In an in-depth review of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, Ryan Faas (computerworld.com) cites “performance gains, improvements to several collaboration tools introduced in Leopard Server, enhanced simple administration for non-technical users and new features designed for mobile access and for supporting the iPhone.” Adds Fass: “Snow Leopard Server is a tremendous value.”

Apple has released the latest drivers for Brother, Canon, HP, and Lexmark printers and/or scanners for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

More info and download links:

• Brother Printer Drivers for Mac OS X 10.6: This download includes the latest Brother printing and scanning software for Snow Leopard (99.9MB)

• Canon Printer Drivers for Mac OS X 10.6: This download includes the latest Canon printing and scanning software for Snow Leopard. Requires Mac OS X v10.6.1 or later (274.59MB)

• HP Printer Drivers for Mac OS X 10.6: This download includes the latest HP printing and scanning software for Snow Leopard (387.44MB)

• Lexmark Printer Drivers for Mac OS X v0.6: This download includes Lexmark printing software that shipped with Mac OS X v10.6 (117MB)

Source: MacOSXHints

It may not get the attention shown to a new version of iTunes or even an iPhone OS update, but QuickTime also saw a new version rolled out on Wednesday. QuickTime 7.6.4 adds support for the newly released iTunes 9 as well as improved audio device support for Windows Vista users.

According to Apple’s release notes, the 7.6.4 update also tackles some security issues. The update patches flaws where viewing a maliciously crafted H.264 movie could lead to an unexpected application crash or arbitrary code execution. The flaws were caused by memory corruption issues, a buffer overflow, and a heap buffer overflow in the way QuickTime handles h.264 movies, according to Apple, which credits Tom Ferris of the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team, Alex Selivanov, and an anonymous researcher working with TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting the H.264 issues.

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Here’s another post regarding humor on Snow Leopard, too excited for its release…

“MacRumors has received a set of images claimed to be the retail packaging and disc for Apple’s forthcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors.

“If the images, which appear to depict the Portuguese version of Snow Leopard, are in fact authentic, it would mean that Snow Leopard discs are already in mass production,” Slivka reports.

Full article, with the images, here.

There’s been talk the past couple of days that the latest developer build of OS X Snow Leopard, 10A432, has been designated the “Golden Master” version, meaning it’s ready for prime time. Multiple sources are now stating it is. So now the question is: When will it be released?

Amazon put Snow Leopard up for pre-order a few weeks ago with the following note: “Please note: Official release date has not been announced by Apple, though they have indicated this product will be released sometime in September.” September is also the timetable that Apple gave at its WWDC event in early June. But with the GM version already out there, there are whispers that Apple may have beaten that goal. Friday, August 28 is the day Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is hearing, and he has a very good track record of being right about such things.

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