14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has a reputation of being quickly on top of any potential security risks and plugging them before they can actually start posing a threat to users. The company is just as lithe when it comes to bug fixes and improvements and the first update to Leopard is already on its way.
Apple has historically been very quick about the first update after a major OS release. Most of the patches came within weeks, fixing bugs and improving issues that were missed in internal testing but turned up by the large number of users now using the product. Things are no different with Leopard and users have identified various issues, features that don't work as expected and even obvious bugs with a great potential for data loss. Likewise, Apple's first internal patch has already moved into the next stage and is making its way to developers.
AppleInsider reports that Apple started seeding build 9B13 to its developer community on Wednesday. The patch is quite considerable at 267MB, not exactly surprising considering that it lists dozens of improvements. The list contains fixes for Leopard's application Firewall, Spotlight indexing, iCal syncing, Keychain login and text drawing corruption, among others. Also of interest amongst the two dozen issues addressed is a problem when moving files across partitions, which many suspect is none other than the widely reported mass data loss that occurs due to the Finder's improper handling of the move command.
The Cupertino Company has asked developers to thoroughly test the update, especially when it comes to Time Machine, Mail, iCal, Back To My Mac, Bonjour, AirPort, gaming graphics, networking and the Finder. This testing phase is expected to take a while, but the update should have passed this testing phase sometime in the next few weeks and be available for download via Software Update.