14 DAY TRIAL // Those enrolled with Apple’s developer programs are signaling that Cupertino has seeded a second beta of the Mac OS X 10.6.7 update for Snow Leopard. The build reportedly asks code-savvy individuals to focus their testing efforts on the newly released Mac App Store.
AppleInsider cites people familiar with the software as saying that Mac OS X 10.6.7 build 10J846 weighs in at 372 MB as a barebones delta update.
The beta arrives less than a week since Apple first began testing on the seventh maintenance and security update for its Snow Leopard operating system.
The previous build, 10J842, was 338.6 MB in size, the report notes.
The accompanying seed notes for 10.6.7 reportedly have developers focusing on the Mac App Store, Apple’s one-stop shop for downloading, installing, and updating third-party Macintosh applications with a single click.
The Mac App Store was introduced alongside Mac OS X 10.6.6, the latest version of Snow Leopard.
The report fails to note exactly what elements of the Mac App Store are in need of further testing. Chances are Apple is looking to add new features, rather than iron out any existing bugs, as the application itself is stable as a rock.
In addition to ensuring that the Mac App Store runs smoothly, developers reportedly have other focus areas, including AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers.
Notably, these focus areas were listed in the first OS X 10.6.7 seed as well.
There are also no known issues with this build, suggesting that Apple has pretty much nailed most of the potential bugs in its previous system-wide update.
And things shouldn’t be any different, with Mac OS X Lion just around the corner.
The months to follow will undoubtedly shift some developing resources away from the aging Snow Leopard over to Lion, which is rumored to revamp the graphical user interface by delivering iOS-like elements.
Cupertino has scheduled a Summer 2011 official release of its next-generation Mac OS, and needs all the talent it can get to have a spotless OS on launch.
Apple has also seeded a new beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 Server today, signaling that the Server OS is suffering from one known issues - “clients may fail to NetBoot from NetRestore image of 10.6.6 created with Mac OS X Server 10.6.6,” according to the aforementioned source.
Mac OS X 10.6.7 Server is reportedly a 468.3MB download in delta form.
Update: more details have emerged on this Mac OS X 10.6.7 build (particularly relating to the known issues affecting the Client version). Learn more here.