Gizmodo: 10.5.3

Apple and Google Combine Forces to Explode Your Address Book

John Herrman — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:50:00 EDT

The ability to sync your Address Book contacts with Gmail—one of 10.5.3’s most useful new features—could have used a bit more real-world testing. Rather than just syncing your beautiful, groomed, deliberately added contacts like any reasonable person would expect, Address Book downloads all of your Gmail account’s automatically collected addresses as well, which is to say pretty much everyone you’ve ever emailed, ever.

Despite this Rolodex-wrecking flaw, Leopard’s update introduced plenty of other features that actually make the operating system better. Spaces now behaves like a proper virtual desktop system, and Time Machine is significantly more reliable, as well as playing nicer with Time Capsule. Mail, iChat, Airport and Automator also underwent minor refinements. Taking into consideration these enhancements as well as a number of critical security fixes, 10.5.3 is still a recommended download in spite of the Address Book goof. For those who just had to click every new radio button in 10.5.3, the same helpful reader who sent in the Gmail sync warning has posted a quick fix here.

[Brian King]

Leopard OSX 10.5.3 Now Available

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:04:34 EDT

Mac Software Update now contains Leopard OSX version 10.5.3, which addresses issues with AirPort and other networking reliability, and resolves a few Time Machine and Time Capsue problems—Aperture is now compatible, we're told. It also has improved Spaces usability. Check it out and let us know if you find anything else out. Full update list: [Apple]

Mac OS X 10.5.3 Test Builds Seeded to Developers

Jason Chen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Apple's just released a OS X Leopard 10.5.3 update beta to developers, meaning that the patch is at least stable enough for widespread testing. Among the things being fixed are several memory leaks in CoreAnimation and iCal, but the final release won't be available until an estimated April or May. [Apple Insider]