Apple has finally released a new update that brings Mac OS X version 10.4.9 up to version 10.4.10. This delta update is for both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs. The update includes the following fixes and features:

• Bluetooth
• Addresses an issue in which a Bluetooth headset may show up as an available device for sound output in the Sound preference pane after it had been removed from Bluetooth preferences.
• Third-party
• Adds RAW image decoding support for the following cameras: Panasonic DMC-LX1, Panasonic DMC-LX2, Leica M8, Leica D-LUX 2, Leica D-LUX 3, Fuji S5 Pro, Nikon D40x, and Canon EOS 1D Mk III.
• Resolves an issue in which some DNG images may appear tinted or distorted.
• Improves compatibility of Mathematica 6 with 64-bit Macs.
• USB
• Improves reliability when using the IR remote control after waking from sleep.
• Improves reliability when mounting external USB hard drives.
• Resolves an issue in which a TomTom GO 910 may not be recognized when connected via USB to an Intel-based Mac.
• Other
• Improves responsiveness when using the Control-Eject key combination to display a shutdown dialog.
• Addresses a specific issue in which users importing video from a DV camera may experience dropped frames.
• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Addresses issues with calendar calculations in certain applications.
• Addresses issues when rounding decimal numbers for display in certain applications.
• For Motion, addresses an issue in which some texture corruption could appear in Motion if VRAM is full.

You can get the update via Software Update or by clicking on the "Read" link below and downloading the standalone installer. Installation instructions as well as more information can also be accessed via the "Read" link.

Apple is really jumping up the campaign for its newest baby the iPhone given that we are just a few days away from its official launch. The Cupertino-based company has just announced a previously unknown feature allowing consumers to enjoy YouTube content on the said mobile phone.

The application that will be used for wirelessly streaming these content was designed by Apple itself and will utilize Wi-Fi and EDGE networks. Prior to this, it was reported that user-generated video site YouTube has began encoding its videos in the advanced H.264 format to "achieve higher video quality and longer battery life".

Furthermore, Apple added that the same application is also available for the Apple TV. The good thing about this one is that the software update can be accessed via the TV's built-in software update feature for free.

Going back to YouTube on iPhone, Apple came up with a preview video for the feature on its official website. If you want to get a glimpse of how you can stream YouTube content on iPhone, click on our Read link below and it should take you to Apple's iPhone preview page.

Third party developers bent on creating applications for the iPhone, your attention please. The University of Washington's Emerging Technology group was able to take notes on Apple's "Developing Web Sites for iPhone" discussion taken from Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), and since third party iPhone applications can only be web-based, it's good to take note of these guidelines.

Here is a list of what developers can tinker with to create iPhone applications:

• The page view feature lets you look at multiple websites and documents by scrolling through them one after another
• Full PDF support
• Double tap for zoom in
• One finger as a mouse used to pan page
• Press and hold to display the information bubble
• Two fingers as a mouse used to pinch content to shrink - zoom out
• Scroll wheel events
• New telephone links allows you to integrate phone calls directly from your web page. Only for Safari.
• Built in Google Maps client for integrated mapping from your website

However, there is also a set of limitations that should be taken into consideration:

• Separate HTML and CSS
  
• Use well structured and valid HTML
• Size images appropriately don't rely on browser scaling
• Tile small images in backgrounds, avoid using large background images
• iPhone supports both EDGE and WiFi. EDGE pipe is smaller than WIFI pipe so think about bandwidth when developing.
• XHTML mobile documents supported
• Stylesheet device width:480px
• Apply different css for the iPhone. For example displaying a one column page for iPhone vs. a 3-column page on a desktop
• There are no scroll bars or resize knobs. The iphone will automatically expand the content.
• Avoid framesets, scrollable frames are automatically expanded to fit the content
• iPhone User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A538a Safari/419.3
• Video: H.264 baseline profile level 3.0 up to 640-480 fps

They have also stated that the iPhone will not support Flash or Java applications, so there may be problems on running some websites. But some websites like YouTube are taking the initiative to help curb this problem by providing alternatives in accessing their content, like YouTube providing H.264 video specifically for the iPhone.

The no Flash and Java limitations may seem crippling at first glance, but this set of guidelines should help you on your way to building the best third-party program and/or game for the upcoming iPhone.

If you ask most people if it is necessary to defrag your PC, they will have an immediate answer. However, if you go up to most techies and ask them if it's necessary to defrag your Mac, you'll get a plethora of answers. That puts most mac owners at an impasse: to defrag or not to defrag, that is the question.

FreeFrag on MacTalk took up the burden to answer this question that has been plaguing a lot of the Mac users who want to get more from their machine. After intensive testing, the verdict is in, and the results may surprise you. After installing iDefrag 1.6.1 on the test system (20" iMac with Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb RAM, 232Gb HD with 102Gb Free), multiple programs were tested for loading times via pre and post boot.

After averaging the time for both tests, it looks like the system was even faster before the defrag than after. However, the stats of the post defragmentation were really dragged down by the long start-up boot time the system went through. All the applications tested with the exception of XP did get a relatively good boost from the defragmentation. So is it worth it?

It looks like a trade-off between initial boot and program speed. If you keep your system on most of the time, then perhaps defragging you system may be a good move. But if you just power-up the system every so often to run a few programs, then defragging may slow you down.

That brings us back to the first question, to defrag or not to defrag. Well, it depends on what you're going to be doing and on your computing habits.

It should be remembered that Apple just recently released its Safari browser for Windows for beta testing. However, the said browser is having some difficulties as around six bugs have already been detected just hours after that. The Cupertino-based company now wishes to inform its user base that Safari has been upgraded to 3.0.1.

Like we said, there are at least six known bugs to the new browser. Despite that, Apple just highlighted three separate security vulnerabilities that will be taken care of by the update. And they are:

• CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3186 (Available for Windows XP or Vista)
• Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to arbitrary code execution
• Description: A command injection vulnerability exists in the Windows version of Safari 3 Public Beta. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional processing and validation of URLs. This does not pose a security issue on Mac OS X systems, but could lead to an unexpected termination of the Safari browser.
• CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3185 (Available for Windows XP or Vista)
• Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• Description: An out-of-bounds memory read issue in Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution when visiting a malicious website. This issue does not affect Mac OS X systems.

See the rest of the update and after the jump!

"We've never ever at Mozilla said that we care about Firefox market share at the expense of our more important goal: to keep the web open and a public resource. The web belongs to people, not companies." These were the words of Mozilla's COO John Lilly in a recent blog post of his. What prompted this statement though, is the real story.

For those who have been keeping up with the WWDC, Steve Jobs delivered his keynote speech and unveiled Safari for Windows. Now, this is a big thing because the Apple iPhone will be running web applications, and this is the manner that it will be interfacing with the PC. The simple fact that PC users will be getting another browser option for their systems is really great. So what's the problem?
 
Steve Jobs presented the way he wanted the market to look eventually and it showed a view that's, as Lilly put it, "out-of-date, corporate-controlled, duopoly-oriented, not-the-web thinking." A duopoly (a market controlled by two organizations) cuts out everyone else and leaves everyone at the mercy of the companies running it. Everyone saw the ruckus that was caused with the Microsoft anti-trust issue, adding in another big company to control the rest of the market may not be in the public's interest.

Lilly may have a point with this although there is no arguing Apple's success. It may precisely be that outlook that's driving them to the top. Still, we have to consider the consequences of a possible duopoly on the net and how it will affect the internet community as a whole. If you want to read the entire blog post, be sure to click on our read link. Keep checking back here for more updates on this issue.

In this year's World Wide Developers Conference, Apple announced the winners of the Apple Design Awards. This award, which was first handed out a good 12 years ago, is said to "recognize technical excellence and outstanding achievement in Mac OS X software design and development."

The Apple Design Awards has seven categories in which software developers, whether independent or otherwise, can take part in. The categories include: Leopard Application, User Experience, Developer Tool, Game, Scientific Computing Solution, Dashboard Widget, and Student Product. The winners of each category are as follows:

• Leopard Application:
• Delicious Library 2.0 (alpha) by Delicious Monster
• User Experience:
• Coda 1.0 by Panic Inc.
• Developer Tool:
• CSSEdit 2.5 by MacRabbit
• Game:
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0 by Blizzard Entertainment
• Scientific Computing Solution:
• Papers 1.0 by Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis
• Dashboard Widget:
• BART Widget 1.0 by Bret Victor
• Student Product:
• Picturesque 1.0 by Zac Cohen

Each of the said applications are pretty well-known among the Apple community and have really changed the computing landscape in its own way. For the listing of the runner-ups and a description of each program, click on our read link. Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest Apple updates.

Well folks, it's beta test time over at Safari-ville. Thanks to a tip from Eranmane, we just found out that Safari version 3 is now out for beta testing.

Boasting itself as the "fastest web browser on any platform," the Safari browser is now available for both Windows and Mac platforms, with a host of features, such as pop-up blocking, in-line finding, and robust encryption for added security.
Of course, all our statements are just speculation until you try it out. Does it really live up to its claim as the fastest browser around? Only a quick test against your favorite browser will really determine the difference.

After fifteen months, the Camino Project has finally unveiled Camino 1.5. This is the latest and most substantial update to their Camino 1.0 web browser.

Some of the new features in Camino 1.5 include a built-in Mac OS X Spellchecker that works on every text field and added support for session saving. With the latter, Camino can now automatically load whatever websites you were visiting when you quit or when you suffer a crash.

RSS feed detection has also been added to the Camino browser. In Camino 1.5, an icon will appear on the location bar when a feed is found. Clicking on that icon and selecting a feed will send the selected feed straight to the user's default feed reader. Tabbed browsing has also been improved with new tooltips and navigation features.

Camino 1.5 runs on Mozilla's popular Gecko 1.8.1 rendering engine, the same engine used by Firefox 2. The browser is available as is a universal binary and runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.

Apple has started shipping Final Cut Studio 2 from their online store. This update to Apple's video editing suite was first announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade event last month.

Final Cut Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro 6 which features Apple's new ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes. With Final Cut Pro 6, users will also get the option to work on mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline. It also includes Compressor 3 and DVD Studio Pro 4.2.

The suite also includes Color, a professional color grading and finishing application for ensuring consistent color and creating signature looks, along with Motion 3, which offers an intuitive 3D environment, paint and new behaviors, and Soundtrack Pro 2, which gives users tools for multitrack editing, surround mixing and con-forming sound to picture.

New versions are available at the Apple Store for US$ 1,299. Upgrades are a bit cheaper. The price is US$ 499 if you're upgrading from Final Cut Studio and US$ 699 if you're upgrading from older versions of Final Cut Pro.