Most people were awaiting this, even the people at Macrumors, expected that this update would release today. The much anticipated Mac OSX 10.6.5 update was said to bring in Airprint to the the iPad, but when downloading it today, underneath the description it wrote of no such thing. I was kind of surprised, cause I thought Apple were going to release it along with this update. This update is available for everyone using Mac OSX 10.6 and it features the following: 

• Improve the reliability between Microsoft Exchange servers
• Improve performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture
• address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
• resolve the delay between printing jobs
• address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
• resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
• address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
• resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
• improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
• resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
• improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
• resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5

The people at Skype most likely know that the increasing amount of popularity of the Macintosh calls for a crucial update on Skype. Many users today make use of Skype and with it's growing amount of popularity, people will want more to be offered. Before Skype had only offered chat service, along with calls with more than one person. But now with this Beta 5.0 Skype offers a whole much clean looking user interface and with the ability to integrate your address book with all your contacts, makes it seamless to talk to others and finding them is a snap. Also the main feature which people were awaiting for was, video calling! Now you are able to make a video call with multiple users at the same time, this is a feature which many people wanted and hopefully talking is seamless with no hassles in video quality. *Keeping fingers crossed* And also with the introduction of a new mini control bar, it is open on any documents you run or any webpages, that can be quiet convenient. You can video call anyone on a PC, or Mac but they must run the Beta 5.0 as well.

The members at Skype have also released a video showing the new features, check it out:


Also check out their site: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac.

I don't know if many were expecting this but our beloved Apple Xserve has discontinued, I also was looking at the last time it would get a referesh according to Macrumors buyer guide and it was way past the average date of refresh. Well MacGeneration just noted that when searching internally in Apple's site, they found a PDF that says Xserve transition guide. Apparently a guide of how far the Xserve has come. But at the end they found that the Xserve is to be discontinued. The current Xserve will be on sale till January 31, 2011. I never really saw the Xserve sky rocket in terms of sales, judging by the huge price. Also with the release of the Mac mini server, all it did was hurt the sales of Xserve even more. But what Apple is going to offer is a Mac Pro option with Snow Leopard server, which will replace the Xserve and that will give you two options of servers now, either the Mac mini server for small businesses, or the Mac Pro server for bigger enterprises. The first Xserve was released in 2002 and the last refresh being in April 2009, shows that indeed with such a huge time frame a refresh wasn't looking likely. So for all people that would like a final Xserve, your best bet is to pick one up before January 31, 2011.

Very sad news in the Apple world, first with the Macbook Air issues, and now this.

Remember the post yesterday where we had talked about how Apple Macbook Air's were facing an issue with the screen display showing weird colours? Well apparently it isn't a graphics card issue but rather when opening it up from sleep mode, it hasn't cycled fully therefore in the midst of it's sleep cycle waking it up will cause these issues. Well it seemed like Apple knew that this issue was going to occur because another source had found a picture of instructions internally on an Apple Store screen and noted that in order to solve this problem, put the Macbook Air into sleep again, wait 10 seconds, this way it will cycle through it's sleep mode, and wake it up again by opening the lid. Which should fix the problem. Sounds about right, but I still wonder what could be the cause of this problem? and is it likely to come back in the future? Cause from the sound of it, this way only sounds like a temporary fix. 

Source: Apple confirms Macbook Air bugs internally  (BGR)

This was just recently released on Macrumors, and it was a video by someone showing how there was a defect in the graphics on the new Macbook Air, apparently this issue happens after waking your Macbook Air up from sleep. Causing it to show fuzzy colours, I noticed this was on Apple's forums for some of the earlier 2009 Mac mini's with the 9400m, but this Macbook Air features the 320m. Well a temproary fix seems to be rebooting the machine, but it's most likely the problem isn't gone for good. So it's best to take it into Applecare to get it checked. This issue seems to be only with a few number of defective Macbook Air's but the amount of complaints is growing, according to the article on Macrumors. This will deeply affect Apple's reputation on reliability. Other than that there also seems to be an issue with the logic board, some people have noted that their 13.3 inch Macbook Air's would randomly shut down or be stuck on the grey screen. Apple says this could be due to a faulty logic board, or something software related. Apple have said they will have a software update soon, so that might fix it hopefully. But I always had a feeling there was something going to be wrong with the logic board on the new Air, first of all looking at how crammed it is inside it's case with the flash storage right on top, and the fact they did that was to open up space for batteries.

Hopefully the issues with the Macbook Air's get taken care of as soon as possible, and looking at it so far, the issue with the graphics card only seems to loom on the 11.6 inch models, but judging by the fact both 13.3 inch and 11.6 inch use the same graphics chip, it wouldn't be surprising if we were to see that issue on the 13.3 inch as well.

Just when you look at the amount of illegal music being downloaded these days, you sometimes might wonder, how is iTunes still running today along with some of the other music industries? I would have to give credit to Apple because of the fact, thanks to their great commercializing of iPod's and iPad's it has brought many people to buying music from iTunes, so as far as I believe, if Apple continues to make iOS devices, then the iTunes store will always be in business. This is what I believe, but it could change. Just recently Apple have made plans to extend song previews to 90 seconds, this could be cause of the fact, more people would end up purchasing music, or because of the fact, the amount of music being sold is going down. It's no surprise earlier this year, the iPod's had also declined in sales... This might be something for Apple to think about, as time goes on is business at iTunes weakening?

We will have to wait and see what kind of an effect 90 second previews will have on the buyer, hopefully it might increase sales. Apple says this 90 second preview will only work on songs which are over two and a half minutes. I am also sure they had to work it out with all the music industries, when deciding to make this change. Only time will tell if the 90 second previews will make sales go up.

Many Mac users might believe that Mac OSX does not contain viruses, that is not entirely true, to be honest there isn't a single OS without one virus. Though it is true OSX hardly contains any viruses compared to Windows. But one thing is for sure is that not many people have anti-virus software for their Macintosh's because just like many other users they believe that the chances of them getting a virus is really low. The number of viruses grows all the time, so Sophos an anti-virus software company brought out a free Mac anti-virus software just for the Mac. This is actually a full featured program, which eliminates viruses and also has protection of the same level as many businesses. If you haven't already I recommend you guys check this piece of software

Here is the link for more information: Sophos- Macintosh Anti-Virus