Mac OS X 10.5.7 heralds new models

Stephen Withers
Monday, 02 March 2009 04:10

Opinion and Analysis

Code contained in the developer release of the Mac OS X 10.5.7 update provides clues about possibly forthcoming hardware changes.

When Apple's developer community receives a new build of Mac OS X, word quickly leaks about the changes acknowledged by Cupertino.

Synchronisation, graphics drivers and Time Machine are all on Apple's list.

But it seems that reference to graphics drivers has greater significance than bug fixes for existing models.

According to netkas.org, the new drivers explicitly - though not yet completely - support ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 chips.

netkas also asserts that the "10.5.7 kernel also supports Nehalem i7 fully".

While this information is encouraging for those running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware, it also gives some indications of Apple's plans for new models.

What other reasons are there for suspecting that a revised iMac is on the way? Please read on.