ANTenna Blog -- Apple

Last week, Apple introduced the latest update to Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard." As with other recent Leopard updates, the 10.5.6 update focused on bug fixes and security patches. However, there are some welcome feature upgrades — including improvements to MobileMe's "push" synchronization for contacts, calendars and bookmarks.

Most Mac users who have accounts with administrator privileges should see a prompt to install the update automatically. However, non-admin users will need to contact an administrator in order to handle the update.

Note that this update is huge! If you're running Mac OS X 10.5.5, the download is 372MB. If you're running Mac OS X 10.5.0 through 10.5.4, it's a whopping 688MB. Expect the download to take a while.

Here are the more significant improvements offered by this update, but there are more that I've not listed. You can read the entire list here.

Address Book
• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.

Graphics
• Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Mail
• Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
• Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.

MobileMe
• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.

Parental Controls
• Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
• Includes general fixes for time limits.
• Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.

Time Machine
• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.

Safari
• Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.

General
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.

There are also quite a few security updates, which you can read about here.

This update is recommended for all "Leopard" users, but of course, in a business environment you should test it thoroughly before deploying across your company.