Apple to further polish Leopard with 10.5.7 update

Apple this week is believed to have tapped its vast developer community to begin testing Mac OS X 10.5.7, a sizable maintenance and security update to the company's Leopard operating system with a particular focus on syncing improvements.

Those people familiar with the matter say the update, like those that came before it, will bundle a plethora of bug fixes spanning a wide range of system components and services. In its current pre-release form, the software reportedly boasts nearly six dozen code corrections and weighs a hefty 440 megabytes in barebones form.

In particular, Apple is said to be focusing on syncing issues that have plagued many of Leopard's standard, forward-facing apps, such as as Mail, AddressBook, and system preferences. A problem with Safari not accepting certain types of cookies will also reportedly be addressed.

Among the nearly two dozen other components receiving attention in beta of Mac OS X 10.5.7 are graphics drivers, Time Machine, printing services, screen sharing services, MobileMe syncing, AirPort services, text services, and iCal, those familiar with the software claim.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 will represent the seventh incremental update to Leopard since the software hit the market in late October of 2007. It's expected to be released sometime in the coming months.

The last update of Leopard was Mac OS X 10.5.6, which arrived on December 15th.