As expected, Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.5, the fifth update to its Snow Leopard operating system. The update brings a number of fixes for a wide variety of issues, including printing problems, Exchange compatibility, and improved graphics drivers that "address stability and performance of graphics applications and games."

The maintenance release for Mac OS X touches on a wide variety of odds and ends. It addresses printing issues like delays between print jobs, connecting some HP printers to Airport base stations, and spacing of OpenType fonts. It addresses networking and syncing features such as improved Exchange compatibility, improved syncing between Address Book and Google Contacts, better performance with Active Directory, and reliability of Ethernet connections.

There are also a slew of graphics improvements. The update includes additional RAW profiles for newer digital cameras, improved performance for image processing in iPhoto and Aperture, and graphics driver improvements that should improve 3D graphics performance. These improvements could very well be the result of work between Valve, NVIDIA, and Apple to address the OpenGL performance gap between Windows and Mac OS X.

As mentioned earlier Wednesday, though, the update did not list compatibility for shared printers with iOS 4.2's coming AirPrint wireless printing technology. Developers using previous beta builds that did work previously say that it will continue to do so, but it won't work for users installing the final release version of 10.6.5 for the first time.

The update also includes security fixes, though information was not available at the time of publication. The 10.6.5 update is available now via Software Update, and should be available later today via Apple's Support Downloads page.