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Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner
According to StatCounter, it's taken roughly two years for Redmond's latest to surpass XP and become the world's most popular operating system. October 2011 marks the first time that Windows 7 has overtaken XP globally, with a 40 percent share of the market versus the latter's 38. As for Vista, it's been holding steady at around 11. Not that it's much of a surprise, as in North America, Windows 7 took the crown back in April of this year. Rounding out the top five, are OS X (though it's not clear whether that captures all of Cupertino's beasts) and Linux, which come in at 7 and 0.82 percent respectively. But don't take our word for it, hop on over to the source links and get your interactive chart on. [Thanks, Pipera]
Mac OS X 10.6.8 update now available
It looks like Apple's getting another fix in before Lion slinks on to the scene. Mac OS X 10.6.8 is now available for download, and brings with it a number of "general operating system fixes," including further support for IPv6, improved VPN reliability, and removal of known variants of Mac Defender. It also promises to fix a glitch that has Preview randomly shutting down, and will get the App Store ready to roar for when Lion lands on the scene. We're getting it going on our laptop at home. If you've done the same, let us know how it's working out for you.
Mac OS X 10.6.4 now available
Mac OS X 10.6.4 just hit Software Update, people. It doesn't have much in the way of additional features, but it addresses a number of outstanding bugs and glitches -- and it includes Safari 5, in case you're late to the party. We're downloading it now, we'll let you know if we discover anything crazy -- won't you return the favor?
Safari 5.0 and Mac OS 10.6.4 to be announced/released at WWDC?
According to French Apple news site Macgeneration, Safari 5.0 will be released at WWDC. We usually don't post non-verified information, but I think that this might be true since we were sent specific release notes. With the understanding that this is a rumor, albeit a very good one, here's what Safari 5.0 purportedly contains:
Apple seeds new Snow Leopard 10.6.2 beta to developers
The betas of the next Snow Leopard update continue at a fast and furious pace. Apple has reportedly begun seeding a new build of Mac OS X 10.6.2 to developers, just one week after the previous beta. The new potential release focuses on graphics issues, specifically relating to drivers, QuartzCore, and ColorSync, as well as hitting issues with the Dock. Apple has identified no outstanding issues with the build, though the company is asking developers to pay special attention to graphics drivers, TrackPad preferences, and virtual machines. The company says 148 components have been addressed in 10.6.2 betas so far, including issues in Dictionary, Expose, File Sync, Front Row, iPhoto, MobileMe, Parental Controls, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, Spotlight, Time Machine, and USB. [via MacNN, Apple Insider]
Apple aware of Snow Leopard accounts bug that kills data, is working on a fix
Apple just made a statement about that nasty Snow Leopard Guest Account bug that deletes user data -- it's not much, but at least the people in charge are working on things. We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix. Peachy -- now if Apple would just figure out how to fix all those broken Time Capsules holding the backups, we'd be all set.
Mac OS X 10.6.1 update now live
Well, that was fast -- just over week after Snow Leopard officially shipped, the first update's on the books. Nothing major in the changelog here, but we're told Flash has been updated to a newer, more secure version. Let us know how it goes for you, eh?
Apple puts a freeze on Snow Leopard APIs, freeing up developers to work their magic
Can you taste it? No, we suppose you probably can't. While Microsoft has been happy to share Windows 7 with just about anyone with a taste for danger, Apple has followed the traditional route of development with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, sharing it with developers alone. The good news is that things are starting to coalesce in the run-up to WWDC, with Apple just now informing developers that Snow Leopard's APIs are now frozen, with no more alterations planned before release. That means developers can work on their Snow Leopard-ready applications without much fear of Apple mucking things up with late game OS-level changes, and is a decent milestone towards what should presumably be a summer launch. The latest build also includes Chinese handwriting recognition for Macs with multitouch trackpads, similar to the functionality included in iPhone Software 2.0, and also finalizes the Grand Central architecture, which lets developers address multiple processing cores without all the know-how and complication usually required.Update: MacRumors is also reporting that the new build includes Windows HFS+ drivers with Apple's Boot Camp utility, allowing Windows-on-Mac users to access their Mac OS X HFS+ partitions out of the box.
