Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.4 With New Night Shift Mode

[MacRumors]

Apple today released macOS Sierra 10.12.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sierra operating system that launched on September 20. macOS Sierra 10.12.4 has been in testing since January 24, with Apple having seeded eight betas ahead of its public release.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 is a free update for all customers who are running macOS Sierra. The update can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS's Night Shift mode to the Mac for the first time. Night Shift, first introduced on iOS devices in iOS 9.3, is designed to gradually shift the display of a device from blue to a subtle yellow, cutting down on exposure to blue light. Blue light is believed to interrupt the circadian rhythm, disrupting sleep patterns.

Night Shift is activated through the Displays section of System Preferences, where a setting to have it come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise is available. It can also be set to turn on and off at custom times. Night Shift can also be toggled on manually using the Notification Center or Siri.

The 10.12.4 update focuses primarily on Night Shift, but the update also includes dictation support for Shanghainese, cricket score integration for Siri, improved PDFKit APIs, and new iCloud Analytics options.

Update: Apple has also released a new 2017-001 security update for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.

Article Link: Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.4 With New Night Shift Mode

 

[viperGTS]

No APFS? Beyond that, a welcome update.

 

[-RJ-]

iWork update as well!

 

[mujtaba.mir]

Lovely jubbly. Any chance we can get that wallpaper in the video?

 

[blaichch]

iWork update as well. I couldn't be happier!

 

[keysofanxiety]

No APFS? Beyond that, a welcome update.

They're being really, really careful with the APFS on macOS! So much can go wrong compared to iOS, which is completely locked down. You can have lots of different partitions on a Mac, different boot drives, different structures, Time Machine backups... honestly they can't be too careful with testing it. There's an awful lot that can go wrong!

That said, I too am eagerly awaiting APFS on Sierra.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Cool! Man I really thought this would coincide with new iMacs...dang...still happy to see macOS get updates though

 

[newdeal]

Don't care at all about night shift. Do care about bug fixes especially in safari and custom keyboard shortcuts hopefully those are packed in there

 

[viperGTS]

They're being really, really careful with the APFS on macOS! So much can go wrong compared to iOS, which is completely locked down. You can have lots of different partitions on a Mac, different boot drives, different structures, Time Machine backups... honestly they can't be too careful with testing it. There's an awful lot that can go wrong!

That said, I too am eagerly awaiting APFS on Sierra.

Ah, that's true! They can take their time with it.

 

[Gudi]

Woo, LaTeX notation in Pages.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Is the boot-up progress bar different with 10.12.4? Its a thick grey bar instead of a thin one.

 

[nutmac]

No APFS? Beyond that, a welcome update.

To be fair, APFS has been. in macOS 10.12 from the beginning, albeit in "developer" quality implementation (e.g., command line commands to reformat disk into APFS, no in-place migration, external volumes only, backward compatibility issues between volumes formatted with 10.12.0 and 10.12.1).

I would love to see Disk Utility get APFS support, but other than that, macOS won't get full APFS until 10.13.
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Don't care at all about night shift. Do care about bug fixes especially in safari and custom keyboard shortcuts hopefully those are packed in there

Night Shift works considerably smoother than f.lux so I welcome it.

Having said that, macOS is still prone to random freezes with 2016 MacBook Pros.

 

[sniffies]

Build number?

 

[m_emelchenkov]

Please give a link to Combo. Can't find it on Apple Support website.

 

[cjboffoli97]

Build number?

16E195

 

[Eithanius]

Is the boot-up progress bar different with 10.12.4? Its a thick grey bar instead of a thin one.

Sounds like your Mac had a firmware update...

 

[Dwalls90]

Lovely jubbly. Any chance we can get that wallpaper in the video?

I believe it comes with 10.12, so should already be on there.

 

[shurcooL]

> typical Safari feels snappier comment (which was deleted apparently)

It's actually somewhat true, in a limited context.

The new version of Safari (10.1) adds long-awaited support for Fetch API (all other modern browsers have had it for a while), which enables some more efficient use of frontend HTTP requests (e.g., efficient streaming support). So some sites or web apps will benefit.

For example, try this streaming demo before you update and after. It doesn't work before, because no Fetch API support. Works after.

 

[jscipione]

They're being really, really careful with the APFS on macOS! So much can go wrong compared to iOS, which is completely locked down. You can have lots of different partitions on a Mac, different boot drives, different structures, Time Machine backups... honestly they can't be too careful with testing it. There's an awful lot that can go wrong!

That said, I too am eagerly awaiting APFS on Sierra.

My guess is that APFS on OS X is waiting for Case-insensitivity to be finished up. Since iOS doesn't use a case-insensitive file system it was able to ship early.

 

[coolfactor]

Don't care at all about night shift. Do care about bug fixes especially in safari and custom keyboard shortcuts hopefully those are packed in there

Yah, that was a large number of public and developer betas for just a small number of improvements. I wish they published more descriptive changelog notes. Seriously.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Sounds like your Mac had a firmware update...

Thanks. Yeah it booted twice with the thick grey bar and then I rebooted it for a third time and it went back to normal. How strange.

 

[critter13]

no night shift appearing on my 2010 mac pro, can't find documentation around compatibility? anyone?

 

[TheChemist]

Is there a link to the combo updater yet?

 

[TheTissot11]

After upgrading, I'm having trouble opening System Preferences. Anyone having the same issue?

 

[lexvo]

Thanks. Yeah it booted twice with the thick grey bar and then I rebooted it for a third time and it went back to normal. How strange.

I had the same thing. Three reboots in total and a thick gray bar about halfway the install process.
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After upgrading, I'm having trouble opening System Preferences. Anyone having the same issue?

Works for me. It even seems to open faster than before.