According to a well-informed source that contacted MacBidouille, Apple would have the intention of changing the name for the company’s Operating System for computers, following what was done with iOS 4. The final decision wasn’t taken, so this is a rumor, for now, but it would seem that Apple is pondering about the new name for the Mac OS X. The general idea would be to follow the same line that was taken with the iPhone OS: using the name iOS for all Apple’s different OSes.

Some of the oldest Mac fans would probably not be happy with the name change, but making a more universal name for different platforms would help in identifying the brand and keep a certain sense of unity among the various products.

Apple has sent a new Mac OS X 10.6.4 to developers. The version 10F564 has a few bug fixes and no known problems. Similarly to last beta, the 10F58, Apple has asked developers to pay attention to graphic drivers, SMB sharing, USB and not much else.

Compared to the previous version, the build 10F564 has 600.2 MB, hence 20 MB more. The tests began in April, and although there’s no details about the release to the public, it’s rumored that users will be able to have the final version around this month, perhaps after the WWDC.

After slightly more than one week from the previous release, Apple has announced the third seed for the Mac OS X 10.6.4, build 10F50. In this build, Apple covered graphic drivers, SMD, Voice Over, VPN and USB. Here are the enhancements included in the update:

*  Resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
* Resolve an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
* Address issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
* Improve reliability of VPN connections
* Resolve a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
* Resolve an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
* Improve VoiceOver compatibility with iMovie and GarageBand
* Improve compatibility with some braille displays

The new build has 581.3MB and it’s only available for developers for now, although it’s not impossible that it’ll be released in June, perhaps during the WWDC 2010.

The Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 from Apple has reached “sold-out” status: all the tickets available were sold in eight days. The company has waited a long time to confirm the exact dates for the event, which were only revealed last week.

The announcement, and the price raise on the ticket ($300 more) were received as an attempt of controlling the request for places, although many of the attendees will pay more for their trip than for the ticket.

The development for the Mac OS X platform seems to be pushed to second place during this WWDC: many conferences are scheduled to speak about iPhone and iPad platforms. And it’s probable that during the event, the new iPhone 4G will be revealed.

As it was to be expected, Apple released the first build for the Mac OS X 10.6.4 yesterday. The build is called 10F378, and it would bring enhancements to graphic drivers, SMB, Time Machine backup, USB and VoiceOver. The documentation also highlights an issue with the password in iChat.

The Mac OS X 10.6.3 was released on March 29th, and it’s impossible to predict when the new update will be officially released.

Finally the update 10.6.3 for Snow Leopard was released, even though it’s not April 3rd yet, as some had predicted a launch together with the iPad. The previous update, 10.6.2 was launched in November 2009 and this update was quite desired by users.

The update includes several changes and general OS enhancement. The 10.6.3 update seems rather big in contents and size. The full list of changes can be found here.

Apple has sent build 10D573 for the Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers. As for the previous builds, also on this one, Apple asks developers to focus their own efforts on graphic drivers, images and photos, Mail, security certificates and QuickTime. There’s only one bug still left, and it’s about Safari 4.0.5 showing up as available once more in the Software Update panel once the new build takes place of a previous one.

Since the release seems near but won’t come, it’s likely that Apple’s waiting for the iPad launch date (April 3rd) in order to launch a new iTunes version as well, and the new OS update. We’ll see.

Apple has released another update for the Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers, a few days after the previous release. This update focus the developers’ attention into the graphic drivers, QuickTime, iPhoto, Mail and security certificates.

The build is called 10D572, and it seems to have solved a known problem with the Safari 4.0.5 download through the Software Update pannel. Apple still has to confirm a release date for the Mac OS X 10.6.3, although the frequency of the builds being released could indicate that the update will be released soon.

Apple continues to send new builds for the Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers. This time it’s the 10D571 build. The changes on this build concerned the graphic drivers, iChat, QuickTime and font management. Here are the main changes:

* Compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications
* Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic
* Changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and improve compatibility and security
* Printing reliability and compatibility with third party printers
* Issues resolved that prevented files from copying to Windows shares
* Issues resolved with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server
* Issues resolved that prevented files with the “#” or “&” symbols in their names from opening in Rosetta
* Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling
* Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly

Even though the frequency of builds launched could indicate that the launch will be soon, it seems that it’s taking longer than expected.

Yet no news of official release, but Apple has sent another build of the Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers, this time called 10D567. And again like las week, the build was released without any technical notes or bug fixes. The developers were asked to concentrate their tests on Rosetta, iChat, QuickTime, printers and graphic drivers.

Once this update is available to the public, it’ll solve many problems with Snow Leopard, such as the compatibility with third-party printers and QuickTime X safety. Also the Logic Pro 64-bit users will notice a big enhancement in the performance. We thought the release would be soon, due to the fact that builds seemed rather stable, but it seems not, so we’ll just have to wait.