Snow Leopard update number 7 arrived this week and can be downloaded via Software Update.  As always, please please please make sure you are backed up before installing!

According to Apple’s security notes, among the many bug fixes and security updates to be had are those that:

• Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac.
• Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers.
• Address various minor Mac App Store issues.

More information on the 10.6.7 update can be found on Apple’s site here.

An interesting post released today by MacRumors.com reveals that the 10.6.7 update for the 2011 MacBook Pro (a separate update from the general 10.6.7 update for the Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pros) has support for several AMD graphics cards that are not presently found in any Mac.  As MacRumors notes, this could be a glimpse of the kinds of graphics cards that will be found in future Macs.

I guess it was inevitable.  Beginning March 28, readers of the online version of The New York Times will be able to read 20 articles a month without charge, BUT as soon as they click on the 21st article, they will have to buy one of three packages in order to continue.

The 3 packages are: $15 every four weeks for access to the website and a mobile phone app, $20 for Web access and an iPad app or $35 for the all-access plan.

Subscribers who get home delivery of The New York Times will have free and unlimited access to the online edition of the Times.

For more info, read the report in The New York Times (while it’s still free).

So it looks like iOS 4.3 is a safe update.  The user who reported bricking his iPhone with the update seems to be an anomaly.

Improvements / updates include:

• Safari Performance – the new Nitro JavaScript engine powering Safari runs JavaScript up to twice as fast as in iOS 4.2.
• Personal Hotspot for iPhone 4 – when you enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone 4, you are now able to share your cellular data connection with your Mac, PC, iPad, or other Wi-Fi-capable device.
• iPad Side Switch- you can now customize the switch on the side of your iPad to lock the screen rotation or mute the volume.
• AirPlay Enhancements – in addition to music, movies, and photos, AirPlay now streams video from your Photos app.
• iTunes home sharing – play anything (music, movies, podcast…) from your iTunes library from anywhere in your house on your iPhone, iPad or iPod over your shared Wi-Fi network.

According to Google and Apple, all donations will go to the Red Cross.  To donate via Google, click here.  If you prefer to donate via iTunes, click here.

Attention fellow Mac users!  We’ve already had a report of a user bricking his iPhone when he updated to iOS 4.3.  We caution all our clients and users out there to wait until we’ve had a chance to read through the reports being posted on the interwebs and test it out ourselves…

Everyone’s favorite open source FTP and SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files and Amazon S3 client for Mac OS X is now available for Windows, too.  Cyberduck is available from the developer’s site here.

Release notes show the following changes:

- [Localize] Ukrainian Localization
- [Feature] Version for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7.
- [Feature] Replaced protocol implementation (FTP)
- [Feature] Connecting to Windows Azure Blob Storage (#3938)
- [Feature] Connecting to Dropbox
- [Feature] Copy and paste files using menu item to duplicate
- [Feature] Multipart Uploads with parallelism (S3) (#5487)
- [Feature] Support new 5TB Object Size Limit (S3)
- [Feature] Upload item in Finder context menu to upload selected file (Mac)
- [Feature] Upload item in Services menu of thirdparty programs main menu supporting files and folders (Mac)
- [Feature] Select bookmark to upload to when dragging files to application
- [Feature] Invalidation (Purge) of files in CDN (Cloudfiles/Akamai)
- [Feature] Skip option not available in transfer prompt (#1159)
- [Feature] User interface to create symbolic links (SFTP) (#1724)
- [Feature] Support for Asia Pacific (Tokyo) location (S3)
- [Feature] Website endpoint configuration option for buckets (S3)
- [Feature] CDN configuration for website endpoints as custom origin (CloudFront)
- [Feature] Open connection in PuTTY Terminal for current working directory (SFTP) (#5593)
- [Bugfix] Limit number of concurrent transfers (#5539, #5624)
- [Bugfix] Qeued transfers start in random order (#5632)
- [Bugfix] Dragging into topmost folder in browser (#1945)
- [Bugfix] ACLs getting dropped when updating metadata (S3) (#5571)
- [Bugfix] .CDN_ACCESS_LOGS folder listing is empty (Cloudfiles) (#5350)
- [Bugfix] Unicode normalization for filenames in upload (#5162)
- [Bugfix] Duplicate file breaks editing (#5524)
- [Bugfix] Large transfer history causes slowdown (#2889)
- [Bugfix] List all files regardless of document ownership (#5570) (Google Docs)
- [Bugfix] Images always converted to documents (#5601) (Google Docs)
- [Bugfix] Preserve symbolic links in transfers (#1860) (SFTP)
- [Bugfix] High CPU usage after transfer has completed (#5640)
- [Bugfix] Multiple distributions created (CloudFront) (#5675)
- [Bugfix] Passwords not saved when custom port set (#5623)
- [Bugfix] Switching application interface language (#5718)
- [Bugfix] Uploads with reduced redunandency fail (#5694) (S3)

Most of the rumors turned out to be true. The iPad 2 is thinner, faster AND lighter! It does indeed have TWO (2) cameras on the front and the back (FaceTime for iPad!). The new 1GHz dual-core A5 chip is supposed to be twice as fast as the original, with ultra fast graphics up to nine times (9x!) faster.

While we were a bit disappointed that there’s no Thunderbolt connectivity on the new iPad 2, we were pleasantly surprised to see HDMI output on the new tablet (it does require an Apple Digital AV Adapter).

The iPad 2 will be available for order on March 11!

The Apple Store is down, which is a definite sign that a new device is going to debut. All reports point to the release of a second-generation iPad, since the invitation to today’s media event shows this image:

The new iPad 2 is purported to be thinner, have more RAM and a faster processor and one or even two cameras.

Full coverage of the event begins at 1:00pm NYC time and you can tune in by visiting Macworld.

Photos of the low-end 13″ MacBook Pro have been revealed by MacRumors (via the German site fscklog), who confirms that the images are legitimate.

The specs (in German) for the 13″ MacBook Pro are as follows:

Core i5 two cores at 2.3 GHz 3 MB cache
4 GB of DDR3 1333 MHz
Hard Drive 320 GB 5400 rpm
Screen 13.33 “glossy 1280×800
Intel Graphics GPU HD 3000 with 384MB of RAM shared with main memory
Camera HD FaceTime
Superdrive 8x
Thunderbolt yet compatible with the I / O devices and high speed MiniDisplayport
SDXC Card slot, Firewire 800 and two USB 2.0
Digital Audio Output
Integrated Ethernet
Backlit keyboard
Size and weight 32.5 x22, 7×2, 41 cm, 2.04 kg

The mysterious Thunderbolt could be Apple’s answer to Light Peak.

Yesterday TUAW posted an update on the new MacBook Pros that are rumored to be released next month. TUAW’s post cites several sources that point to a February 24 announcement.  The report also mentions that the new MacBook Pros may include a new “high-speed connection technology” based on Intel’s Light Peak, which means data transfer speeds will exceed those of USB or FireWire.