14 DAY TRIAL // The second beta of Mac OS X 10.6.5 has been handed to select Apple developers with instructions to focus on 3D graphics, Mail, printing, QuickTime, and the X Windows X11 subsystems.
Reportedly weighing in at 558MB in delta form, Mac OS X 10.6.5 build 10H529 contains six focus areas, no known issues and no listed fixes, according to World of Apple, a source generally responsible with publishing the seed notes included with OS X test builds.
The documentation in question drops a number of focus areas, including iCal.
Reproduced for Softpedia readers, the seed notes can be found below:
Known Issues
- None
Focus Areas
- 3D Graphics - AFP - Mail - Printing - QuickTime - X11
MacRumors also caught wind of the news, adding, for its part, that Apple appears to be moving quickly on Mac OS X 10.6.5.
However, the mere fact that Apple narrowed down focus areas while noting no known issues does not necessarily put Mac OS X 10.6.5 on track for public release.
Yet these signs are always good, in that development is going is planned.
Apple is also known to have worked fast on previous incremental updates to Snow Leopard, such as Mac OS X 10.6.2, which took about a month to develop.
Mac OS X development cycles are unpredictable, although Apple rarely spends more than two months with a build.
The Mac maker also issued a graphics update for Snow Leopard users recently, addressing faulty behavior with some Valve games.
The issues, relating to the visual experience for Mac users playing games downloaded via Steam, had been caused by the very system update Apple released in June.
Following the release of Apple’s Snow Leopard Graphics Update, Valve Software posted a technical note explaining how the patch had improved frame rates by up to 120% on some newer Mac hardware.
Valve actually worked with Apple side by side to get the update out and into the hands of Mac gamers worldwide.