Apple issues major Tiger update

Apple has released an update for its OS X 10.4.1 operating system, better known as Tiger, only 17 days after the release of the software.

The 37MB patch fixes at least 35 bugs in the operating system and bundled applications such as the Safari browser, Mail client, iSync and iDVD. It also delivers upgraded graphics card drivers.

Problems in Tiger varied from networking problems to applications that would crash under certain circumstances.

Safari, for instance, would "unexpectedly quit" when right clicking on some PDF files or graphics, and the iDVD player would crash when the operating system was set to Russian or one of several other languages.

The update also increases the reliability of the Active Directory plug-in, a Microsoft service on Windows systems for corporate networks.

"The quick update really shows how responsive Apple tries to be in respect to its operating system," senior analyst Joe Wilcox at Jupiter Research told vnunet.com.

But the analyst pointed out that releasing a large patch just weeks after the launch shows a flaw in its development process.

"A lot of things [at Apple] are pretty secretive; there aren't necessarily as many eyes looking over the products as there could be," said Wilcox in a reference to the company's decision to have only a limited group of beta testers looking at the code.

"Apple has a developer programme that catches a lot of things, but certain problems won't be uncovered until a whole lot of people have the software."

The patch is available for download here.