The Webkit team, those intrepid guys who have this forever on-going work-in-progress to improve and speed up Safari, Apple’s web browser, has unveiled a version of Webkit that incorporates a new Javascript rendering engine called Squirrelfish, which purports to jack up Safari performance to 1.6x better. Not quite ready yet for prime time, it’s still being tweaked and fixed before they roll it out.

Squirrelfish, if you really must know, is a register-based, direct threaded, high-level bytecode engine with a sliding register window calling convention made for open-source browsers. Huh?

Bring it on. All we need to know is, will it blend?

Don’t look now, but some units of the Macbook Air being sold on the gray market come with non-American keyboards, specifically Western Spanish ones which confound users because of its strange and unfamiliar physical layout and even more confusing keyboard assignments—pressing a key is always an adventure. I know this first hand because I procured one such Macbook Air for one of my bosses.

The sealed box looked typical for all intents and purposes, until we opened it up. The sparse documentation was all in Spanish, and the keyboard looked very odd and things quickly went downhill when we started typing on it. To our consternation a lot of the non-alphabetical characters that came out on the bright screen were totally different from the ones we pressed, going by what was printed on the keytop. Us Filipinos used to a US layout were in immediate trouble. Talk about lost in translation.

Strangely, info on alternative keyboard layouts were sparse. It took a while but we eventually found a solution for the key mismatching. From the outset it was obviously a matter of changing keyboard profiles—but which one?

For Macbooks, Macbook Pros and Airs with a Western Spanish keyboard, just go to System Preferences/International/Input Menu and select Spanish - ISO. If you don’t have it in your list of choices, you’ll have to dig out your install discs and load up the Spanish language choices so Spanish - ISO pops up as an option. After this, your keys won’t lie to you anymore; what you press is what you’ll get.

Now you’ll just have to live with the odd placement of keys, but that’s a whole lot better than the guessing game you had before. If you find other odd keyboard layouts, not just on Macs but on external keyboards from Apple, you can just use this method to pin down the right input menu profile.

For those of you new 10.5.3 updaters who are wondering what this Security Update 2008-03 is and why it isn’t popping up on Software Update, that’s because it isn’t meant for you, you greedy updater you.

You don’t need it, for one thing. Everything in it is already in the 10.5.3 update.

Actually, the Security Update is meant for pre-10.5.3 Leopard systems (10.5 to 10.5.2) and Tiger 10.4.11 users only. Mileage may vary, depending on your machine type and OS client, and can range from 72 to 118mb.

This security update is for those who want to wait out the potential hitches that can result from Leopard updates, like the few nasties that popped up from the 10.5.2 update last Feb., and for the folk who haven’t yet gone on to Leopard and are feeling abandoned in Tiger’s last iteration, yet still want to plug the security holes. If this applies to you, go get it here.

Just a quick heads-up.

As is usual after a major update, there is a gaggle of smaller ones that come waddling up after. The first of these after today’s humongous Leopard Update 10.5.3 is Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.1, which is a 2.9mb download on Software Update. What it does is:

This update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras:

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/Kiss Digital x2/450D
• Epson R-D1
• Leaf AFi 7
• Leaf AFi 6
• Leaf AFi 5
• Pentax K200D
• Pentax K20D”

Let it be said that Mac-A-Doodle can sure call ‘em.

Mere hours after us predicting it’ll come soon, Mac OS X Update 10.5.3. arrives. We even got the size correct - it’s a big one, all right: 420mb.

As usual, Software Update is cryptic about what’s new. All it says of this near half-gig Leopard update is

The 10.5.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.”

However, further digging uncovers the ff. (wordier) info about 10.5.3, which we reproduce here to save you the trouble of a click:

General

▪    Fixes a font issue that could result in Helvetica Narrow being used in applications instead of Helvetica.
▪    Addresses an issue with stuttering video and audio playback in certain USB devices.
▪    Resolves stability issues with Word of the Day, iTunes Artwork, and Slideshow screen savers.
▪    Fixes an issue in which certain attached hard drives may not show up in the Finder.
▪    Addresses an issue with .Mac syncing of Dashboard widgets over multiple Macs that use different screen resolutions.
▪    Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
▪    Improves the accuracy of the Software Update progress bar indicator.
▪    Addresses an issue in which Finder may not be available if the computer name is blank in Sharing preferences.
▪    Improves Active Directory binding and login.
▪    Eliminates a delay when logging in as an Active Directory user in a .local domain.
▪    Improves Spotlight searches on a AFP file server volumes.
▪    Clients can now change their password at the login window when bound to a Mac OS X 10.4 Open Directory server.
▪    Improves Safari reliability when connecting to the Internet through a Microsoft ISA proxy.

Address Book

▪    Addresses reliability issues when searching for contacts using built-in search.
▪    Resolves issues with mapping addresses that contain an ampersand character.

AirPort

▪    Improves 802.1X behavior and reliability.
▪    Improves reliability when using Time Capsule.

Automator

▪    Addresses an issue in which some actions may not work with the “Show When Run” option enabled.
▪    Resolves an issue in which the “New iCal Event” action may not work.
▪    Resolves an issue that prevents workflows from being saved in the Finder’s contextual menu.
▪    Fixes reliability issues for Automator scripts that search for files by date.
▪    Resolves an issue that prevents workflows from being saved in the Finder’s contextual menu.
▪    Addresses an issue in which Automator workflows as Finder plugins do not work when the workflow begins with the “Get Selected Finder Items” action.
▪    Fixes an issue in which the “Copy Files” action does not reliably work when added from Automator’s warning dialog.

iCal

▪    Addresses potential privacy issues by allowing events to be marked as private.
▪    Resolves an issue in which the inspector does not show capacity and availability info for conference rooms within a building.
▪    Addresses an issue in which the current day could appear in the left-most column of the weekly view.
▪    Addresses reliability issues with meeting alarms, invitations and attachments.
▪    Resolves issues with reliability when restoring from iCal backups.
▪    Fixes accuracy issues with auto-completion, availability data and location names.
▪    Resolves an issue in which iCal may send cancellation notices for events in the past after a calendar is deleted.
▪    Fixes reliability issues with iCal syncing.

iChat

▪    Addresses reliability issues with screen sharing.
▪    Resolves an issue in which saved chat transcripts may reported as “still in use” after opening and closing them in iChat.
▪    Resolves an issue with group chats not being indexed in Spotlight.
▪    Only the last 250 messages of an active chat are saved.  Fixed to save unlimited number of lines.
▪    Addresses issues with echo cancellation that may occur on portable Macs.

Mail

▪    Resolves an issue in which Mail may prevent idle sleep when set to automatically check for new messages every minute.
▪    Addresses stability issues that may be encountered when dragging large attachments into an email message.
▪    Fixes an issue that could occur if two compose windows are open when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
▪    Addresses reliability issues when changes are made to a mailbox while offline.
▪    Resolves wrapping issues that may be found with consecutive spaces in plain text.
▪    Fixes issues with certain web pages appearing garbled when emailed from Safari.
▪    Fixes an issue in which the Sent, Drafts, and Outbox mailboxes incorrectly list the “cc” recipients in the “To” column.
▪    Addresses reliability issues with attachments added to plain text notes.
▪    Fixes reliability issues with authenticated RSS feeds.
▪    Resolves an issue in which attaching an alias to an email message may not send the actual file.

Parental Controls

▪    Addresses reliability issues with application logging and time limits.
▪    Resolves an issue in which Parental Controls may prevent forced sleep.
▪    Addresses performance issues with web content filters.
▪    Fixes an issue with managed accounts in which iChat transcripts may not be created.
▪    Addresses issues with 4-byte files and whitelist.

Spaces

▪    Resolves an issue in which switching to a different space and returning back to the original space may reorder the application windows with a different active window.
▪    Resolves an issue in which activating an application from the Dock switches to a different space, even if there is a window for that application in the current space.
▪    Fixes an issue in which Command-Tab may incorrectly switch to a new space.
▪    Addresses reliability issues with Spaces when syncing preferences over .Mac.

Time Machine

▪    Includes fixes for Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule.
▪    Resolves certain issues when backing up a portable Mac that is on battery power.
▪    Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2.
▪    Addresses reliability issues when performing a full restore from a Time Machine backup.
▪    Fixes an issue in which certain function keys may be disabled after using Time Machine.
▪    Fixes a possible alert message that incorrectly states a backup volume does not have enough space.
▪    Updates Time Machine to reliably restore attachments and messages in Mail.

VoiceOver

▪    Includes Braille Update 1.0 which enables GW Micro, HandyTech, HIMS, Nippon, and Papenmeier Refreshable Braille displays.
▪    Addresses an issue with Braille dot 7 and 8 underlining.
▪    Fixes an issue in which HTML page anchors may be ignored by the VoiceOver cursor.
▪    Fixes an issue that prevented Hot Spots from being used in text areas.
▪    Resolves an issue with spell checking in which VoiceOver may only announce the first misspelled word if there are multiple words spelled incorrectly.”

Remember that it’s always a good idea to run RDP before and after the update, and an even better idea to backup your data before doing the update at all (if you’re not using Time Machine yet). For most users though, prudence dictates waiting a day or two to see if the foolhardy ones (like me) will run into trouble with the update. I’ll keep you posted.