Apple Seeds Sixth macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update to developers and public beta testers, a few days after releasing the fifth 10.12.2 beta and over a month after the public release of macOS 10.12.1.

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta 6 is available for download through the Apple Developer Center or through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 includes new emoji, introducing Unicode 9 characters like clown face, selfie, face palm, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, bacon, and more, plus many profession emoji are available in both male and female genders.

Apple has also updated the artwork on many existing emoji characters, adding detail to make them look less cartoonish and more realistic. New wallpapers are also included in macOS Sierra 10.12.2, introducing the color explosion options that were previously used in iPhone marketing materials.

There are few other outward-facing changes aside from the addition of new emoji and wallpapers, but the 10.12.2 update also includes some important bug fixes. A serious graphics issue that has been affecting some new MacBook Pro owners has been solved, and a Time Machine crashing issue, also impacting the new MacBook Pro, has been fixed.

Available since September, macOS Sierra is the latest Mac operating system. It includes Siri support, Apple Pay for the web, Universal Clipboard, Apple Watch auto unlocking, improved iCloud Drive integration, Picture-in-Picture multitasking, and dozens of smaller features that can be found in our macOS Sierra roundup.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Sixth macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

 

[Precision Gem]

Thank god there are more emojis, I was running out of them to use today.

 

[HarryT]

Maybe this is the one that fixes the graphics glitches on the 2016 MBP's...

 

[anzio]

Wait for the recently toxic community to find a way to spin updates into a doom story.

 

[justperry]

These articles are more or less copy and paste, seems to me MR repeats this over and over.

 

[meaning-matters]

Giving emoji gender, skin color and now realism goes beyond their purpose.

Will the next step be your own bloody face morphed onto emoji's?

 

[jclo]

These articles are more or less copy and paste, seems to me MR repeats this over and over.

When it gets this late in the beta cycle, there's little new to say aside from announcing that a beta is available. So yeah, the articles do end up sounding a lot like each other, but we like to highlight the betas right away so you guys know they're available for download.

Definitely more noticeable when we're getting multiple betas a week, but since we're expecting a launch next week, this is hopefully the last beta post you'll see.

 

[patmacintosh]

Public Beta is out as well!

 

[dan9700]

Whats new in this beta any fixes for 2016 macbook pros?

 

[OG_Macintosh]

Thank god there are more emojis, I was running out of them to use today.

Stale, overused complaint. Try to be more innovative with your comments than Apple has been with their hardware lately...

 

[macduke]

I'm usually not one to complain about the content of stories on this site, but can we please get a dedicated section for all of these stories about new betas? There's a story every time they update the iOS beta, the watch OS beta, the tvOS beta, and the macOS beta. They're posted even if nothing at all changes! Then a day or two later there's a story about how all these different betas are now available to public beta testers. Then there are separate stories about new features found in the betas, other stories about bugs fixed in the betas, etc. And those are fine I guess, but combined with the others it's too much beta! I have to sift through all this beta news just to find the latest news that's worth reading. Love the site, but this is getting to be annoying. Even if I "just don't read them" they still get in the way everywhere and I have to check every single one to see if there is anything new, even though they usually write up what's new separately.

 

[tywebb13]

Build number is 16C63a

 

[Spectrum]

So...the graphics has been solved now has it...? Any evidence to support this?

 

[tywebb13]

These articles are more or less copy and paste, seems to me MR repeats this over and over.

I don't mind it.

I often learn of the existence of new betas from macrumors front page - before seeing it in my mac app store, or apple's developer portal.

So keep them coming macrumors - and front page is a good place for them.

 

[jclo]

I'm usually not one to complain about the content of stories on this site, but can we please get a dedicated section for all of these stories about new betas? There's a story every time they update the iOS beta, the watch OS beta, the tvOS beta, and the macOS beta. They're posted even if nothing at all changes! Then a day or two later there's a story about how all these different betas are now available to public beta testers. Then there are separate stories about new features found in the betas, other stories about bugs fixed in the betas, etc. And those are fine I guess, but combined with the others it's too much beta! I have to sift through all this beta news just to find the latest news that's worth reading.

We were putting all of the beta release posts aside from the iOS betas (because this is where we see the most change) on the Mac/iOS blog, but some people weren't happy with the lack of attention the Mac was getting. So now we generally feature Mac and iOS betas on the front page, while watchOS and tvOS go on the iOS blog. It's hard to please everyone, but in general, it seems people like to hear that the betas are available and what's new in them (these usually get separate posts because of our videos).

It's a lot more noticeable right now because beta testing is ramping up ahead of release and it's becoming more clear what's in the macOS Sierra beta, but it should calm down next week when these updates become available to the public.

We only do public beta posts when there's a separate public beta, which only happens early in the beta testing process. I appreciate the feedback -- we're always re-evaluating things based on your feedback, so we may change things up at some point.

 

[dogslobber]

These articles are more or less copy and paste, seems to me MR repeats this over and over.

At least they're MacRumors and not more iOS articles!

 

[nt5672]

Giving emoji gender, skin color and now realism goes beyond their purpose.

Will the next step be your own bloody face morphed onto emoji's?

Yep, I can't see how using these new emojis is not racist.

 

[xero9]

Thank god there are more emojis, I was running out of them to use today.

The emoji jokes were funny for a while. Now it's just getting old..

 

[navaira]

It's a lot more noticeable right now because beta testing is ramping up ahead of release and it's becoming more clear what's in the macOS Sierra beta

I ALWAYS get a chuckle out of the inevitable "1234 new emoji have been introduced" paragraph, and at least this time it isn't followed by "it is not clear what changes are present in the 10.12.2 update other than under-the-hood bug fixes".

 

[gsmornot]

While we are off topic, anyone have an idea to fix my MacRumors notifications? I have not been getting them for a while now. I get others, this site is the only one that does not work. I have cleared all, made sure they are allowed....all the basics.

 

[Larry The L]

What's the point of all this? For every bug that's fixed, two more are introduced.

 

[jclo]

I ALWAYS get a chuckle out of the inevitable "1234 new emoji have been introduced" paragraph, and at least this time it isn't followed by "it is not clear what changes are present in the 10.12.2 update other than under-the-hood bug fixes".

Yeah, I wish it were more obvious what bug fixes are included so I wouldn't have to write that, but it's really hard to tell sometimes, even up until release. We try, though. I always update whenever there's something to add. With iOS, there are always tons of little tweaks and changes. Poor macOS doesn't really get that level of attention.

 

[xmonkey]

The emoji jokes were funny for a while. Now it's just getting old..

Yup. Same with "courage".

 

[atomic.flip]

When it gets this late in the beta cycle, there's little new to say aside from announcing that a beta is available. So yeah, the articles do end up sounding a lot like each other, but we like to highlight the betas right away so you guys know they're available for download.

Definitely more noticeable when we're getting multiple betas a week, but since we're expecting a launch next week, this is hopefully the last beta post you'll see.

Seriously, don't give the criticism a second thought. As a colleague who also runs a very large news blog you can never please everyone all the time but you guys do better than most most of the time!

 

[star-affinity]

Yeah, I wish it were more obvious what bug fixes are included so I wouldn't have to write that, but it's really hard to tell sometimes, even up until release. We try, though. I always update whenever there's something to add. With iOS, there are always tons of little tweaks and changes. Poor macOS doesn't really get that level of attention.

Graphics driver updates, for sure.

Finder version 10.12.2?
New version with bug fixes for Mail.app?

Etc.

Haven't tried the 10.12.2 betas, so just guessing about Finder and Mail, but should be pretty easy for someone to compare with what the versions are in macOS 10.12.1.

But why Apple doesn't provide more detailed changes is a bit sad I think. Maybe they don't think it's worth the time it takes to list it all. Better to just fix the problems and move on.