So a client calls me to set up his spanking new MacBook, an operation that I took to be utterly routine, having done that sort of thing for years with different Macs.

Arriving at his home, I realized I had forgotten to take my FireWire cable — he had purchased the white MacBook entry-level model, which still retains that legacy port — but I soon realized that all the new Macs support Ethernet too for data migration.

After about an hour, the contents of his iMac G5 had been transferred to his MacBook, and so I proceeded to step two, which was to run Software Update and retrieve the slew of software that always seems to appear even if the new Mac was built two weeks earlier.

This time, among the seven available updates, was Mac OS 10.5.6, which was released Monday afternoon. That proved to be the bane of our existence, as the installer became temperamental and hung during the configuration phase when that particular package was next on the agenda.

I didn’t complete the process that day. The client had to go on an appointment, and wasn’t in any rush to set up the MacBook, so I returned to my office. As some of you know, this particular issue is not unique to that one portable computer. Others have reported it as well, according to some of the online troubleshooting sites.

Update: A solution touted by a certain troubleshooting site is to shut down your Mac and restart. Since nothing was actually installed, it should boot normally with the previous version of Mac OS X. Now go to Apple’s site and download the “Combo” updater, which weighs in at a massive 668MB. That version of the 10.5.6 updater contains everything from 10.5.1 through 10.5.6 and will apparently fix this problem in most instances. Apple’s prescribed solution to this evidently known issue, however, is simply to delete the contents of the /Library/Updates folder and run Software Update again, so you pick your poison.

You see, it appears, the 10.5.6 update fixes this bug, so it won’t happen again in the future — at least that’s what they tell us.

In any case, 10.5.6 contains lots of meat and potatoes designed to make your Leopard experience more reliable and safer. Among the 39 listed changes and enhancements is a major improvement to Apple’s MobileMe synchronization capability. Now when you make a change in your calendars, contacts or bookmarks, it will take less than a minute for that change to be reflected on your other Macs and your iPhone. That assumes, of course, that you are a MobileMe member and have configured the automatic sync feature. And yes, folks, it does seem to work, and it seems to vindicate Apple’s promise (later withdrawn) of push capability on a Mac. Windows users are still stuck with 15-minute updating, though.

The other fixes are rather more subtle, but I’m sure that they will have their supporters. For example, Apple has dealt further with ongoing AirPort connectivity issues, focusing on “improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.” A number of defects plaguing Address Book, iChat, Mail, Safari, and Time Machine are also addressed.

If your Mac has an ATI graphics chip and you’ve observed distortion at times, the update supposedly addresses that problem, and there’s also the promise of “general improvements to gaming performance.” I almost begin to think that Apple might, in light of the stellar success of games on the iPhone, be starting to take such products seriously on Macs too. But I’ll leave that as “almost” for the time being.

You can learn more about the specifics of the 10.5.6 update in Apple’s support document on the subject.

As far as security is concerned, once again there are lots of them to consider. As explained in this document, a number of categories of potential holes in the system have been patched. As usual, these are potential sources of infection of one sort or another. Security researchers continue to feed Apple with their discoveries and, eventually, Apple gets around to fixing them.

There is, by the way, a similar security update for Tiger users.

In the end, however, online attackers rarely, if ever, actually exploit these security lapses, except as proofs-of-concept or in a limited way. The key is to address them before things get out of hand, and as Macs become more popular, particularly in the business world, you can expect that Internet criminals will one day decide that Macs deserve at least some of their attention.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that you should seriously consider installing virus protection software on your Mac. Despite the mixed signals in a certain support document that was posted and shortly pulled, that time really hasn’t arrived, with one exception. Some businesses will require that their Mac users install security software, if only to catch potential infections before they might strike their Windows PCs.

In the future, maybe that’ll change. For now, I have avoided such utilities, not out of fear of a potential conflict, but simply because I didn’t think I need them, at least for now. Among the ones I’ve tried, however, Intego’s VirusBarrier X5 seems to have the least impact on the performance of my Macs, and it doesn’t seem to negatively impact on any of my software.

Meantime, I hope Apple will work on fixing that Mac OS 10.5.6 installation issue.

Hardly a day passes where someone, somewhere, doesn’t report some new, different or supposedly fascinating news about Apple Inc. It seems as if the media just can’t stop talking about the company, even if there isn’t a whole lot to talk about.

Well, in the case of the sliding economy, I suppose there are plenty of salient issues. How will Apple do this quarter, with all the obstacles preventing people from taking out their wallets and spending cash or exploiting their diminishing credit card limits. Since Apple supposedly exists at the higher end of the price spectrum, this ought to hurt them more than other companies, right?

In the real world, it doesn’t seem to have had a serious impact, so far at least. Earlier this month, there were claims that Apple had underestimated iPod demand, and stocks were running low here and there. However, when I checked at Apple’s own site before writing this column, every single model and color selection was marked ready for shipment within 24 hours. While it’s a sure thing individual retailers may have their own issues in replenishing stock, you can certainly get the iPod you want in time for the holidays.

The same thing appears to hold true for the iPhone, and now that AT&T will ship one direct to your home or office so you can activate it yourself, there are no excuses. And, after the holidays, will Wall-Mart really carry iPhones?

As far as Macs are concerned, a local client, semi-retired, bought himself a unibody MacBook and got it rapidly from the online store he patronized.

With all this, however, there are no claims yet that I know about reporting excess inventories of Apple hardware piling up in warehouses around the world. Well, maybe I should not have mentioned that, as not some members of the media will report such a thing. As I said, compelling stories are few.

You’d think there would be growing speculation about an event that is just weeks away, the keynote address at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco. This is where Steve Jobs will traditionally lift the lid off consumer-related products in Apple’s lineup, and there doesn’t seem to be as much chatter as you might expect as to what he might announce.

In the so-what category would be the requisite updates to iLife and iWork. Will the latter expand its feature count to more closely match Microsoft Office, or go it one better with a new database application, in the tradition of the late AppleWorks?

Microsoft, in contrast, is probably a year or two away from any major announcements about the next version of Office for the Mac, the one where Visual Basic for Applications reportedly returns.

As to Steve himself, he is evidently still quite thin, and still a vegan, although he hasn’t made any public appearances of late. So there’s no cause to ruminate upon the state of his health and how long he might survive before Apple is forced, kicking and screaming, into naming his successor. On the other hand, aren’t underweight people supposed to live longer?

In terms of hardware, there are things you’re likely to see, without extending the bounds of logic and reason. Since the 17-inch MacBook is traditionally updated several months after the smaller version, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it inherit the unibody aluminum case and glass touchpad early in 2009. No great stretch there.

The iMac is also a little overdue for a refresh, although the changes aren’t likely to be drastic. Aside from the greener LED backlit display, you might expect to see a move to the Mini DisplayPort jack for an external monitor and the new, more powerful NVIDIA graphics capability. An upgrade for the Mac Pro simply depends on the availability of the latest, most powerful quad-core Xeons from Intel.

The big question mark is the fate of the Mac mini. In light of a quote from an Apple a while back that a user concerned about whether the mini will ever be refreshed should show patience, you’d think that something is definitely in the works. It may be as simple as taking the guts of today’s MacBook, including the speedier integrated graphics, and applying that to the existing form factor.

Going further, maybe Apple will relent with its impossibly-inept upgrade scheme, and make it possible for regular people to open the case of a Mac mini without playing with putty knives and other implements to accomplish the task. My feeling is that just having four tiny screws or retainers at the bottom ought to be sufficient. It would also be nice for them to rework the chassis layout so you don’t have to pull a hard drive to add or replace RAM.

As for our mythical midrange minitower dreams, I don’t see it happening, but you might see some sort of netbook-style refashioning of the basic guts of the iPhone. It would possibly resemble the eMac 300 in the basic concept, adapted to the 21st century. Then again, I’m not at all convinced that this product segment has any traction beyond the temporary need of many customers to buy cheaper gear because of the shaky economy.

With a new 24-inch display under their belts, Apple might even deliver a 30-inch version. So that will give you folks plenty of ammunition to voice even more vocal objections to the wholesale switch to all-glossy displays.

Now it’s your turn, gentle reader, to respond in kind.

It’s fair to say that even the most successful companies on the planet make things that don’t quite behave as well as they should. Their management also makes their share of bad decisions, sometimes in subtle ways that aren’t so obvious.

Certainly, few dedicated Mac users will lack large lists of features that they don’t like, or features they’d like to see added as soon as possible. Wherever you go, whatever product you pick, you’ll find a rich selection of decisions you just know weren’t thought out quite right.

You have to wonder that, with all those brilliant designers and engineers, why can’t Apple figure out a way to avoid these mistakes? All right, I understand, it’s just a bunch of human beings, and we all make our share of screw-ups.

On the other hand, that won’t stop us from complaining and complaining yet again, with the hope that the right people at Apple are going to listen and eventually make the proper changes.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This is the controversy that has continued to fester ever since Apple ditched matte screens and embraced 100% glossy on the updated MacBook Pro lineup several weeks ago. At one time, you had a choice, at least on some models, of matte or glossy. But things have changed, and not necessarily for the better.

Except for the 17-inch MacBook Pro, largely a carryover from the previous model with minor changes, there is no option to get one of these products with Apple’s “Anti-Glare Display.” It’s either glossy or nothing.

Now as a practical matter, glossy can be a really good thing for most of you. Pictures appear sharper, brighter, and colors more saturated. Suddenly your Mac’s LCD display takes on some of the positive characteristics of a plasma TV.

And, no, this isn’t just a summary of the reviews I’ve read. It represents my personal experience, as owner of MacBook Pros with and without glossy displays. Indeed, I’m writing this column on the one with the glossy display (the other was sold months ago), and I’ve never felt any reason to regret my purchase decision.

However, the reflections can be the deal breaker for some. I realize that, for the vast majority of Apple’s customers, glossy is good news. Your eyes and your mind can usually tune out most disturbing reflections, or you just turn the screen in a slightly different direction. Sure, it may not be quite as easy with the 24-inch iMac or the new 24-inch LED display, but compromises in positioning are usually possible.

Now about the folks for whom glossy is a distraction: Maybe that’s also one of the reasons why LCD high definition TVs, usually with matte screens, have become far more popular than plasma despite the latter’s superior picture. Well, there is the fact that plasma can also consume a lot more electricity, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the deciding factor at the checkout counter.

In order to get a leg up on the competition, the makers of plasma TVs are incorporating various types of anti-glare coverings for their screens. My Panasonic has one, although I can still see reflections when the lights are on in our master bedroom, or the sun is streaking through the blinds. But, again, this is not a serious disturbance.

But why is Apple going in this direction? I suspect their sales figures show that glossy has gained far more traction in the models where matte was also offered. So finally they decided it wasn’t worth the bother, since building and stocking extra configurations increases manufacturing costs.

The current economic situation, however, could change things unpredictably for Apple. Early holiday sales reports appear to indicate that they are still doing surprisingly well, despite the sharply constrained budgets encountered by potential customers. Maybe they’re just buying the cheaper models; I don’t pretend to know.

For 2009, however, a significant downturn could ultimately force Apple to change direction in some ways. Take the cheap PC that Apple has heretofore rejected. They could substantially redesign the Mac mini, provide more powerful chips and larger hard drives inside, and perhaps reduce the price to $499 for the entry-level configuration.

Then there’s the netbook. Industry analysts are talking of rapidly growing sales in this product segment, if only because people can’t afford standard note-books, so they’re willing to compromise with a smaller screen, slower processor, tinier hard drive and perhaps fewer add-ons.

Apple, however, doesn’t believe in compromise. Even when they build a relatively low-cost product, it has the spit and polish of their expensive gear. The $49 iPod shuffle maintains the company’s reputation for elegant design and reasonably solid build quality.

An Apple netbook would not simply be a small, cheap note-book. I think that’s pretty clear, because that particular choice doesn’t represent any real effort at product innovation. Instead, I wonder if Apple wouldn’t consider building a grown-up iPod touch with similar chips, but sporting a regular hard drive, a much larger screen and perhaps a conventional keyboard to accompany the touch screen.

Such a product wouldn’t cost $399, which is a fairly normal price for a netbook. I’d expect something closer to $599, but that’s still far less than the legacy white MacBook, which lists for $999. More to the point, it would offer most of the advantages of the iPod touch plus the improved productivity afforded by the regular keyboard and additional screen real estate.

Is this what Apple is planning? More to the point, is there any possibility for an Apple netbook-style device in time for Macworld Expo 2009?

Well, it’s pretty clear to me that Apple already has netbook designs in their test labs, and would probably be able to give the green light for actual production with a few week’s advance notice, assuming there’s proper preparation on the manufacturing side of the ledger.

It may even be possible that the marketing campaign has already been devised, the TV ads taped, and the manuals printed and sitting in a warehouse ready to package with the shipping products.

Will it happen? More to the point, if you can be assured of one thing, it’s that the screen will definitely be glossy.