The Security Update released the other day has its good and bad side, users report.

Good news first: apparently the keyboard glitch that plagues MacBook and MacBook Pro users who’ve upgraded to Leopard where keyboards freeze for up to over a minute when using Carbon apps has been solved with the Security Update.

Bad news: under special circumstances, the new Security Update can cause crashes in Safari. Changes made to address security issues in the app inadvertently crash Apple’s own browser, particularly in handling frames. The Mac Observer’s coding expert, Steven Swift observes the problem -

The error happens when the user tries to submit a form to another target frame or window. Safari stops that, and, in fact, crashes. The idea is to keep any malicious hacker from, for example, trying to load code into a hidden window.

The problem seems to be specific to Safari, and does not affect other browsers like Firefox and Omniweb.

We have a new chapter in the continuing mystery of why normally astute and business-savvy companies continually produce anti-virus software for the Macintosh year after year.

One of these companies is Symantec, which has just released Norton AntiVirus 11 for the Macintosh. The big new feature is that it now works with Leopard, and adds an all-new Norton Antivirus Dashboard widget. Whoopee.

Come to think of it, the recent massive influx of virus-paranoid Windows users coming to the considerably safer Mac fold is an even bigger, fatter market to tap, so it makes some sort of warped business sense. Symantec has been the number one antivirus software product for Macs consistently since June 1998, so they have been mining this particular lode of paranoia for a pretty long time now, and is showing no sign of stopping.

A 1-year license to Norton Antivirus 11 for the Macintosh is available for US$29.95 for download on the Symantec website, if you want it for some reason.

Apple announced yesterday that it was disabling installation and withdrawing support and updating for the Windows-enabling feature in Tiger called Boot Camp effective December 31, 2007.

Boot Camp allows Mac users to install and double-boot to Windows from their Intel Macs. But before you Tiger users panic, don’t worry, your Windows partitions will be fine and usable past the 31st, just don’t count on Apple updating it or supporting your use any more past the deadline, and you won’t also be able to install it again anytime in 2008 or beyond.

At least in Tiger, anyway. This is because in Mac OS 10.4, Boot Camp was just in beta, and the beta period is expiring at the end of the year. Of course, in 10.5, or Leopard, Boot Camp is a full-fledged, fully enabled feature that is part of the OS, so if you want to continue your travails with Microsoft Windows on a Mac, now would be a great time to upgrade. Apple says

With the introduction of Leopard, the Boot Camp Beta program has ended. The Boot Camp Beta software will expire on December 31, and Apple won’t offer further updates of Boot Camp Beta for Mac OS X Tiger.”

Just a heads-up.

Reports are surfacing that a number of Intel-processor Macs, mainly MacBooks and MacBook Pros, are experiencing inoperable keyboards when using the new version of Mac OS X, Leopard.

AppleInsider is reporting that users on their forums are complaining about the glitch, and that a lot of other user groups (even Apple’s own) are getting posts about the problem, which has surfaced after installing Leopard. The keyboard freeze seems to occur randomly with both older and newer laptops, and relaunching Finder or restarting the system sometimes fixes the problem but not always, while drastic solutions like PRAM resets don’t do anything for it.

External keyboards and onboard trackpads remain unaffected.

Remember when I told you guys of my experience at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo a few weeks back? I was thinking during that rainy Friday afternoon for the Leopard launch that it was a bit disconcerting in that I was expecting the line I was in to be long , but not that long (almost 5 blocks!).

Wandering around Tokyo days before, I was already a bit surprised at the ubiquity of Macs, which was more than I was accustomed to in my home base of Manila. They were nearly everywhere I happened to be, and in the big press rooms of the Tokyo Motorshow I attended, nearly half of the journalists were tapping away at Powerbooks, Macbooks and Macbook Pros and iMacs in there.

Well, it seems to not just be a prevalent trend or fad.

Reports have it that Leopard is now the leading OS in Japan with the release of OS X 10.5. The amazing statistic is that Mac OS purchases went up over 60% for October, from 15% percent, which is nothing short of phenomenal. This figure topples Microsoft from the top spot for the first time.

In fact, Microsoft is on the opposite side of the slope, with sales plunging from 75.3% to 28.8% Phenomenal too - in the worst way.

In the six days following the Oct.26 release of Leopard, the new Apple OS now holds the lion’s share (so to speak) with 53.9% of the entire OS-only market. Hoo! Go Japan!

Arigato gozaimasu!

(If you didn’t catch it, read my story of Leopard Day in Japan here.)