October 17, 2006 8:58 AM PDT

Mac OS X 10.4.8 Special Report: Release Notes: Delta vs. Combo; Enhancements in this release, more

by CNET staff

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On September 29th, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.8 in both Intel and PowerPC versions.

The full list of enhancements is as follows:

Printing

Adds support for CDSASSL (Common Data Security Architecture Secure Sockets Layer) printer connections.

Addresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.4.7 in which some documents containing some Chinese or Korean language characters might not print as expected.

Finder and Apple applications

Resolves an issue in which a Finder alert message with the buttons "Initialize", "Ignore", and "Eject" might not appear after connecting a partitioned FireWire hard drive.

Addresses a potential issue in which Preview may unexpectedly quit.

Improves reliability of iTunes syncing with certain iPod models.

Networking and modem

Resolves performance issues that could occur when connecting to a Comcast network.

Improves security by adding support for EAP-FAST for AirPort wireless authentication.

Improves Express Card behavior for portable Intel-based Macs.

Improves reliability for connections made in Ireland with an external Apple USB Modem.

Improves connection reliability for external Apple USB Modems when resuming an Internet connection after answering an incoming call.

A computer restart is no longer needed to restart nfsd.

Improves Apple File Sharing client performance by changing the default AFP WAN quantum size.. More...

Windows File Sharing now generates only one process, avoiding an issue that could cause a Mac OS X computer to become unresponsive if it won a master browser election.

Improves reliability when faxing in France or Belgium via an external Apple USB Modem.

Third-party

Resolves an issue for Microsoft Word in which Word might stop responding when saving a file that uses certain OpenType fonts.

Adds RAW image decoding support for these cameras: Sony DSLR-A100, Nikon D2Xs, Fuji FinePix S2 Pro, Fuji FinePix S3 Pro ( Highlights) and Konica Minolta 7.

Resolves an issue in which thumbnails may appear blank when importing RAW images from a Canon 30D camera.

Resolves an issue for Microsoft PowerPoint in which the display resolution might not change as expected after switching from a PowerPoint presentation to a different application via Command-Tab.

Improves compatibility for Canon EOS Utility software after connecting a Canon EOS Kiss Digital camera to a PowerPC-based Mac.

Improves compatibility for the TV Tracker 2 Dashboard widget.

Other

Includes recent Apple security updates.

Improves the accuracy of Rosetta numerics and addresses Altivec translation issues on Intel-based Macs.

ColorSync matching no longer fails when using a V4 ICC profile in an application opened with Rosetta on an Intel-based Mac.

Addresses an issue in which some USB devices connected to a PCI card may not be recognized after starting up or waking the computer.

Resolves an issue in which external USB-based video cameras may not be available after quitting the application that is using it.

Reduces time needed to transfer data from a USB-based image scanner.

Improves responsiveness of the Translation Dashboard widget.

Addresses an issue in which text typed with the Hangul input method may not be visible while the Caps Lock key is active, on PowerPC-based Macs.

Adds support on Intel-based Macs for multiple cores to LAPACK and BLAS routines in the Accelerate framework; the maximum number of threads used by Accelerate BLAS routines is now limited by the environment variable VECLIB_MAXIMUM_THREADS; addresses an issue with some complex BLAS routines in the Accelerate framework that were encountering an illegal instruction.

Mac OS X 10.4.8 is available through Software Update, or via the following standalone download links:

[Delta updates are capable of updating version-to-version, i.e. Mac OS X 10.4.7 to Mac OS X 10.4.8. Combo updates can update any version of Mac OS X 10.4.x (e.g. 10.4.3) to Mac OS X 10.4.8]

Index: