
Apple has just released their second minor update to their latest desktop operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2. While there are a lot of fixes for Mac users, iPhone users may want to pay particular attention to the “general reliability improvements” for MobileMe and iDisk. (And yes, the infamous “guest account” data deletion bug looks to have been squashed.
If you’re a Mac user and go for the immediate update, let us know how it works for you.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

PhoneView is a desktop companion that fills in the holes left by iTunes for any iPhone user on the Mac (sorry Microsoft faithful). Some of PhoneView’s features are as follows:
- Use your iPhone as a disk
- Play and export music
- Create, edit and save notes
- Search and save SMS/MMS messages
- Download camera photos
- Save voicemails
- View and export call history
- Play and save voice memos
- Export synced photos
- Export Contacts
We often see folks in TiPb’s forums looking for more syncing functionality than what iTunes provides. Could this be for you? PhoneView is available to demo for free and $19.95 to purchase a license. Be sure to check out this video for a quick tour of PhoneView’s features and functionality.

UPDATED: According to @geohot on Twitter, blackra1n for Mac is now live.
ORIGINAL: When George Hotz released his all iPhone/iPod 3.1.2 jailbreak application for Windows, blackra1n, he was unsure whether or not he would write a Mac OS X version. According to a recent post on Twitter it seems as if he’s had a change of heart.
blackra1n for mac coming soon…actually reuses code…NSRunAlertPanel causing crashes…and can anyone blackify the purplera1n mac icon?
It would be nice if this upcoming Mac version includes an exploit for the new bootrom but the probability of that happening is highly unlikely. For the latest news and tips for jailbreaking/unlocking your iPhone, visit our iPhone Jailbreak/Unlock forums.

UPDATE: Official press release from Apple: Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28
The Apple Store is back up, and as expected it’s brought the next generation of Mac OS X, 10.6 Snow Leopard, with it! Pre-ordering is now available for delivery by this Friday, August 28 in the US (international stores may only ship by 8/28).
At $29 for single user and $49 for a 5-user family pack, for Mac users, this is likely a no-brainer. We’re not sure what, if any, goodies will be in there specific to the iPhone of iPod touch, but with OpenCL (use GPU as CPU), Grand Central Dispatch (packetize processor tasks like network traffic), built-in Exchange ActiveSync support, QuickTime X, and a whole heap of refinements under the hood (hello, Cocoa Finder!), it’ll be worth it anyway. Find out more at Apple.com.
For everyone else, worry not, Windows 7 is still on track for October 22, Ubuntu Karmic Koala is set for October 29, and if you rock a different distro… well, you’ll likely have an update at some point too!

Apple has released Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8, the latest updates and security patches for it’s desktop operating system, big brother to the iPhone’s OS.
While some previous updates have contained new iPhone-specific features, we haven’t seen any yet for 10.5.8, although some fixes will be of benefit to iPhone users on Mac. According to Apple Knowledge Base, these include:
- Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
- Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
- Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
If anyone notices anything else, let us know in the comments!
[via MacRumors]

We’ve just gotten word from TiPb forums that George Hotz has released his much anticipated Mac OS X version of purplea1n.
So you say you have an iPhone 3GS along with that jailbreak itch? Hit the link and get your download on. As always proceed at your own risk. TiPb and all of it’s staff take zero responsibility to any wrong doings that may occur while using the software.
[Thanks for the tip Matt74!]

iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 required iTunes 8.2 Pre-Release to install, and it looks like iTunes 8.2 Pre-Release requires… Mac OS Leopard 10.5.7 in order to sync notes now. Which, of course, is not yet available.
Previous iPhone 3.0 Betas have synced perfectly well under the current Mac OS release, 10.5.6.
A sign of 10.5.7’s immanent arrival? Perhaps. A more interesting question is what’s changed in note sync to require it where previous betas did not?
(via daveizzle on Twitter)

Apple Insider has been putting two and two together, based on web content and WWDC 2009 session info and coming up with:
Apple will leverage the popularity of the iPhone to deliver business users new Mobile Access services in Snow Leopard Server to securely deliver corporate email, contact, calendar, and intranet web services to iPhone and iPod touch users far more cost effectively than Microsoft Windows Server.
If you don’t mind Mac-centric geekery, check out the full article. Bottom line, however, is that anything that makes Apple invest more heavily in secure business-focused iPhone features, the better for everyone on all platforms.