By Sam Oliver

Published: 03:00 PM EST

The next maintenance update to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will add support for the company's rebranded suite of internet services but also patch over a dozen other bugs that have withstood earlier updates to the operating system.

People familiar with the software say the Mac maker recently provided its vast developer community with a second pre-release build of the impending Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update labeled build 9E12.

Among the dozen or so code corrections baked into the latest build were fixes to a bug that would leave some Mac systems hanging on shutdown, and another that prevented applications from being assigned to Spaces via drag-and-drop from the application list.

As was the case with earlier updates to Leopard under testing, Apple has requested that developers evaluate the software broadly. Specifically, the company is alleged to have listed nearly two dozen core components that need special attention, including iLife compatibility, printing, networking, AirPort, and common applications such as Mail, iCal, and iChat.

Mac OS X 10.5.4 will also be required by Leopard users who wish to utilize the company's just-announced MobileMe service, a collection of online services and software announced at this week's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a more capable and advanced replacement for .Mac.

As such, the Leopard update, which currently weighs in around 150 megabytes, will be released within the next few weeks, ahead of the July 11 MobileMe launch date.