Late Thursday, Apple released its Java for OS X Update 6 for the Mac OS X 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.6 operating systems. The update, which ranges between a 78.9 megabyte download for Mac OS X 10.6 and a 123 megabyte download for Mac OS X 10.5, offers the following fixes and changes:

- Apple Java for OS X 10.5 – Update 6: Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 6 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating J2SE 5.0 to 1.5.0_22, and updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_17 for 64-bit capable Intel-based Macs. J2SE 1.4.2 is no longer being updated to fix bugs or security issues and is therefore disabled by default in this update.

- Apple Java for OS X 10.6 – Update 1: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_17.

As always, the updates can be snagged and installed with Mac OS X’s Software Update feature.

The updates require Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later (on the 10.5 end) or Mac OS X 10.6.2 or later (on the 10.6 end) to install and run.