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The day after CEO Steve Jobs trotted out new iMac computers, Apple Inc. issued an update for the machines that the company only vaguely identified as providing "important bug fixes."

It also updated the beta of Boot Camp, the dual-boot application that lets iMacs run Windows XP or Vista on Intel-powered Apple hardware.

Owners of the day-old 20- and 24-in. iMacs should install iMac Software Update 1.0, Apple said in a terse message accompanying the 5.1MB download, but it didn't spell out the exact fixes. Some users on various Apple-oriented message forums claimed that updated ATI video drivers were among the changes, but Apple did not respond when queried for details.

As is the norm after a hardware refresh, Apple also posted a new version of Boot Camp, the free-of-charge dual-boot utility that's still officially in beta. Boot Camp 1.4, said the Apple site, includes updated video drivers -- required to run Windows, rather than using the generic graphics driver on the new iMacs -- as well as an improved driver installer. Version 1.4 also supports keyboard backlighting on MacBook Pro notebooks.

Another download is necessary to enable the new function keys -- which call up Expose, control screen brightness and handle other chores -- on the revamped keyboard included with the new iMacs. The keyboard update can be pulled from Apple using Mac OS X's built-in software update command.


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