Brother Printer Driver 1.1

Apple on Thursday used its Software Update to push out updated printer drivers for both Canon and Brother's line of printers. Users with the software installed were prompted for a software update called "Brother Printer Driver Update 1.1". The update was released Thursday afternoon as a 23MB download. Brother printers drivers for Mac OS X 10.5 are currently located on the original CD and the company did not specify the changes in the current driver, except to say "The Brother Printer Driver Update includes the latest drivers for printers you have used on your system." Update: The Brother driver added new models and fixed a minor Memory leak with their ICA module, while the Canon drivers, noted below, have minor improvements related to wireless printing. [Correction: Apple has used the Software Update to deliver third-party printer updates for sometime]

Macworld UK reports that Apple has also introduced new print driver software for Canon printers via Apple's Software Update, noting that Canon Print Driver 1.1 includes updated drivers for printers made by the company and is a 267MB download: "The update is available using Software Update - but only becomes visible if a user has version 1.0 and a Canon printer connected to their Mac. The software update option will only download the print drivers needed for your computer[.] The manual package is a complete install of all drivers and is much bigger than choosing Software Update option," the publication noted.

The report also notes that the updated printers include the Pixma Pro9000 10.1.1.0 and the Pixma Pro9500 10.1.1.0.

Earlier, HP confirmed that it was testing automated printer driver updates through Apple's Software Update mechanism, after initial reports leaked during early testing.

by MacNN Staff