14 DAY TRIAL // Sources cited by MacStories claim to have learned that Apple completed the certification stage for Mac OS X 10.6.5 yesterday, putting the company on track to release the final version of the software today, alongside an updated version of iTunes 10. iOS 4.2, the upcoming software update for iDevices, is also ready to go this Friday, the source reportedly said.
As noted above, the Mac-centric web site quotes an inside source at AT&T as saying that “Apple is planning to release iOS 4.2, a major OS update for iPhones, iPods and iPads, on Friday November 12th at 10 AM PST,” and that “…updates to iTunes and Mac OS X will be released sometime tomorrow — iTunes will be reaching version 10.10.0 (simply called iTunes 10.1) and Mac OS X will jump to the long-awaited 10.6.5 version.”
It also notes that “[Mac OS X] 10.6.5 completed the certification stage a few hours ago and iTunes was ready 3 weeks ago — likely after the release of beta 2 to developers.”
The site appropriately points out that iOS 4.2 has dependencies with iTunes 10.1 and Mac OS X 10.6.5 for AirPlay and AirPrint functionality.
After releasing what appeared to be the final build of Mac OS X 10.6.5 to developers last week, Apple went back to the drawing board with two new beta seeds reported after the pre-release build had been made available via distribution channels for select programmers.
It now appears that the development cycle of Apple’s fifth incremental update to Snow Leopard has finally ended. Going by these reports, we should see Mac OS X 10.6.5 appear in our Macs’ software updaters later on today.
As an OS update, Mac OS X 10.6.5 will deliver system-wide tweaks and improvements, including bug and security fixes.