The first maintenance update for Snow Leopard, Apple's latest operating system, was released Thursday afternoon, less than two weeks after the software's debut.
According to Apple, the 71.47MB update "includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac." It is available via Software Update or direct download from Apple.
According to the release notes, Mac OS X 10.6.1:
- Improves compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
- Addresses an issue in which some printer compatibility drivers might not appear properly in the Add Printer browser
- Addresses an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
- Addresses an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
- Resolves an issue in which the Command-Option-T keyboard shortcut would sometimes bring up the special characters menu in applications such as Mail and TextEdit
- Addresses instances in which auto account setup in Mail might not work
- Resolves issues when sending mail with certain SMTP servers
- Addresses an issue in which Motion 4 could become unresponsive
- Includes an update to Adobe Flash Player plug-in version 10.0.32.18
Also released Thursday was Mac OS X Server 10.6.1. The 71.57MB download is also available for download from Apple. The update includes improved reliability of services using Grand Central Dispatch, and a fix for duplicate serial number alerts on servers with multiple network interfaces.
Apple's older operating systems also received security updates. Security Update 2009-005 is available for Leopard Server (93.1MB), Leopard (93.14MB), Tiger Server (206.43MB), Tiger Server Power PC (132.53MB), and Tiger Intel (169.75MB).
Also issued Thursday was iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.2. The update applies to iMac computers with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics card running Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later. It updates the graphics card firmware to improve system stability.
Finally, Apple also released an update for Apple RAID Card firmware. The 26.12MB download:
- Improves reliability during startup and power loss recovery.
- Addresses a potential issue when rebuilding a degraded RAID 5.
- Resolves an issue that can fill the on-board flash file system.
- Improves battery handling and reporting.
- Improves compatibility with Mac OS X v10.6 and Mac OS X Server v10.6.