Apple Releases OS X 10.7.3, Safari 5.1.3
by Andrew Cunningham on February 1, 2012 6:30 PM ESTApple today released the OS X 10.7.3 update for the client and server versions of Lion - unlike 10.7.2, which introduced a major feature in iCloud, the 10.7.3 update consists mostly of smaller feature and security bugfixes. The updates are currently available both from Apple's download site and from Software Update - its build number is 11D50 and it bumps the OS X kernel version to 11.3.0.
On the client side of things, 10.7.3 adds Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukranian language support, and addresses problems logging on using smart cards, with Windows filesharing, and with printing Word documents that use markup. Older iMacs with ATI graphics cards should no longer experience performance issues after waking from sleep, and post-sleep wi-fi connection issues were also addressed. Safari should no longer have trouble opening before the computer has connected to a wireless network. Lastly, Apple has fixed an issue authenticating to distributed SMB shares, and RAW image compatibility with additional cameras has been added.
Enterprise users with Active Directory domains should also note that the 10.7.3 update fixes a number of Directory Services bugs, a full list of which can be found in the client release notes.
OS X Server sees a few more feature updates, both in Server.app and in the services themselves - there are too many of them to list here, but you can check out the server release notes for a full list.
10.7.3 also includes Safari 5.1.3, a minor version bump for which release notes are not currently available (it's also not clear whether 5.1.3 will be released to Snow Leopard users, or whether it addresses issues that are only present in Lion). Snow Leopard users can also grab Security Update 2012-001 to get all of the security fixes present in 10.7.3 that also apply to 10.6.8.
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gevorg - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - link
What about Windows 7 updates?Andrew.a.cunningham - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
...they exist!In all seriousness: the closed ecosystem of OS X means that these point updates have more far-reaching effects on the OS's functionality and features, and are thus more newsworthy than most Windows updates, which tend to happen more frequently and to focus mostly on security fixes. For example, these large OS updates are the only way for most Mac hardware to get driver updates - we cover this sort of thing on the Windows side by keeping up with graphics driver releases. We also tend to cover service pack-level Windows updates, and patches with some measurable impact on performance (like the Bulldozer performance hotfix piece from a few days ago).
Note that we've also been covering Windows 8 feature announcements pretty closely as they've happened, and we're going to continue following it closely from the beta this month all the way up to release - I think we do a solid job of filtering out what is and isn't newsworthy on both sides of the PC/Mac fence. We could cover run-of-the-mill Patch Tuesday updates here, but I imagine that you'd enjoy reading "this patch fixes an exploit by which an attacker could etc. etc." over and over again about as much as I would enjoy writing about it. :-)
ltcommanderdata - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
RAGE has just been released for Mac. I know RAGE is hard to benchmark, but seeing this is the first major Mac game using the new OpenGL 3.2 Core profile support introduced in Lion and the most graphically intensive game for Mac, it'd be interesting if you could do a quick comparison between the PC and Mac versions as AnandTech did for Portal when Steam/Source Engine first came to Mac seeing if there is any major performance or image quality difference between platforms.ananduser - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
Spoiler: Win7 version is faster and looks better.kmmatney - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
Does anyone actually run Safari in Windows? I tried it a few years back for about 30 minutes, and soon deleted it.ltcommanderdata - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
I was under the impression one of the main motivations when Safari for Windows was first launched was for Windows web developers to have easy access to Safari to test their websites against for compatibility. The similarity between desktop Safari and iOS Mobile Safari also helped to test website compatibility for iOS, especially important when Apple initially didn't have an app store and was pushing web apps as the primary third-party development method for iPhone. So perhaps Safari for Windows may not be that popular as a primary browser, but it probably does have a decent number of installs.Andrew.a.cunningham - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
Right. That's basically what I use it for.ananduser - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
It is also shoveled down users' throat with every Itunes install. More simple minded computer user might fall for it.GotThumbs - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
Better yet...Can Safari be completely UNINSTALLED from OS X?