Folks at AppleInsider claim to have had a look at the new 10.5.4 seed. 9E17 seed notes list "no known issues" with just two fixes made since the latest 10.5.4 beta fix. Both fixes are centered on bugs with iCal's shortcuts and sync, the publication claims.

According to the source, beta testers were asked to focus on AirPort, networking with Windows, Spaces and other commonly used aspects of OS X Leopard, such as iChat, the iLife suite of applications and Apple's Mail app.

"The rapidly shortening turnaround between the reported builds should ensure that 10.5.4 will be available before July 11th, when it will be necessary for Mac OS X Leopard users who want upgrade to MobileMe, Apple's online hosting and sync service for Macs, PCs, and Apple handhelds," the source points out. Indeed, some of the requirements needed for Apple's new MobileMe service, as well as the requirements for syncing an iPhone 3G to a Mac, call for Mac OS X 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7. Mac OS X 10.5.4 will pack the latest version of Apple's digital media player application.

According to MobileMe's terms of service, users will need to have the latest version of Apple's media player application, iTunes (7.7). The same system requirements are called by Apple's newly unveiled device, the 3G iPhone, along with Mac OS X 10.5.4.

MobileMe is Apple's new Internet service that automatically pushes new email, contacts and calendar events to your Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch. The company claims MobileMe is a simple and efficient way to keep everything up to date. Aside from push email, push calendar and push contacts, MobileMe also offers web applications at me.com, a MobileMe Gallery for photo sharing, MobileMe iDisk for online document access and a generous 20GB of online storage. If you buy a new Mac now, you get $30 off your first year of MobileMe subscription, Apple says. You may also pre-order MobileMe now and it will be delivered to you in July.