MacRumors

Appleinsider provides another look at the most recent developer's build of Leopard with a focus on the history and improvements in the Finder's Dock.

It's therefore notable that Leopard sports an entirely new Dock appearance, which now presents its icons as three dimensional objects sitting on a translucent glass shelf, rather than flat objects stuck in a translucent ribbon of icon flypaper. Dock icons now cast a reflection on the Dock (as do other windows on the screen, and even the background image), as well as casting a shadow behind them. The combination of the reflection and the shadow contribute to their dimensional appearance.

Leopard's new dock functionality is perhaps most efficiently explained in Apple's demo video (Quicktime) of the Dock and Finder. Further description and photos available at at Apple.

Mac OS X Leopard is reportedly approaching Gold Master status. According to the most recent checks, Apple had 11 high priority bugs left. Apple has previously announced that they intend to ship Leopard in October.

Engadget's Ryan Block has confirmed that a beta test of the latest jailbreak method for the 1.1.1 firmware of the iPhone and iPod touch works.

The current method uses a vulnerability in 1.1.1's mobile Safari to gain root access to the device. Currently, this is the only method available to jailbreak an already upgraded iPhone or iPod Touch, as previous methods relied on firmware 1.0.2 still being available.

While the developers are using the Safari vulnerability for somewhat benevolent purposes, it does raise a potential security issue for users. The vulnerability lies in mobile Safari's handling of TIFF images, where viewing a malformed TIFF image allows root access to the device.

While the jailbreak is now complete from all angles, it still does not mean that the methods are ready for adoption by general users. We will consider it ready when Installer.app (or equivalent) is updated for the latest firmware.

Update: The jailbreak has been released but no step-by-step tutorial is yet available.

Ongoing iPhone coverage at macrumors.com/iPhone

According to a source of AppleInsider, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is "finalized" and support staff have been provided Leopard-related training materials.

The last publicly available Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard seed (9A559) was released to developers on September 21st, 2007. There is no word whether or not this seed represents the "Gold Master".

Apple has previously announced that Leopard will be shipping in October, but no official release date has yet been set. Circulating rumors have pegged October 26th as the likely date for the launch.

Update: Since the story was originally published, we've heard from a couple of sources that internal Apple builds are still progressing and "Gold Master" has not yet been declared. I suspect we'll hear more in the next few days.

Apple has reportedly halted shipments of its MacBook Pro MagSafe power adapter according to AppleInsider.

Several people familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based firm began pulling inventory of the 85W power supplies from its retail stores a few weeks ago. Those same people say Apple also discontinued shipments to third party retailers ahead of "redesigned" models that are expected to ship sometime later this month of early next.

The site notes that several issues have been reported regarding Apple's power supplies. Indeed, our forums have been active regarding the issues, the most serious of which appears to be related to fraying of the wire at the base and near the MagSafe connector. Another more minor issue is related to the LED light not accurately displaying the charging status.

It should be noted that AppleInsider is very clear that the redesign appears to be intended for the MacBook Pro adapter, despite the issues being reported in both the 85W and 60W versions.

This would make the second time the MacBook Pro power adapter has been re-designed. Earlier this summer Apple released a smaller version of the adapter.

ThinkSecret reports that Apple is set to introduce new MacBook updates soon after the release of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5). Leopard is rumored to be launched on October 26th, and the rumor site expects the new MacBooks to be in the hands of consumers "by the first half of November, if not sooner."

According to their sources, the MacBook update will be a relatively modest update, and simply bump processor speeds. It's unknown if the new MacBooks will adopt the Santa Rosa architecture that adopted by the MacBook Pros in June. ThinkSecret also believes this will be the last Apple hardware revision before the holidays.

These expectations don't entirely correlate with September rumors of a slim aluminum MacBook arriving "soon".

The last MacBook update was May 15, 2007.

AppleInsider looks at the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Finder and also provides some historical perspective. Overall the Leopard Finder is described as "a clean refinement of what we already have in Tiger" with a number of subtle and useful updates.

Meanwhile, Leopard's Cover Flow is described as "more useful than one might imagine" since Leopard will now generate a live preview icon of the actual contents of any file.

If you're looking through a directory of images, Cover Flow makes a lot of sense. However, it's also useful for scanning through a huge pile of HTML files with unintelligible names; Cover Flow very rapidly renders each page so you can visually peruse the directory contents looking for the page you need.

Other features described include Quick Look, Spotlight Search, and Finder window.

When Apple released the iPhone 1.1.1 update, they broke a number of 3rd party hacks for the iPhone. This included all 3rd party applications as well as ringtone applications such as iToner.

TUAW reports that the iPhone Dev team has found a way to "jailbreak" 1.1.1. "Jailbreak"-ing is the process that allows 3rd party developers to deploy their applications to the iPhone. This accomplishment paves the way to re-open the iPhone to 3rd party apps.

The technique is very preliminary and not yet ready for public release, and will likely require developers to recompile many of the existing iPhone applications.

Meanwhile, iToner 1.0.3 will be undergoing beta testing shortly, which should re-introduce Ringtone support into iPhone 1.1.1.

Ongoing iPhone coverage at macrumors.com/iPhone

MacRumors forum user DavidJearly emailed Steve Jobs, asking about several features that are lacking on the iPod Touch. This included issues with full image syncing, notes, disk mode, lack of calendar input and lack of games.

Steve Jobs reportedly replied and addressed the last two issues:

David,

Nothing can be done about the games. The new iPod touch is a completely different animal inside than the old iPods and the games just don't translate. The inability to edit and add calendar events is a bug that will be fixed in a future software update.

Best,
Steve

The lack of calendar input received a lot of attention when the iPod touch began shipping, as this feature was originally described on Apple's iPod touch feature list, but subsequently removed. According to the email response, this oversight is described as a "bug" and should be addressed in a future software update.

Though rare, Steve Jobs has been known to occasionally respond to emails addressed to him.

Apple has posted three new iPhone television advertisements tonight which show iPhone users talking about how they use their iPhone and its advantages:

Elliot

Doug "Mankind"
Elliot "Meredith"
Stephano "One Thing"

Apple's iPod Classic and iPod Nano has been updated to 1.0.2 via iTunes.

The new update comes without any description, but a couple of early reports:

- Improved Cover Flow
- Faster menu navigation
- Compilation Album Art displayed only once in Cover Flow
- Video Out Fix

Overall, it appears to address many of the performance concerns that many had when the Classic iPod first came out.

All Facebook claims to have heard that Facebook has been working on launching an iTunes competitor.

Few details about the upcoming service is available, but Facebook has reportedly been pursuing agreements with a number of record labels and is actively recruiting for an executive for this new subdivision.

Facebook is a popular social networking site that was originally launched for college students in 2004. In September 2006, Facebook opened its door to the general population and has grown to be the 3rd most popular website on the internet in terms of pageviews.

Update: PaidContent.org claims that this rumor is inaccurate and that Facebook is actually working with Apple to promote music on Facebook.