bit, I start driving toward Microsoft. They say to me, ‘Dad, what are we going to do at Microsoft?’ So I get back on course.

I am sure there will some day next month where I start thinking about software and I will start driving here to Microsoft, go up to the fifth floor and walk down to my office and they will be remodeling it. In fact, they were wondering if I was leaving at 4 or 5 today, so they could get started on that.

Source: Bill Gates reminisces about Microsoft

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Adobe has released the latest version Acrobat for Windows and Mac platforms which support embedding of Flash technology to create rich PDF documents. Another feature is the ability to create Porfolios and also added the ability for collaborators to co-navigate document.

Acrobat 9 has been launched in three flavors, including Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended (which includes Adobe Presenter software). Pricing of Acrobat 9 is: Standard for $299 or $99 to upgrade; Pro for $449 or $159 to upgrade; and Pro Extended for $699 or $299 to upgrade.

Full press release after the jump.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 25, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Acrobat® 9 software, a significant upgrade that transforms the process of creating and sharing electronic documents. Acrobat 9 delivers major innovations that can enable organizations and individuals to communicate in an engaging, professional manner. Now included are native support for Adobe Flash® technology, the ability to unify a wide range of content in rich PDF Portfolios, and access to real-time capabilities for co-navigating a PDF document with colleagues.

“Rapid, reliable communication is key to success on all of our projects,” said Shawn Pressley, director of project management systems and development at Hill International, one of the world’s largest construction claims and management firms. “With enhanced support for a broad range of content types and expanded collaboration capabilities, Acrobat 9 will enable us to reach any audience with the right information, where and when it’s needed. We can include proposals, images, computer-aided design models and even Adobe Flash applications in a single PDF Portfolio to clearly communicate what is required of our local and global teams.”

For organizations worldwide, Acrobat 9 helps address today’s critical challenge of communicating with widely dispersed teams of colleagues, partners and customers in a compelling way. Acrobat 9 is already garnering an enthusiastic response from long-term and first-time users in segments including financial services, government, legal, manufacturing, and publishing. They include: EDS; Allianz Deutschland AG; Italian Court of Cremona; Penguin Group; Dai Nippon Printing; and Kyowa Hakko.

Acrobat 9 provides deep support for Adobe Flash technology, enabling users to include Adobe Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents. For example, a marketing manager can use Acrobat 9 to convert web pages with multimedia to PDF documents. The PDF file can be shared for review and comment with others who are using free Adobe Reader® 9 software, which is expected to launch up to twice as fast as earlier versions.

Acrobat 9 also includes the ability to unify a wide range of content into a single document with the new concept of PDF Portfolios. PDF Portfolios enable users to assemble multiple media types into one, compressed PDF file that can be customized with several professional layouts and specific branding. A sales professional could create a single proposal document for a prospective client that includes charts, spreadsheets and images, as well as a branded, introductory video from the CEO discussing the company’s latest products.

In addition, Acrobat 9 provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document, enabled by working with Acrobat.com, a suite of hosted services available as public beta at www.acrobat.com . This new capability can enable users to drive a group’s navigation through a PDF document in real-time, helping ensure everyone is literally, and figuratively, on the same page.

The Acrobat 9 family consists of Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and the new Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software. The most comprehensive member of the family, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, includes Adobe Presenter software for easily turning Microsoft® PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that can be published as PDF files.

Pricing and Availability
Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, Acrobat 9 Pro and Acrobat 9 Standard for Microsoft Windows®, and Acrobat 9 Pro for Mac OS X, are immediately available in English, French, German, and Japanese language versions. Acrobat 9 Pro Extended is available for US$699, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat (1) can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for US$229. Acrobat 9 Pro is available for US$449, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat (2) can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Pro for US$159. Acrobat 9 Standard is available for US$299, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat (3) can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Standard for US$99. Price listed is the Adobe Store direct price. Reseller prices may vary. Price valid in the U.S. and Canada only. Applicable local sales tax and shipping may apply. Additionally, Adobe Reader 9 is expected to be available by early July 2008.

Adobe Creative Suite® 3.3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, and Master Collection software, which include Acrobat 9 Pro, are also immediately available. Creative Suite 3.3 Design Premium also bundles Adobe Fireworks® CS3 software.

More information on the Acrobat 9 family is available online at www.adobe.com/acrobat . Customers in North America can also call 1-800-833-6687.

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SecureMac researchers has found Trojan horse that can infect Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. The Trojan horse uses a bug in the Apple Remote Desktop Agent (ARDAgen) which can be exploited by hackers to send any commands into your Mac. Hackers can log keystrokes, take screen shots, take pictures using iSight, enable file sharing and more.

The owner will have his or her Mac infected if the Applescript ASthtv05 is downloaded and executed.

Source: New OS X Trojan Horse in the Wild

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Mozilla wasn’t suppose to release another release candidate for Firefox 3 after RC2 but a bug for MAC OS X forces the company to issue RC3. What is the bug? Firefox 3 RC2 on a Mac hangs agter being upgraded from 10.5.0 to 10.5.3. There are no changes to the Windows or Linux version of Firefox 3 RC3. RC3.

Mozilla will not wait Apple to fix the flaw in 10.5.4, so instead they release RC3 to fit their own timeline. Firefox 3 will probably be released sometime next week.

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The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will start with executives keynote at 10:00 a.m. at San Francisco’s Moscone West. They will showcase Mac OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone development platforms. Here is a summary of rumours of what might be announced at WWDC 2008: the 3G iPhone which is a certainty, new .Mac rebranded to Me.com, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, iPhone Firmware 2.0 and iPhone Apps. Will there be a new MacBook Pro?

Source: Apple WWDC 2008

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Apple may announce Mac OS X 10.6 code name “Snow Leopard” at next week’s WWDC which will be release in January 2009. Mac OS X 10.6 will not have major new features but it will have cleansed out all PPC codes and it will use 64-bit Intel only. The rumour is it will also integrate multi-touch feature to combat what is coming out of Microsoft Windows 7.

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Adobe has reveaked Adobe Acrobat 9 software, an upgrade to its popular document management technology which has native support for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify a wide range of PDF Portfolios, store video files in PDF, new compression feature and new collaboration feature. All of this can be found on Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro beta.

Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president, Business Productivity Business Unit said, “The expectations organizations and individuals have for communicating and collaborating in the workplace continues to grow significantly. The ability to break through and communicate a message in a compelling way has never been at a greater premium. Acrobat 9 is a response to this environment and is poised to fundamentally change how professionals communicate and collaborate using electronic documents.”

Source: Adobe Press Release

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Windows 7 will replace Vista and it will have touch technology from Microsoft’s Surface technology. Ballmer and Bill Gates gave a preview of future touch capabilities of Windows at the D Conference Check out the video above.

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Apple has updated Mac OS X to 10.5.3 fixing 70 issues with the OS. Summary of fixes are Time Machine backup, Aperture 2, Spaces, .Mac syncing, Mail stability issue, iChat screen-sharing sessions, Spotlight group chat indexing, and many more. Read the full list from Apple after the jump.

General

• Fixes a font issue that could result in Helvetica Narrow being used in applications instead of Helvetica.
• Addresses an issue with stuttering video and audio playback in certain USB devices.
• Resolves stability issues with Word of the Day, iTunes Artwork, and Slideshow screen savers.
• Fixes an issue in which certain attached hard drives may not show up in the Finder.
• Addresses an issue with .Mac syncing of Dashboard widgets over multiple Macs that use different screen resolutions.
• Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
• Improves the accuracy of the Software Update progress bar indicator.
• Addresses an issue in which Finder may not be available if the computer name is blank in Sharing preferences.
• Improves Active Directory binding and login.
• Eliminates a delay when logging in as an Active Directory user in a .local domain.
• Improves Spotlight searches on a AFP file server volumes.
• Clients can now change their password at the login window when bound to a Mac OS X 10.4 Open Directory server.
• Improves Safari reliability when connecting to the Internet through a Microsoft ISA proxy.

Address Book

• Addresses reliability issues when searching for contacts using built-in search.
• Resolves issues with mapping addresses that contain an ampersand character (&).

AirPort

• Improves 802.1X behavior and reliability.
• Improves reliability when using Time Capsule.

Automator

• Addresses an issue in which some actions may not work with the “Show When Run” option enabled.
• Resolves an issue in which the “New iCal Event” action may not work.
• Resolves an issue that prevents workflows from being saved in the Finder’s contextual menu.
• Fixes reliability issues for Automator scripts that search for files by date.
• Resolves an issue that prevents workflows from being saved in the Finder’s contextual menu.
• Addresses an issue in which Automator workflows as Finder plugins do not work when the workflow begins with the “Get Selected Finder Items” action.
• Fixes an issue in which the “Copy Files” action does not reliably work when added from Automator’s warning dialog.

iCal

• Addresses potential privacy issues by allowing events to be marked as private.
• Resolves an issue in which the inspector does not show capacity and availability info for conference rooms within a building.
• Addresses an issue in which the current day could appear in the left-most column of the weekly view.
• Addresses reliability issues with meeting alarms, invitations and attachments.
• Resolves issues with reliability when restoring from iCal backups.
• Fixes accuracy issues with auto-completion, availability data and location names.
• Resolves an issue in which iCal may send cancellation notices for events in the past after a calendar is deleted.
• Fixes reliability issues with iCal syncing.

iChat

• Addresses reliability issues with screen sharing.
• Resolves an issue in which saved chat transcripts may reported as “still in use” after opening and closing them in iChat.
• Resolves an issue with group chats not being indexed in Spotlight.
• Only the last 250 messages of an active chat are saved. Fixed to save unlimited number of lines.
• Addresses issues with echo cancellation that may occur on portable Macs.

Mail

• Resolves an issue in which Mail may prevent idle sleep when set to automatically check for new messages every minute.
• Addresses stability issues that may be encountered when dragging large attachments into an email message.
• Fixes an issue that could occur if two compose windows are open when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
• Addresses reliability issues when changes are made to a mailbox while offline.
• Resolves wrapping issues that may be found with consecutive spaces in plain text.
• Fixes issues with certain web pages appearing garbled when emailed from Safari.
• Fixes an issue in which the Sent, Drafts, and Outbox mailboxes incorrectly list the “cc” recipients in the “To” column.
• Addresses reliability issues with attachments added to plain text notes.
• Fixes reliability issues with authenticated RSS feeds.
• Resolves an issue in which attaching an alias to an email message may not send the actual file.

Parental Controls

• Addresses reliability issues with application logging and time limits.
• Resolves an issue in which Parental Controls may prevent forced sleep.
• Addresses performance issues with web content filters.
• Fixes an issue with managed accounts in which iChat transcripts may not be created.
• Addresses issues with 4-byte files and whitelist.
  
  

Spaces

• Resolves an issue in which switching to a different space and returning back to the original space may reorder the application windows with a different active window.
• Resolves an issue in which activating an application from the Dock switches to a different space, even if there is a window for that application in the current space.
• Fixes an issue in which Command-Tab may incorrectly switch to a new space.
• Addresses reliability issues with Spaces when syncing preferences over .Mac.

Time Machine

• Includes fixes for Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule.
• Resolves certain issues when backing up a portable Mac that is on battery power.
• Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2.
• Addresses reliability issues when performing a full restore from a Time Machine backup.
• Fixes an issue in which certain function keys may be disabled after using Time Machine.
• Fixes a possible alert message that incorrectly states a backup volume does not have enough space.
• Updates Time Machine to reliably restore attachments and messages in Mail.

VoiceOver

• Includes Braille Update 1.0 which enables GW Micro, HandyTech, HIMS, Nippon, and Papenmeier Refreshable Braille displays.
• Addresses an issue with Braille dot 7 and 8 underlining.
• Fixes an issue in which HTML page anchors may be ignored by the VoiceOver cursor.
• Fixes an issue that prevented Hot Spots from being used in text areas.
• Resolves an issue with spell checking in which VoiceOver may only announce the first misspelled word if there are multiple words spelled incorrectly.
  

Source: About the Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update

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