Apple Releases Snow Leopard Update

Less than two weeks after releasing Snow Leopard, Apple on Thursday released an update to its new operating system, patching problems in a version of Mac OS that's had a variety of bugs.

The upgrade, officially called Mac OS X v10.6.1, includes "general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac," Apple said in a summary of the update.

Among the fixes is improved compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems. In addition, the update corrects a glitch that led to some printer drivers not appearing properly in the Add Printer browser.

Other fixed bugs include one that caused the DVD playback to stop unexpectedly and another that made it difficult to remove an item from the application Dock. The update also resolves a problem in which the Command-Option-T keyboard shortcut would sometimes bring up the special characters menu in software such as Mail and TextEdit.

Other fixes include the automatic account set up in Mail sometimes not working, difficulty in sending mail with certain SMTP servers, and unresponsiveness by Motion 4, Apple's video editing tool. Finally, the new version of the OS includes an update to Adobe Flash Player plug-in version 10.0.32.18.

Following the release of Snow Leopard Aug. 28, Mac owners reported more 100 Mac applications, games and software utilities were not fully compatible with the OS.

In addition, users reported a system freeze known as "the spinning wheel of death" when they tried to upgrade to the new OS. The term referred to an endless display of a rotating icon. Apple acknowledged the problem and offered a fix.

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