Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.4 to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming macOS Sonoma 14.4 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after the release of the third beta.

Registered developers can opt-in to the beta through the Software Update section of the System Settings app. Note that an Apple ID associated with an Apple Developer account is required to get the beta.

macOS Sonoma 14.4 introduces some of the features in the iOS 17.4 beta, such as new emoji characters. We don't know what Mac-specific features are included, and little else was found in the first three betas.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.4 to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

 

[Realityck]

Still no OTA yet but real soon. This should be the last beta before the RC next week, release Monday 3/4.

 

[bcomer]

How about a fix for SSD/PCI cards not mounting properly?

 

[ian_david]

--

 

[Realityck]

To Devs today

• iOS 17.4 beta 4 (21E5209b) - February 20, 2024
• iPadOS 17.4 beta 4 (21E5209b) - February 20, 2024
• macOS 14.4 beta 4 (23E5205c) - February 20, 2024
• tvOS 17.4 beta 4 (21L5222a) - February 20, 2024
• visionOS 1.1 beta 3 (21O5197a) - February 20, 2024
• watchOS 10.4 beta 4 (21T5213a) - February 20, 2024

Spoiler: macOS Sonoma 14.4 Beta 4 Release Notes

AppKit​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed an issue where center or right aligned NSTextField appears blurry. (120819010)
• Fixed: Resolves an issue where pointer style does not update when browsing in Safari. (121131986)

Core ML​

New Features​

• ML Program models that are loaded with MLComputeUnits.cpuOnly will use a new high performance CPU backend that takes advantage of Accelerate framework’s BNNS library. (114037934)

CreateML​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: When using the transfer learning algorithm option, the CreateML app and framework object detection template might fail to converge and cause poor model quality and produce more than expected false positives. (114480994)

Finder​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Resolves an issue where tiling a window causes the desktop picture to turn black. (118044617)

Messages​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Stickers (Memoji and 3rd party) might appear blank. (120994483)

Passkeys​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Registering passkeys might not work on certain websites. (122217903)

Software Updates​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Updates to macOS 14.4 starting from macOS 11.0–12.3.1 will not work. (120548971)

StoreKit​

New Features​

• productDescriptionHidden(_ API can be used to configure the visibility of product descriptions in ProductView, StoreView and SubscriptionStoreView instances within a view hierarchy. When building with Xcode 15.3, the view modifier can be used even if your app is running on iOS 17.0, iPadOS 17.0, macOS 14.0, tvOS 17.0, watchOS 10.0, visionOS 1.0, or later.
  When implementing a product view style, it can support this new view modifier by checking the descriptionVisibility property on the configuration value. (110414819) (FB12261973)
• You can use SubscriptionStoreView to present promotional offers by adding the subscriptionPromotionalOffer(offer:signature modifier.
  If you’re already using inAppPurchaseOptions(_ modifier to support promotional offers for StoreKit views, you should adopt the new API instead when your app is running on iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, tvOS 17.4, watchOS 10.4, visionOS 1.1 or later. Do not use both APIs to apply a promotional offer for the same view. (115358806)

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: The isEligibleForIntroOffer property and isEligibleForIntroOffer(for method now reflect ineligibility in cases where a customer would otherwise be eligible for the offer if they weren’t actively subscribed. This means a customer which is not currently eligible for an introductory offer may become eligible in the future.
  Customers who redeem an introductory offer for a given subscription group will continue to never be eligible for another introductory offer in that subscription group. You can detect this case this by checking if any one transaction with a matching subscriptionGroupID has the type property on offer set to introductory. (103604770) (FB11889732)

SwiftUI​

New Features​

• Table now supports dynamic numbers of columns with the new TableColumnForEach. (79492167) (FB9189673)

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: DatePicker in macOS reset focus to the first date component when its bound date changes and timeZone is overriden in the environment. (97376561)

 

[Realityck]

OTA is very slow today again showing.

 

[baryon]

This OS is the worst in years. None of the updates even fix any of the counltess bugs. Can't wait for whatever the next one is to just have this lame ass OS over with.

 

[tywebb13]

There is also macOS Ventura 13.6.5 RC 3 build 22G619

 

[Realityck]

OTA finally showing, its a 1.80 GB download for M1 Macs.

 

[wellander1]

There is also macOS Ventura 13.6.5 RC 3 build 22G619

No Monterey?

 

[nortonandreev]

Music is 1.4.4.48 up from 1.4.4.44.

 

[Realityck]

Comparison of 14.4 beta 4 to previous 14.4 beta 3

macOS 14.4 beta 4 (23E5205c)

• Safari Version 17.4 (19618.1.15.11.5)
• System Firmware Version: 10151.101.2.501.1 (M1 based Macs)
• Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Tue Feb 13 23:56:07 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.14~5/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

macOS 14.4 beta 3 (23E5196e)

• Safari Version 17.4 (19618.1.14.11.2)
• System Firmware Version: 10151.100.756 (M1 based Macs)
• Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Wed Feb 7 23:13:07 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.100.637.501.2~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 arm64

* Apple Music/TV now 1.4.4.48 was 1.4.4.44

7 days later then 3rd beta

 

[Realityck]

Music is 1.4.4.48 up from 1.4.4.44.

This being the last beta means we check out 14.5 for your widget player on next beta cycle. Really the only thing new on TV is the pitch of a MLS subscription now. Apple still make it difficult to navigate to Apple Classic within Music.

 

[mxrider88]

This OS is the worst in years. None of the updates even fix any of the counltess bugs. Can't wait for whatever the next one is to just have this lame ass OS over with.

Come on. We got so many emojis with each update, don’t be unfair.

Who cares if iCloud doesn’t sync and because of that you lose data, you can now express yourself with stickers and be inclusive with pregnant man emojis too. This is progress! Or maybe not..

 

[Darren.h]

This OS is the worst in years. None of the updates even fix any of the counltess bugs. Can't wait for whatever the next one is to just have this lame ass OS over with.

Apple wants to Leave all the Intel Macs and the Hackintosh with a bug riddled last X86 operating system as I am quite sure the next OS will be Apple Silicon Only. I saw this coming when the super buggy first version of Sonoma 14.0 was released.

 

[Realityck]

Apple wants to Leave all the Intel Macs and the Hackintosh with a bug riddled last X86 operating system as I am quite sure the next OS will be Apple Silicon Only. I saw this coming when the super buggy first version of Sonoma 14.0 was released.

The most recent intel platform models aren't that old. 2020 27" iMac, 2019 Mac Pro, 2019 15" MacBook Pro as examples. Apple has been running multiple platforms with MacOS X now MacOS in their labs for years. It was the same with NextStep its predecessor. Isn't that big a deal to allow another release supporting AI on Macs, since intel processors don't even incorporate a neural processor until later in 2024 for the first time. All you end up is less features that are AS based as time goes by. Even if it does get to a certain point like hardware is no longer able to install the latest MacOS then it would receive Safari and Security Patches for 2 more years. By then you need to make a decision.

 

[tywebb13]

No Monterey?

Doesn't seem to be. The Ventura and Monterey ones usually come out at the same time.

Maybe this is the beginning of the slowdown for Monterey.

I think they will still update Monterey for a while maybe till macOS 15 is released.

There was a similar slowdown for Big Sur

 

[antmarobel]

Apple wants to Leave all the Intel Macs and the Hackintosh with a bug riddled last X86 operating system as I am quite sure the next OS will be Apple Silicon Only. I saw this coming when the super buggy first version of Sonoma 14.0 was released.

I couldn’t agree more. I noticed that too when installed Sonoma in my old 2019 Intel Mac. Now that I bought a M3 I can see how Sonoma is light as a feather.

 

[hoodafoo]

This being the last beta means...

you mean there has never been a beta 5?

 

[hoodafoo]

Apple wants to Leave all the Intel Macs and the Hackintosh with a bug riddled last X86 operating system as I am quite sure the next OS will be Apple Silicon Only. I saw this coming when the super buggy first version of Sonoma 14.0 was released.

I predict as least two more OS version with intel support

 

[Realityck]

you mean there has never been a beta 5?

We are only discussing what part of this beta cycle ending March 4th before the ECU date. Not every beta cycle ever.

Note all of today's OS's are now available to PB testers also.

 

[hoodafoo]

We are only discussing what part of this beta cycle ending March 4th before the ECU date. Not every beta cycle ever.

oh, I never realized there were end dates attached to each beta

 

[Realityck]

oh, I never realized there were end dates attached to each beta

While I call these betas cycles for short they are actually a Apple software release life cycle to be exact.

A software release life cycle refers to the in-house process developing, testing, and distributing a software product.

It typically consists of several stages, such as in-house pre-alpha, alpha, then the dev/PB beta and release candidate seeding, before the final version is released to the public.

Take a look at the IOS Version History chart to see how many betas some have. Its shows how many betas each cycle consisted of, I haven't seen the same for MacOS. The most betas for a cycle was beta 12.

 

[Slix]

This being the last beta means we check out 14.5 for your widget player on next beta cycle. Really the only thing new on TV is the pitch of a MLS subscription now. Apple still make it difficult to navigate to Apple Classic within Music.

I hope the Music widget comes soon. It's crazy that it wasn't there at launch when we've had an iOS music widget for years at this point, and there used to be one before they switched to the more modern widgets on macOS.

 

[terrapin_nation]

WARNING the latest beta update put my m2 macbook into a recovery assistant boot loop. Anyone know how to get out of this cycle?