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Apple's second beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 focuses on Mac App Store [u]

Apple on Tuesday issued the second beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7, its forthcoming maintenance and security update for Snow Leopard, less than a week after the first was released.

People familiar with the software say it is known as build 10J846, and the delta update is a 372MB download. Apple has reportedly asked developers to concentrate on the new Mac App Store, as well as previous focus areas of AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers.

The latest build comes just days after the first was issued to developers last Thursday. The previous build, 10J842, was a 338.6MB download in its delta form.

As with the previous update, there are said to be no known issues with the pre-release build of Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Also issued Tuesday was a new beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7 Server. The 468.3MB delta update is said to include one known issue, in which clients may fail to NetBoot from NetRestore image of 10.6.6 created with Mac OS X Server 10.6.6.

The current version of Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6.6, was released to the public earlier this month. It included the Mac App Store, a new digital storefront where users can quickly and easily download applications for their Mac.

Further updates to Snow Leopard are likely few, as Apple is hard at work on its next version of the Mac operating system, dubbed Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Lion will add features from iOS like home screens, full-screen applications and auto-saving, and is expected to be released this summer.

Update: a reader has reported that, new to Mac OS X 10.6.7, "both the standard version and the server version are being posted by Apple simultaneously and with the same build date. This differs from past betas of Mac OS X, going back years, when the server version was not available until at least a day after the standard version. This suggests the build process has been streamlined (which is particularly important for addressing security concerns in a timely manner)."