Apple inches Mac OS X 10.6.3 closer to release

Like numerous seeds before it, Friday's update was reportedly clear of issues. People familiar with the matter said it is known as Build 10D567, and is available as a 718MB download.

The last beta of Mac OS X 10.6.3 arrived in late February, and it, like Friday's had no changes made to the software's enhancements checklist. The forthcoming update improves security and compatibility within QuickTime X, enhances the performance of Apple's 64-bit Logic Pro suite, and improves compatibility with third-party printers.

Developers have reportedly been asked to focus their testing efforts on printing, Rosetta, iChat, QuickTime and graphics drivers.

The last major update to Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6.2, came last November, when Apple addressed a guest account bug that could result in a user's account data being accidentally deleted. The update also added native support for the company's new multi-touch Magic Mouse.

Apple is also currently working on Safari 4.0.5, which reportedly fixes an issue with the browser's JavaScript engine. The update will also improve HTML5 video playback, offer quicker loading of the Top Sites panels, faster JavaScript performance, better performance on YouTube, and a smaller memory footprint.

Also in the works is QuickTime 7.66, a maintenance, security and performance release expected to be one of the final updates to QuickTime 7, and a significant maintenance update to the Final Cut Studio and Pro applications.