OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D42 Seeded to Developers [Update: Release Description]

Following in the footsteps of yesterday's release of iOS 5.1 Beta 3, Apple today seeded a new version of OS X 10.7.3 to registered Mac developers. The new version, termed Build 11D42, comes three weeks after the previous build, but the development team's work was undoubtedly slowed due to the holidays.

According to those familiar with the update, Apple is asking developers to focus their testing on the following areas: Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight, and Safari. The delta version of the new build for updating from OS X 10.7.2 weighs in at 989.75 MB, while a combo version good for updating from any previous version of OS X Lion weighs in at 1.26 GB.

OS X 10.7.3 will be Apple's next free maintenance update for OS X Lion users. The current version, OS X 10.7.2, was released in mid-October and brought support for Apple's new iCloud services. OS X 10.7.3 developer builds have so far released a few hints of Apple's work, including drivers for new graphics cards that could appear in an updated Mac Pro and active efforts on HiDPI display modes that could come to fruition in a "Retina" MacBook Pro rumored for release early this year.

Update: We're hearing that the new Build 11D42 is likely to be either the golden master version of OS X 10.7.3 that will be released to the public or very close to it. Consequently, a public release could come in the relatively near future.

Update 2: Build 11D42 contains what is likely to be the final release description for OS X 10.7.3:

The 10.7.3 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that:

- Add Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support
- Address issues when using smart cards to log into OS X
- Resolve issues authenticating with directory services
- Address compatibility issues with Windows file sharing