By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 02:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST)

Apple's two new professional Macintosh offerings are shipping with special build trains of the Mac OS X 10.4.2 operating system. Meanwhile the release of Mac OS X 10.4.3 remains just around the corner.

New Power Mac G5 notes

The recently introduced Power Mac G5 Dual and Power Mac G5 Quad systems are reportedly shipping with Mac OS X 10.4.2 Build 8E90. The systems feature IBM's new dual-core PowerPC 970MP microprocessors, which sport 183 million transistors per chip.

While the Power Mac G5 Dual systems no longer include liquid-cooling systems, sources report that the Power Mac G5 Quad configuration will continue to rely on liquid cooling technology to manage the temperature in the computers.

The new Power Macs also include three USB 2.0 ports on the back as opposed to two and feature a new Airport + Bluetooth antennae that is built into the system's rear panel.

New PowerBook notes

Like the Power Macs, Apple's new PowerBook G4 systems are also running a special built train of Mac OS X 10.4.2, said to be build 8E45.

Additionally, the 15-inch and 17-inch models show some signs of a slight internal component reorganization. The laptops' sleep sensor is now located inside the display bezel rather than on the body of the unit.

Previous PowerBook systems included three internal speakers -- one under the keyboard and one each on the right- and left-hand sides -- while the new models rely on just left and right speakers.

Tipsters also report that inside the new PowerBooks both the hard drive and SuperDrive reside on the same ATA bus (where previously they were both 'masters' on separate ATA busses).

Mac OS X 10.4.3 near release

With nearly all of its hardware introductions now out of the way, Apple for the rest of the year will focus on completing a few select software updates destine for all of its Macintosh customers. The first of these updates will be Mac OS X 10.4.3, which represents the third maintenance release to the company's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.

According to sources and reports already present on the Internet, Apple over the weekend seeded Mac OS X 10.4.3 build 8F45, which weighs in just shy of 100MB in Combo Update form. The pre-release software appears free of issues and could be released in a matter of days.

Previous reports indicate that Mac OS X 10.4.3 will deliver over 500 minor enhancements and bug fixes to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.