The latest point update for Mac OS X Leopard has just been released. If you thought OS X 10.5.2 was big, hold onto your socks because 10.5.3 is even bigger. The combo update for versions of Leopard prior to 10.5.2 is 536 megabytes and the standard update for users of 10.5.2 is a still staggering 420 megabytes.

Still, with big sizes come BIG changes, fixes and features. Apple has the full list, but here are some highlights:

• Addresses stuttered audio or video playback from certain USB devices
• Improved Airport and 802.11x behavior and reliability
• iPhone users can now sync their address book contacts with their Google account
• Safari works better when connecting through a Microsoft ISA proxy
• Improved Spotlight search on AFP volumes
• Improved iCal syncing
• Fixes issues with authenticated RSS feeds in Mail.app

Plus improvements to Time Machine, Spaces, iChat, .Mac and Parental Controls. Apple is recommending this update for all users, but as always, encourages making backups of important files and folders before installing.

Matuschak believes an operating system is only as good as its ability to avoid or solve problems, and that's what Ubuntu's really good at. For example, in Ubuntu, if a user tries to watch a video and doesn't have the proper codec to do so, the open source OS will attempt to find and install the codec.

But there's a solution on the horizon, or Matuschak would like there to be. He believes the answer is in Spotlight, a commonly underused but very powerful OS X feature which can be adapted to be a general problem solving tool.

Coming back to the video codec problem, if the user would like to figure out what's needed to play the video file, he types the file extension into Spotlight. The service would return a variety of options including codecs and programs. The suggested codecs and programs aren't necessarily installed on the computer, but, with one (or two) clicks, the user can then install whatever programs or codecs came up as a result of the search. It's merely a concept at this point, but Matuschak would like to make it a reality. If you'd like to help him out, make sure to check out his site.

To inaugurate Apple's latest Mac OS X release, version 10.5, we grabbed all the latest news we could find to answer some of the outstanding questions floating around the web:

Q. Can Time Machine backup to network shares?
A. Yes, but only using the Apple File-sharing Protocol (AFP). Jeers. And Macworld agrees with us that Time Machine is Leopard's most important new feature.

Q. Is Time Machine visible on screen during backups when the external hard disk is connected?
A. No, backups occur automatically in the background.

Q. The new screen sharing feature is VNC-based. Does this mean I can use my other VNC-equipped machines with Leopard?
A. Yup, only not with iChat's screen sharing feature; that only works with iChat clients.

Q. How long does this puppy, er kitty, take to install?
A. According to Engadget, about one hour on a Macbook Pro with 2GB of RAM.

Q. Have any improvements been made to file systems or disk partitions?
A. Well, the most underhyped improvement is this: According to MacWorld, disk partitions can now be resized on the fly. Nifty.

More after the jump.

When Apple said they were going to redesign the Finder, we though, oh, we've heard that before. But with Quick Look and Cover Flow, Leopard introduces the most significant upgrades to the Finder since the 10.1 to 10.2 transition. One of the most time-consuming aspects of using the finder is previewing files. If you're thumbing through a folder looking for a file you need, and the only way to identify the right file is by peeking into it, OS X can really slow you down, at least until Friday when Leopard arrives.

Quick Look is a system-wide technology that the Finder takes advantage of in order to give you fast previews of a file's content within the file system browser. Unlike thumbnail views, which were sloppily implemented and didn't actually work all the time on previous iterations of the OS, Quick Look actually supports all kinds of files, from movies to Keynote presentations and images. Plus, Quick is the name of the game, as anybody who has used Cover Flow on in iTunes will attest.

The other new feature we looked at this morning is Parental Controls, which Apple has amped up by adding to the Preferences window. Historically Apple has done pretty well by allowing parents to designate which applications children can run (and even which web sites they can visit), but with so many cool kid-oriented web sites popping up all the time, it's hard to keep up with the demand. Echoes of, "Hey Dad, can you unlock this web site for me?" can drive a parent bonkers, especially when it's happening five or six times each time your kid sits down to surf.

For the first time, Apple has implemented some content filtering in Safari. They've adapted the anti-spam filter from Apple Mail as a web content analyzer, and apparently it works well enough for blocking "no-no" sites on your kids' behalf. Of course, if you still want to totally lock down your kid's browser, Safari will still allow you to permit only those sites you've approved ahead of time.

Mac's OS X operating system has a number of system caches where it stores information that may be of use in the future, to speed up the process of looking it up. The trouble is, there appears to be no limit to how large these caches can grow to be. At a certain point, a huge cache can be just as bad as no cache at all in terms of performance. Plus, all it's really doing is storing "nice to have" information in case it needs it. But if you didn't have your cache populated, your machine would go and seek out the information from its original source.

Okay, so we're talking out of our cache here a little bit, but you get the idea.

If you've been using your Mac for a long time, your cache files could be pretty large. Cache Out X is a utility that specializes in clearing out these caches, with the result being a snappier machine.

While most people would agree that Mac OS X is a very attractive operating system, there are still times when you'd like the ability to apply a new set of icons to your system. The easiest way we've found to apply icons system-wide for all operating system objects is to use a utility called CandyBar.

CandyBar, from Panic and Iconfactory, is an easy to use utility that lets you browse through the various operating system elements in Mac OS X that require icons, and set new downloaded icons as you wish. Wondering where to get beautiful new icons? Check out Iconfactory, and particularly their Freeware category.

The fully-functional trial version of CandyBar allows you to change your icons up to 25 times, or use the application for 15 days (whichever comes first), and then you must pay for a license to continue using the software. A license for CandyBar will set you back $12.95 USD.

VMware's desktop virtualization application for Mac OS X, codename Fusion (seriously, what isn't Fusion these days?), has hit Beta 2 and with it a handful of new features to boast: experimental 3D acceleration for Windows XP SP2 & DirectX 8.1, Vista support, improved networking, 64-bit OS support on Core 2 Duo Macs, and a slew of other improvements.

Having tested the first beta release, I can indeed say that this update is much faster and more stable. I don't know if I would give up Parallels for it, but the two are a close match. In fact, it almost seems like VMware Fusion is less processor intensive on my Core Duo iMac than Parallels is, but without any formal testing I'm just going to chalk that up to first impressions. Like Parallels, it allows custom screen resolutions for your Windows virtual machine after you install the VMware Tools, and also has drag-and-drop copying from Mac OS X to Windows, both cool features that I certainly appreciate. If you are interested in testing it out, you can sign-up and download VMware Fusion Beta 2 for free.

Democracy Player version 0.9.5 has been officially released, introducing a host of new improvements and enhancements since the 0.9.2 release back in November of 2006. Here's a brief highlight of what to look for:

• Simpler, more minimal interface
• New 'Share' menu on each item allows user to email a video or post to VideoBomb, del.icio.us, Digg, or Reddit
• VLC 0.8.6 on Windows version that powers Democracy has been upgraded with improved Flash video support
• Video downloads are now stored in folders by channel for better organization
  
• New pause and resume download functions
• Improved BitTorrent performace
• Drop-down menu feature for auto-download for individual channels
• Automatic thumbnail generation on OS X for videos lacking thumbnails

The application is immediately available in all PC, Mac, and Linux flavors. Of course, the team still urges users to keep an eye open for any potential bugs that might be lurking about and fill out a bug report where necessary. Anyway, the program is looking great thus far and this upgrade will be worth the download. Check out the full list of improvements at the Democracy blog.

The hard-working folks over at the Participatory Culture Foundation have made the Democracy Player 0.9.5. release candidate available for both Windows and Mac OS X platforms, and they're a-lookin' for bugs and want your help. Just a quick reminder, in case you didn't know: Democracy Player is the application for open-source 'internet television' surfing, and it's been chugging along over the past six months or more since its inception. There have not been any specific mentions of what features have been enhanced, so we'll just have to wait for the official 0.9.5 update. If the developers keep the ball rolling, it won't be unreasonably long until the big 1.0 strikes, I suspect. The Democracy team has been extremely timely about new updates. Anyway, use their bug report form to submit any faults you might stumble upon if you give the 0.9.5 RC a spin.

Apple's web site has always had a fairly nice Downloads section, but most recently (to coincide with MacWorld SF maybe?) they've beaten it with the pretty stick and made it more functional. It's now easier to find great new Mac software, new Dashboard widgets and of course movie trailers. Mainly the Mac OS X section and the front page have seen the biggest changes - I'm especially psyched about the addition of RSS feeds for the top downloads, newly added items, and their staff picks. The latter two being great places for indie Mac developers to get some time in the spotlight.

[Via MacDevCenter.com]

Making your own Dashboard Widgets for Mac OS X is nothing new, but making your own Widgets using the Dashcode Developer Beta changes the entire process. Apple has taken the ease of use of Xcode and whittled it down to scale, providing all the tools necessary to quickly and easily develop your own Widgets. In this How To I'll show you how to go about creating a Download Squad RSS widget. Follow along if you like, but by all means feel free to improvise.

This is a very simple How To and is not intended to teach you how to code a Widget from scratch, but to show you how easy it is with Dashcode to create one. If you would like to find out more about developing Dashboard Widgets, check this guide on Apple's site.

Path Finder is the uber-replacement for the Mac OS X Finder which has many features (and forethought) that the stock Finder could use. Even after its shiny metal facelift in Mac OS X 10.3, the Finder has felt very little in the way of new features or changes as of late, much like a cute puppy whose name you can't remember. My favorite features of Path Finder are its tabs, the drop stack, the integrated Terminal panel and the wicked Select tool. It can feel a bit foreign to switch from the Finder to something new, but if you are determined I bet you can make it through the 21-day free trial without much trouble. As Merlin Mann shows, you can either have as much "frippery" enabled as you want, or you can play it simple and straightforward.

With WWDC just around the corner and Mac OS X Leopard details gently leaking around the Web, what do you Download Squad readers think would be a good addition to the Mac OS X Finder? What features, no matter how crazy you think they are, do you think would be a valuable addition? Or should it stay simple and sweet, leaving the talented third parties to take it to the next step?

[Via 43 Folders]

AppDelete is a freeware utility for Macs that, ostensibly, removes all associated files when you delete an application. (Don't you hate having meaningless preference files hanging around, taking up hard drive space?) AppDelete claims that if you drag the application you want to delete onto its icon, it will scan your hard drive and find all the associated config files, preferences, and so on.

Unfortunately, although the current version is 1.0.1, AppDelete is not yet ready for prime-time. I tested it with a few applications, and it found no associated files, even though they were right there in my Library folder - or sometimes in the same folder as the app itself. More importantly, though, some Lifehacker commenters have pointed out that you need to pay close attention to what AppDelete is doing, lest it delete stuff you'd rather keep. For example, one commenter says she told AppDelete to remove Fire, and it ended up trying to remove Firefox as well. Lifehacker blogger Adam Pash seems to have had a good experience with it, though, so I guess it's hit or miss.

If you use Mac OS X, you're probably familiar with Spotlight, which searches your hard drive and displays results as you type. Well, why not bring that same capability to web searching? Inquisitor is a free OS X app that adds "search as you type" functionality to Safari. Install Inquisitor, restart Safari, and when you start typing in Safari's search bar, Inquisitor will display up to three links and several suggested keywords as you go.

This, of course, works best if you have a fast computer and fast Internet connection. I found Inquisitor to be a bit slow on my 800mhz iBook G4 (hey, we can't all have the latest and greatest). And of course, it would be simply impractical for Inquisitor to search the entire web as you type; instead it pulls its results from Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and several other sources.

If you don't have Safari, there's also a free web-based version, currently in beta. I actually found the web-based version to be faster than the Safari version.

Cha-Ching is a Mac OS X (universal binary) app for managing your personal finances. It uses a tag-based approach to categorizing incoming and outgoing transactions. Thanks to iSight integration, you can include photographs of your purchases (for tax or general pack-rat purposes). And of course, like any other personal finance application, you can schedule pending transactions and manage bill payment.

Cha-Ching's web site is sleek and polished and, like many Web 2.0 sites, appears to be perpetually in beta. Or rather, in this case, the app itself is in beta. But that's good news for you, because you can currently purchase a license for $14.95 - ten dollars off the price it'll be once it hits 1.0 status.