Apple Fills Your Tuesday With Updates

slapple writes "Apple has recently updated its AirPort and iDVD software. These new updates should appear in your Software Update." AirPort 3.3.1 fixeds some wake-from-sleep problems. GarageBand Jam Pack was also updated, to 1.0.1. And munboy writes that Apple also posted an Nvidia driver update: "This firmware update is for customers using Mac OS X version 10.2 or later with an Apple Cinema HD Display and a Power Mac G4 with one of the following NVIDIA graphics cards: GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 MX TwinView, GeForce3, or GeForce4 MX."

Comments

Only for 10.3

[TheRedHorse]

Just a note, these updates appear to only be for OS 10.3

Re:Only for 10.3

[MinutiaeMan]

Except that when you're paying for the upgrade to Panther, you're also paying for the next year's worth of security updates, feature enhancements, and minor upgrades. Remember how everyone was complaining that Safari upgrades were only going to Panther users? That's most likely because Safari is funded by the current OS sales. And right now, that's Panther.

Re:Only for 10.3

[geoffspear]

Or it could be because Panther is a lot easier to develop software for, if you don't care about it being compatible with easier versions of the OS. Cocoa bindings/NSControllers are really nice, and I'd expect that most developers would rather write a whole lot less code than support users who don't want to upgrade.

AirPort update

[LochNess]

If this update is supposed to fix wake-up problems with AirPort, I have yet to see it.

The last security update broke re-joining my network after waking up from sleep, and this update hasn't changed that.

Re:AirPort update

[pudge]

I have the same problem, and yes, it is not fixed. I know other people have the same problem; hopefully, Apple can track it down and fix it. :/

My workaround is to set the name/password of my network in the Network preferences, instead of "choose automatically" use "choose specific network" or whatever. But it did fix my kernel panics, so yay!

how many times?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been running FreeBSD since the 3.x days. Right around this time Linux became popular but I stuck with FreeBSD for several academic reasons. At that point one was as good as the other, but as time went on this changed. Linux started gathering a huge following and it really hit its stride. The developers made leaps in bounds in hardware support. Meanwhile, FreeBSD crawled from 3.x to 4.x, which was a great improvement to be sure, but not as rapid or large as what Linux had been offering.

Being locked into FreeBSD by familiarity and investment at that point I wistfully watched the GNU community race ahead. I wish something would start a similar firestorm of FreeBSD development. I thought nothing of it when Apple bought NeXT in 1996. The Rhapsody project, which was basically just adding some Apple technology to OpenStep, didn't interest me. When Steve Jobs announced Mac OS X in 1999, however, my ears perked up at the mention of my favorite Unix. Apple was going to update the very cores of OpenStep into something new FreeBSD was going to be a huge part of that.

Since Mac OS X v10.0 was released in 2001, Apple has been filtering BSD code in and out of their kernel, userland, and libraries. This code then makes its way back to FreeBSD. Apple's pattern is to sync every major Mac OS X release with the latest major FreeBSD release. For example, Mac OS X v10.1 corresponded to FreeBSD 4.4 and Mac OS X v10.2 matched up with FreeBSD 4.7. By the time Apple released Panther, their contributions back into FreeBSD had amassed into a new FreeBSD milestone, the 5.x branch. Mac OS X v10.3 contained bits of both FreeBSD 4.9 and FreeBSD 5.1.

Look at it this way, only after Apple started modifying FreeBSD 4.x and submitting their modifications did FreeBSD progress to the 5.x branch. The advanced VM and SMP code that allows Mac OS X to run so efficiently is the very same code that finally put FreeBSD on the level with Linux. I run FreeBSD 5.2 on a four-way Xeon box at work and thank Apple every day. If it weren't for the Mach micokernel from Apple we wouldn't be able to do these nice things with FreeBSD now or probably ever.

It's also kind of ironic how such a big deal was made by Wind River Systems buying out both BSDI and Walnut Creek Software. (Does anyone remember this?) The plan was to merge BSD/OS into FreeBSD and sell a special enterprise edition of the operating system while still maintaining the Open Source project. Sadly this fizzled out. No one ever predicted that Apple, of all companies, would ride in with the cavalry and pick up the pieces. Apple has done much more than Wind River ever managed to.

After such a long and precarious history FreeBSD is finally going somewhere and we no longer have to worry about the latest hardware support of when the next release will be. We're firing on all cylinders now, and within a couple more years there will be more FreeBSD installs than Linux or Solaris! I'm not so proud that I can't see what is behind this. Apple saved FreeBSD and I have no problem admitting or accepting that. I doubt many others who use FreeBSD do, but I just wanted to point it out.

Thank you, Apple, for saving FreeBSD.

iDVD 4.0.1 is good news so far

[djupedal]

G5 owners can now use the 'Best Performance' pref.

Playlists w/slideshows now play correctly (not just the first song and stop)

Burns are more reliable and don't take as long

If you haven't already, you may wish to see this page I put together on iDVD 4... 'iDVD 4 UOFAQ'

Still no USB printing fix

[moosesocks]

And yet, we still have no USB printing fix. 10.3 broke support for most users for USB -> IEEE1284 converters, leaving owners of older printers up a creek...

Re:Still no USB printing fix

[greentree]

don't fret too much. that was already announced to be coming in the 10.3.3 update. check out macrumor's post about that nearly a week ago.

Key changes listed include improved file sharing and directory services, PostScript and USB printing, font management, updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications and updated drivers.

Tuesday?

[BrokenHalo]

but this was...

Posted by pudge on Wednesday March 03, @12:37PM

Someone's asleep here...

Re:Tuesday?

[pudge]

I just work from the default position that nothing outside the U.S. actually exists. ;-)

Okay, here goes:

[zbrimhall]

Just installed on X, no probs yet!

Just installed on Y, and my house burned down. Apple is sux0rz!

There is no firmware for nVidia

[dmdimon]

Nice link, nice download page - and:

Oops! We seem to have run into technical difficulties and cannot complete your download request. It could be that the download link you tried to access has changed and the developer forgot to notify us. Want to let us know so we can get it fixed? Send us an email or make your way back to Mac OS X Downloads for any other downloads you need.

Cheers,
Apple Downloads

Proper URL for nVidia patch

[dborod]

Here's a link to the KB article that describes and links to the patch.