Apple already patching Tiger OS

Apple this week patched its newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 - better known as Tiger - less than three weeks after it debuted.

The update, dubbed Mac OS X 10.4.1, includes at least 35 bug fixes for such bundled applications as the Safari Web browser, the Mail client and the iSync utility.

According to Australian site ITNews, Apple`s support Web site claims the patch also improves the reliability of the operating system`s Active Directory plug-in - one of the components users have focused on in early complaints.

A security fix included in the update also prevents files, applications and Web pages from opening at the password prompt that appears when waking from sleep or stopping a screen saver, said Apple.

The 37MB 10.4.1 update can be downloaded manually from Apple`s Web site, or retrieved automatically from within Tiger using its Software Update feature.

Electronics giant Sony unveiled a high-definition (HD) camcorder yesterday that is small and light enough to allow consumers to shoot high-resolution video comfortably with one hand.

Sony hopes the product will help expand the market for HD video cameras, which take sharper pictures than standard camcorders but until now have been mainly used by professionals because of their size and hefty price tag, reports CNN.

The HDR-HC1 weighs under 1kg without a battery and is less than half the size and one-third the weight of a previous model that Sony introduced last year.

It will also sell for about half the price of the prior model when it goes on sale in July.

Sony defines HD as 1 440 pixels by 1 080 scanning lines of resolution.

Oracle has jointly developed a PHP scripting engine with Zend Technologies that is integrated with its Oracle 10g database and application server to make it easier for developers to produce applications that draw on Oracle databases.

The "Zend Core for Oracle" product is a version of the Zend Engine - a PHP scripting language processor that can be built into applications from Zend Technologies.

PHP is an open source language syntax that can be read and written by Webmasters and site administrators without specialised knowledge of Java or Microsoft`s C#, and is widely used across the Web for tying dissimilar elements of a Web site together, reports InformationWeek.

Oracle is joining several other major vendors in announcing support for PHP, including IBM, which in February announced it was bundling a PHP scripting engine with its Cloudscape embeddable database system.