Apple Seeds Second macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, nearly a week after seeding the first beta and a week after releasing the new operating system to the public.

macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta 2, build 16B2333a, can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center (developers only), Apple's beta testing website (beta testers only) and through the Software update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who previously installed the first 10.12.1 beta.

macOS Sierra 10.12.1 appears to focus on bug fixes and under-the-hood performance improvements to address issues that have been found since the operating system's release. Few outward-facing changes were discovered in the first beta, but it does include Photos support for the new iPhone 7 Plus Portrait feature introduced with the iOS 10.1 beta.

Any new features that are discovered in the second 10.12.1 beta will be listed below.

macOS Sierra is a significant update that brings features like Siri support, a new storage optimization option, cross device copy paste, auto unlocking with the Apple Watch, and more.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Second macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

 

[ka-spot]

awesome! they are fixing bugs faster for the next month's release of Macbook Pro's can't wait

just give me my precious !

 

[MaciMac100]

Is choppy scrolling fixed yet?

 

[Pruus]

In size just 1.2 GB for the iMac. Downloading and installing now.

 

[dan9700]

what about iPhone beta 2?

 

[theitsage]

10.12.1 beta 1 brought newer and better drivers for Polaris GPUs. It added a new kext file AMDRadeonX4100.kext which solely contains PCI IDs for Polaris 11 GPUs.

References of Polaris GPUs in AMD9500Controller.kext

Radeon RX 480 is almost fully functional in tower Mac Pro (with 2 kext edits)

 

[kissmo]

I hope it improves iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch series 2 deliveries.

Still 1.2 GB quite large update.... looking forward to what changes are there.

 

[DaDalle]

Are the Monitor issues fixed?

 

[max.ine]

10.12.1 beta 1 brought newer and better drivers for Polaris GPUs. It added a new kext file AMDRadeonX4100.kext which solely contains PCI IDs for Polaris 11 GPUs.

Possibly related to the new Macs?

 

[MacBird]

The public beta is available too.

 

[omro]

Did anyone find that the previous beta caused their computer to lock up a lot? Mine would completely lock up if left idle for any period of time, whether it went into power save or not.

 

[theitsage]

Possibly related to the new Macs?

Absolutely. A handful of people (myself included) have tried RX 460/470/480 GPUs in the tower Mac Pro with success. Fiji GPUs benefit from these new drivers as well.

 

[friedkimchi]

Possibly related to the new Macs?

GPUs usually run for at least 2 generations till Apple switches them for the other vendor. Expect Nvidia GPUs in 2018, maybe Apple will finally put in the highly regarded Pascal gpus then.

For now, its AMD's cut down crappy mobile gpus while Nvidia is putting out full desktop cards in Windows laptops.

 

[MacBird]

Did anyone find that the previous beta caused their computer to lock up a lot? Mine would completely lock up if left idle for any period of time, whether it went into power save or not.

Happened once on my MBA, the installation did not finish either, I had to restart before it finished installing the new beta.

 

[GIZBUG]

what about iPhone beta 2?

This thread is for macOS Sierra...

 

[Peace]

They did something with graphics. When I rebooted one of my displays was all whacked .
Had to reboot 3 times and now they are fine.

 

[Attirex]

choppy scrolling is driving me nuts.

 

[canny]

Why can't I type into Siri? So it's maybe merged with Spotlight? Does Apple expect me talk to my computer in a quiet office with a dozen other people?

 

[\-V-/]

Why can't I type into Siri? So it's maybe merged with Spotlight? Does Apple expect me talk to my computer in a quiet office with a dozen other people?

I don't think they expect you to do anything. If you can't use it in your office, then don't. It's a feature that requires your voice. Getting upset at a feature for things it wasn't designed to do just seems silly.

 

[6836838]

Did anyone find that the previous beta caused their computer to lock up a lot? Mine would completely lock up if left idle for any period of time, whether it went into power save or not.

Yes, was an awful beta. All sorts of issues, including problems waking from sleep.

 

[brooksdbrewer]

So I downloaded and installed the update, it froze after initializing the install. No "time remaining" or anything. So it rebooted, and once a dimmed out Apple logo and progress bar show, the screen goes black except for an occasional progress circle that flashes at the bottom.

Any thoughts? Not sure what to do from here.

 

[omro]

Yes, was an awful beta. All sorts of issues, including problems waking from sleep.

Phew, thought my 5 year old Mac was finally dying.

 

[paulsdenton]

I wish they would fix the feature that is supposed to sign me into my Mac(s) when my Apple Watch is in proximity. So far, I've done everything that the instructions say I should do, but no go. Both computers are supposed to work with the feature but something isn't clicking. It's not a necessity but it would be nice. First time this has happened to me with an Apple update ....

 

[imran5720]

everyone please try to find references to new MACs in this beta

 

[canny]

I don't think they expect you to do anything. If you can't use it in your office, then don't. It's a feature that requires your voice. Getting upset at a feature for things it wasn't designed to do just seems silly.

Then it's pointless except for executives who have their own office. Which is probably how it was tested - in Cook's executive office.