Less than 10 hours ago, another big event happened. No, there's nothing wrong with the new iPods to report, since this is nothing about them. Anyway, since the title leaves no room for secrets, here you have it, my friends - the long-awaited Mac OS X 10.5.5 update is finally available for everyone!

Since in this kind of situation talking too much is not recommended, let me get straight to the list of improvements, which you can see below:

General

Includes recent Apple security updates.
Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
Improves Spotlight indexing performance.<-250x250 Square - right->
Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
Improves Speech Dictionary.
Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
Includes extensive graphics enhancements.


Address Book

Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.


Disk Utility and Directory Utility

Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.



iCal

Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
Resolves an issue in which the "Refresh All" option may be dimmed ("grayed out") in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.


Mail

Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
Addresses an issue with the "Organized by Thread" view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.



MobileMe

Improves overall sync reliability.
Improves Back to My Mac reliability.



Time Machine

Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).


To install this update, simply use the Software Update tool, or just click here to get the Mac OS X 10.5.5 update. Enjoy it!

As you surely managed to notice, I am not into Mac OS X software much, especially because things look quite different here, when comparing them to the Windows platform. In Windows, for most tasks, you get at least 4-5 outstanding programs, a bunch of excellent ones, and entire hordes of good, decent, and lower-class applications, but - obviously - it depends on the task. When talking about text editing, there are a lot of programs worth your money, or only your time - UltraEdit, Notepad++, PSPad, or EditPlus. Those were programs for Windows, as I said, but if we talk about Mac text editing, there's the basic and free Smultron I used to play with some time ago, some other ones, and the almighty BBEdit, our today's topic!

Above anything else, do you know what I like most about BBEdit? Its slogan "It doesn’t suck.®" is simply brilliant, in my opinion. Originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6 by Bare Bones Software, BBEdit is now the favorite tool of most software developers and Web designers working with Macs.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right-> Why? Well, this software is not a word processor, so text formatting and page layout features get out of question, but comes with native support for many programming languages, and power users can easily create custom modules to support syntax highlighting of any language.

This new version, 9.0, is a major update, coming with a lot of fixes and improvements, for example the nnew text-completion feature, improved search capabilities, the new Scratchpad feature that gives an extra place to throw temporary notes, the Projects feature, replacing the old File Groups one, and many more.

Unfortunately, BBEdit's problem is that, like most outstanding Mac OS X software, it doesn't come cheap - the full license is $129, while upgrades from any previous version cost $30; at least those who purchased BBEdit 8.5 to 8.7 on or after the 1st of January, 2008, are eligible to receive a free upgrade...

Dreaming about a Safari during your next week's trip to Africa? Well, as long as you're not going to kill any animals, it's fine for me. As long as you're not going to get killed by some animals, it should also be fine for you, but what about taking a long and adventurous journey...on the Web? You'll still be in a Safari, but this time coming from Apple, of course! What about it? A preview of version 4 has been sent to developers already!

First of all, a side note - since a lot of newcomers into the Apple world discover this amazing company with the iPhone, I think it would be really useful for them to check my Safari 3 for Windows review. OK, so I said that, and now we can get back to the early version of the next-gen Safari browser from Apple...

According to sources familiar with the subject, the current Safari 4.0 builds are 40A12, for Leopard, 40A8, for Tiger, and the Windows build is also labeled 40A12, like the one for Mac OS X Leopard. So...what's new?<-125x125 Button - right->

Well, it seems this new version is paving the way of a new "Develop" menu, a completely redesigned Web Inspector, as well as a JavaScript profiler and an integrated JavaScript debugger. Even more, the upcoming Safari 4 browser is expected to include many enhancements currently bundled into the latest WebKit version, with rich HTML 5 support, and revised Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support, including masks, gradients, reflections, and specifying a named canvas.

These being said, I think it is also worth being mentioned that new Mac OS X 10.5.5 builds have been released, for both the desktop and server editions. In the end, we may see next month as a meeting point for a lot of major software and hardware updates from Apple. For now, nothing is official yet, as usual, but I can feel it getting closer...

Remember the patent filing about "iTunes anywhere" we were talking about a few days ago? I am sure those really in need of accessing their music collection remotely raised their eyebrows, and maybe some of them added a note to their to do list "check the status of Apple's iTunes anywhere patent," or something like that, just as I am waiting for full eye implants(yes, I hope to get 36X optical zoom eyes with a few millions MP resolution, what's the problem with that?) to become available in the next decade. The funny part is that an application following the approach described by Apple's patent has just arrived in the App Store, and its name is SimplifyMedia.

The idea behind SimplifyMedia is exactly the same as the one in Apple's patent I mentioned earlier, if you ask me - your iTunes library, located at home, becomes accessible via a broadband Internet connection, so no more storage limits, from now on. Hooray!

The iPhone application also uses a companion program for Windows, Mac and Linux, <-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->
so the iTunes songs and playlists from the user's computer and any of 30 friends can be easily shared and be accessible from anywhere, as long as your connection works well, of course.

The iPhone app isn't limited to a Wi-Fi connection and will also work over 2G and 3G Internet, and while listening to a song, you'll also get the album art and lyrics associated with it, if any available.

The downsides of SimplifyMedia include its ability to grant access to music that you don't legally own, while DRM-protected iTunes purchases won't stream with its help. For now, the app is available freely for the first 100,000 downloaders, and will be sold for $3.99 a copy, as soon as the download counter hits the 100K mark. Fortunately, the computer software companion is and will remain free.

Now, I only wonder about one thing - how long will this app hang on in Apple's App Store before being taken down? After all, some may consider this will inflict some losses to the iTunes Store...and I won't have to say anything else!

One of the first handheld games I have ever seen and played with, although not exactly the first one, was some Chinese made Tetris. That was happening almost two decades ago, and I was really disappointed yesterday to see one on sale for about $2. No, it wasn't on eBay, and it wasn't a used one, only that...they only go for more & cheaper these days, quality is being left behind. Just look at all those iPhone 3G problems, and you'll get the idea. Anyway, since I mentioned Tetris and the iPhone, we already got our subject - a Tetris game for free, obviously running on Apple's iPhone!

Tetris fans everywhere, welcome Tris, formerly only available to jailbroken iPhones, a game that just arrived at the App Store! Unfortunately, it won't do things jailbroken apps will, but since it's free, there's no such big difference. <-250x250 Square - right->After all, I am sure there are a lot of people who won't jailbreak their iPhone in a thousand years, so having this Tetris game for free is a great thing for them. Even more, the game looks great, and for those into iPhone programming, it's worth mentioning the fact that it's open source, too.

To move the falling pieces, simply swipe left or right, and tap the screen to make the block rotate. To accelerate the fall of a certain piece, swipe down, and - I would really enjoyed this feature on my old Tetris handheld, I am sure of that - swipe up if a piece is falling to fast. Apart from just playing Tetris, this game also allows you to compare your best score with the best players around the world, and if you suddenly get a call while playing, Tris will automatically save the game for you. Sweet!

Since this game is open source and free, as I was saying earlier, I think you can spare a few minutes and give Tris a try. If you don't feel the same, maybe you're looking to download free computer games... After all, we're talking about a Tetris game for free here, not Solitaire or Blackjack!