Feb 2, 2011 11:09 GMT  ·  By

Apple developers have received a new beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7, the seventh scheduled maintenance update for the Snow Leopard operating system.

Labeled Build 10J850, the new build comes a week after the previous build was handed to developers and weighs in at 377 MB.

Those familiar with the software say that Apple has not changed the focus areas, in that developers are still required to focus their attention on the Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers.

Last week, reports cited people familiar with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6.7 test builds as saying that the latest beta (10J846) had arrived 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 was 10J842, and weighed in at 338.6 MB.

The accompanying seed notes for 10.6.7 10J846 reportedly told developers to focus their testing skills on the Mac App Store, Apple’s one-stop shop for downloading, installing, and updating third-party Macintosh applications.

The report failed to note exactly what elements of the Mac App Store were in need of further testing. The situation is no different today.

There is a small chance Apple is looking to add new features, rather than iron out any existing bugs, as the application itself is quite stable.

As for the other focus areas - AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers - they have been present since the first OS X 10.6.7 seed.

The months to follow will likely move developer resources away from the aging Snow Leopard over to Lion, which is rumored to revamp the graphical user interface by delivering iOS-like elements.

Apple has scheduled the official release of its next-generation Mac OS for this summer.