Apple updates Snow Leopard to 10.6.3, loads of minor quirks get patched

Nearly five months after OS X 10.6.2 hit the pipes (and just seven months after 10.6.1), Apple has updated its Snow Leopard operating system to v10.6.3. Weighing in rather heavily at 757.3MB (when you upgrade from 10.6.2, anyway), this mammoth update brings along a laundry list of fixes, including improved reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X, a resolution to an issue that prevented files from copying to Windows file servers and boosted reliability of third-party USB input devices. You can check the full changelog after the break, but in all honesty, we're guessing that the unwritten change is integrated support for Intel's mobile Core i5 / Core i7 chips, both of which should become options on the MacBook Pro line as early as tomorrow last week. Fire up Software Update to get the download rolling, but only if you're cool with subjecting yourself to all sorts of unknown application breaks. We're installing it ourselves here at Engadget HQ, and we'll update the post if anything catastrophic happens.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Full changelog for Mac OS X 10.6.3 update:

General operating system fixes and improvements provided for:

* performance of Logic Pro 9 and Main Stage 2 when running in 64-bit mode.
* printing reliability.
* sleep and wake reliability when using Bonjour wake on demand.
* a color issue in iMovie with HD content.
* glowing, stuck, or dark pixels when viewing video from the iMac (Late 2009) built-in iSight camera.
* an issue in which the Finder reports a -36 error when copying directories to a drive formatted as FAT32.
* reliability of photo screen savers.
* compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications.
* an issue in which shadows in PDF of Aperture book are black instead of gray.
* an issue in which the microphone level in iChat may not increase the volume after reducing it to prevent a feedback event.
* the reliability of certain third-party USB devices.
* the Accounts preference pane can now limit login to members of groups hosted by a non-Apple directory service, such as Active Directory.
* DNS server ordering as specified in Network Preferences and DNS reliability. For details about how Mac OS X v10.6 handles unresponsive DNS servers, see this article.
* the reliability and compatibility of QuickTime X.
* Data Collection: Mac OS X v10.6.3 can collect diagnostic and usage information from your Mac and send it to Apple for analysis automatically. The information is only collected with your explicit consent, and is submitted anonymously to Apple. For more details, see this article.

AirPort and wireless networking fixes for:

* general reliability for wireless connections.
* improvements to 802.1X reliability, including closed network connections , and WPA2.
* sleep/wake reliability for current iMac models when connected to 2.4GHz wireless networks.

Date and Time fixes provided for:

* Daylight Saving Time rules to reflect recent changes in areas including Argentina, Fiji, Pakistan, and Antarctica.

Directory Services fixes provided for:

* an issue that could cause the system to become unstable or unresponsive when bound to an LDAP server using SSL.
* an issue in which the 802.1X Loginwindow Profile is in place, but the wireless network is not available, directory authentication over Ethernet will now succeed.

File Services fixes provided for:

* an issue that could prevent saving files from Microsoft Office 2008 to an SMB server volume.
* issues copying, renaming or deleting files on an SMB server volume.
* clear-text authentication enabling to an SMB file server.

iCal fixes provided for:

* changing the invitation list for a single instance of a recurring event will no longer "un-book" the location of the meeting.
* an issue in which new invitations on a Microsoft Exchange server might not appear in the Notification pane.
* properly showing recurring Microsoft Exchange events which have a set end date. For details, see this article.

Mail fixes and improvements provided for:

* an issue that causes background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail.
* signing and encrypting messages, such as when using an Entrust PKI (Public Key Infrastructure).
* synchronization of the "Sent" mailbox on a Microsoft Exchange server.
* an issue that could cause Mail to delete mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange server that is hosted behind an Internet load balancer.

Mobile Accounts fixes and improvements provided for:

* home directory synchronization when the home directory is stored on an SMB file server.
* properly warning mobile users in an Active Directory domain about upcoming password expiration.
* creating a Mobile Account that uses smart card authentication, without using a command-line tool.
* reliability in background synchronization.

MobileMe fixes and improvements provided for:

* an issue in which movies could not be viewed in Safari when visiting www.me.com/gallery.
* reliability of iDisk Sync.
* reliability of syncing calendars.

Parental Control fixes and improvements provided for:

* restoring Safari bookmarks functionality to parental controls users.
* better handling of Safari bookmark management when using Parental Controls.
* more reliable application launch restrictions when using Parental Control.

Rosetta fixes provided for:

* an issue that prevented files with the # or & characters in their names from opening in Rosetta applications.

System Imaging fixes and improvements provided for:

* the asr command, which now accepts the "--allow fragmented catalog" option, for restoring images that have a fragmented catalog file. For details, type man asr in Terminal.
* the installer command, which can now be used to upgrade a Mac OS X v10.5 system with a QuickTime 7 Pro key installed to Mac OS X v10.6.

Time Machine fixes and improvements provided for:

* reliability from Time Machine-to-Time Capsule backups, including multiple computers.
* an issue with Time Machine in which system backups could be restored onto unsupported Mac configurations.
* an issue in which a Time Machine backup might not work using an AirPort connection.

Xsan fixes and improvements provided for:

* the reliability of Fibre channel connections to an Xserve RAID.
* an issue that could cause the size of certain Fibre channel LUNs to be mis-reported.

Additional Information

The Mac OS X v10.6.3 combo update also includes improvements provided in the Mac OS X v10.6.1 Update and Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update.

[nsfw Posted Mar 29th 2010 1:28PM]

Anyone else having troubles with the limited 720p/1080i screen resolution options in snow leopard on an hdtv vs the more manual resolution options in leopard?

[thesoze Posted Mar 29th 2010 1:36PM]

did Apple make you pay for this Service Pack 12? How many bugs are still out there?

[hdawggy Posted Mar 29th 2010 1:53PM]

These Apple's are starting to taste nasty!

[morphoyle Posted Mar 29th 2010 1:56PM]

Wait, how is this possible? Apple doesn't release fixes. It just works, remember?

[nalanarof Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:47PM]

@morphoyle It's a shame the world consists of people like you :)

[Frantz987 Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:02PM]

noticed some reference to the new MacBook Pro?

[m854 Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:46PM]

@Frantz987

References to new MBPs were already in 10.6.2.
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/25/unreleased-macbook-pro-61-and-62-referenced-in-mac-os-x-10-6-2/

I hope this update fixes the giant memory leak and the 3 and 4 finger multitouch bug.

[rcappo Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:53PM]

@Frantz987

That what I am waiting for. I would have liked them to have been released back in January...

[Velorium Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:06PM]

Being on a college network, the Exchange fixes in Mail and AirPort fixes are extremely welcomed. I'm hoping the AirPort fix for the WAP2/802.1X fix is so that I'm not asked for a password even though it's already in my Keychain

[shinratdr Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:47PM]

@Velorium

That's not an OS X problem, it's an issue with your computer. If Keychain is forgetting things it may be locked. I have multiple Apple computers ranging from original airport to N, all connected with WPA2, no problems with Keychain losing the password.

[onlymyrailgun Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:17PM]

How about a fix to remove Flash from Mac OS to maintain that consistency across the line-up? No, actually, although this is unrelated, I really really wish they could make the iPhone media player as good as its iPod counterpart, or just bring the good points over. I can't remember which ones, since I haven't used an iPod in like a year, but I remember being frustrated with the iPhone. Maybe it's fixed already. I need to check. I don't know what I'm writing about anymore. What was this article about again?

[malexandria1 Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:36PM]

@onlymyrailgun Are you CRAZY!? Don't give Stevo ideas!

[shinratdr Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:42PM]

@onlymyrailgun

Okay, shitty joke, pointless observation (the iPod touch & iPhone have identical media capabilities, and the older iPods have worse media capabilities.), and some forgetful rambling.

Please have a point when you comment in the future.

[onlymyrailgun Posted Mar 30th 2010 12:31AM]

@shinratdr
The point I was trying to make is that the iPhone and iPod media players are different, at least I'm pretty sure. On an iPod, if I remember correctly, you can navigate a folder tree to your desired playlist. In short, playlist folders. On the iPhone, you can't. It is frustrating to see something like 20+ playlists listed and having to scroll around to find the one you want.

Even more annoying is that, (this is the part where I wasn't sure if it was fixed) when I add songs from a playlist to my iPhone, every playlist with that song seems to get transferred onto the iPhone, ending up with more playlists that I don't need. There, these are my points.

So, Steve, if you can, do something about them if you haven't already. And yeah, remember to remove Flash support if you've got the gut to do so. Man up!

[adam247 Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:18PM]

So no fix for speech recognition issues? that's three updates now.

[shinratdr Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:42PM]

@adam247

Can you be more specific? What speech recognition are you referring to exactly?

[fourthletter Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:41PM]

Any idea if there is support for ATI HD5XXX series ?
My hackintosh install has been out of action since I upgraded my GFX.

[shinratdr Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:57PM]

@fourthletter

Unlikely, Apple typically announces availability of a new card, then upgrades the OS to support it, not the other way around.

Right now your best options are the 285 or similar, or the 4870 or similar. And they will stay that way until a month or 2 after the next Mac Pro refresh. Especially now that Valve is watching them, they can't do the half-assed graphics implementation that slowly becomes better strategy they've used for their desktop cards in the past. Now that it's not just WoW players on OS X, people will notice.

[maczrule Posted Mar 29th 2010 2:45PM]

Everything else is working after the upgrade to 10.6.3 but during using iMove it keeps quitting and ive tried restarts and everything. This never used to happen in 10.6.2 :s

[cdf74dc9 Posted Mar 29th 2010 3:09PM]

They left out "we no longer support Adobe products due to it's intensity".

[darkchronos Posted Mar 29th 2010 3:17PM]

Still having issues with samba shares on opensolaris after the update. Was working in 10.5.8 ... Apple.

[Jack Posted Mar 29th 2010 3:24PM]

@darkchronos

Why are you posting that here instead of telling Apple about it?

[davesingh Posted Mar 29th 2010 4:17PM]

now my Drobo won't mount... thanks guys..
anyone have ideas

[Son1ze Posted Mar 29th 2010 4:20PM]

'09 MBP has been 10.6.3'd ...

Software Update download over wifi was painfully slow. Installed fine though. Plopped in Util Disk to verify/repair disk for invalid file count, repaired permissions & did time machine back up.

Now Firefox & Scrivener are zipping along again! Sweetness.

[Daeran Angelfire Posted Mar 29th 2010 5:19PM]

As I tipped you a lot of days ago ;)

[shinratdr Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:40PM]

" * compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications."

The culmination of months of hands on collaboration with Valve to improve OS X's OpenGL implementation, summarized in a single jot note.

[xsacha Posted Mar 30th 2010 9:57AM]

@shinratdr
Funny cause they sorta screwed it up. OpenGL performance is up to 50% slower in 10.6.3 than 10.6.2.

[Atkins Posted Mar 29th 2010 6:42PM]

@ViReN You forget that some files are rewritten during the installation, so I doubt it'll take that kind of space on your hdd.

[mtnDewFTW Posted Mar 29th 2010 7:29PM]

Just installed it :D

[Atkins Posted Mar 29th 2010 10:25PM]

@Ducman69 "charging for what should have essentially been a free service pack and pretending its a new OS to meet the Windows 7 challenge."
The same can be said about the switch from Vista to Windows 7.

[Bowlieweekender Posted Mar 29th 2010 10:31PM]

Applied the update to our two MBP's, went fine on the smaller unit but the 17" is now totally hosed. On bootup the apple logo appears and the spinner just spins and spins. Tried all the usual tricks to clear things, even removed the battery and did the five second power trick.

Off to the Mac store we go!

[bassboner Posted Mar 29th 2010 11:04PM]

hmmm...now that I've updated, any program that is launched or added to my dock becomes a blank/invisible space on the dock, rather than displaying the icons...and they aren't coming back

[DSquared Posted Apr 2nd 2010 5:55AM]

@bassboner

this just happened to me. I'm sooooo pissed. Running a late 2007 15" mbp. I put a disc in that I thought was my burned copy of snow leopard to repair disk, now the DVD is stuck in the drive. Can you tell me what apple did with yours? Did you lose all your data? Please respond back. Thanks

[xsacha Posted Mar 30th 2010 9:55AM]

Mac OSX 10.6.3 severe performance regressions:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=mac_osx_1063&num=1

"At 1920 x 1080, Warsow was actually faster than when it was running at 800 x 600"

[mikem089 Posted Mar 30th 2010 12:26PM]

still no digital ac3 output via mini displayport???