Brief Hands-On Report--Apple released Java for Mac OS X 10.4.x or 10.3.x, Release 5

It is available via Software Update or from these Apple Web pages:

• For Mac OS X 10.4.x.
• For Mac OS X 10.3.x.

According to Apple,

Java for Mac OS X 10.4 [or 10.3], Release 5 adds support for the latest Daylight Saving Time (DST) and time zone information as of January 8, 2007, and delivers improved reliability and compatibility for Java 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 and Java 1.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.8 and later. This release updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_07, Java 1.4 to version 1.4.2_12.

This release improves reliability of the SWT_AWT bridge implementation first released in the SWT Compatibility Libraries for Release 4, and is now installed as a standard part of J2SE 5.0.

We downloaded and installed this update with no problems on a MacBook Pro C2D and an iMac Core Duo running Mac OS X 10.4.8. In several hours subsequent use, we encountered no issues. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]