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Apple today seeded the release candidate version of an upcoming macOS Sonoma 14.4 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after the release of the fifth beta. The release candidate marks the final version of the macOS Sonoma 14.4 update that will be provided to the public.

sonoma-desktop-wwdc.jpg

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 new emoji characters, podcast episode text, and an option to only show icons for websites in the Safari Favorites Bar. The update also supports the new MacBook Air models that were introduced today.
macOS Sonoma 14.4 introduces new emoji as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.

Emoji
- New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in emoji keyboard
- 18 people and body emoji support facing the opposite direction

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Podcasts Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, clicked to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver
- Business Updates in Messages for Business let you get updates that you've opted into, like order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions from trusted businesses
- Safari Favorites Bar adds an option to show only icons for websites

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.

For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
macOS Sonoma 14.4 could see a public release as soon as this week.



Article Link: Apple Seeds macOS Sonoma 14.4 Release Candidate
 
What if the guy that drafts the security release language is named Johnny?
 
build number 23E214

other new rcs:

tvOS 17.4 RC build 21L227
visionOS 1.1 RC build 21O209
watchOS 10.4 RC build 21T216
Xcode 15.3 RC2 build 15E204a

They come from https://developer.apple.com/news/releases/

but they don't always list all the updates like monterey, ventura, audioOS but I know these got new rcs too. I'll put the builds here later when I know.

EDIT: Now added:

audioOS 17.4 RC has same build as the tvOS 17.4 RC build 21L227 as they nearly always have same build.
macOS Ventura 13.6.5 RC 5 build 22G621
macOS Monterey 12.7.4 RC 5 build 21H1123
 
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Been refreshing on my Intel Mac for a while now, nothing here, yet. Edit: It is available now
 
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Comparison of 14.4 RC to previous 14.4 beta 5

macOS 14.4 RC (23E214)
  • Version 17.4 (19618.1.15.11.12)
  • System Firmware Version: 10151.101.3 (M1 based Macs)
  • Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Wed Feb 21 21:44:06 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.15~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64
macOS 14.4 beta 5 (23E5211a)
  • Version 17.4 (19618.1.15.11.9)
  • System Firmware Version: 10151.101.3 (M1 based Macs)
  • Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Thu Feb 22 21:53:26 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.15~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64
* Apple Music/TV still 1.4.4.48

6 days later then 5th beta
 
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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)

Synchronization

New Features

  • New os_sync_wait_on_address APIs have been added. They are expected to be used for implementing synchronization primitives that do not have a sense of ownership. Please file feedback if you need Synchronization functionality not covered by existing API. (94759935) (FB10141068)
 
MacOS has been rock solid for me for the past couple years. I'm really wondering what y'all complaining about stability are doing.
Tends to be a use case. I have a stack of RAIDs, and do everything from IT work, graphics design, video editing, files sharing, screen sharing, using my Mac as a media server, virtualization, emulation, gaming, scripting,and some minor coding. I throw a lot at it, in a lot of different areas, so you may just be lucky. My sample size includes myself and about 200 users.

Starting around 10.14, there's been major issues with icnonserivcesagent, that was only partially fixed in 10.15, and become pretty bad again in 13 (Ventura). Apple Music Home Sharing started having issues in 10.15, and has not ever been fixed. Screen sharing and file sharing became very unreliable in 13. Early 14 (current Sonoma) had some crazy GPU system crashes when using large amounts of memory, that was eventually resolved around the .2 release. 14 also introduced major issues with IO, including external storage, typically seen in larger volumes. 14 also has login Window and Dock crashes when using an external display on a desktop (Mac mini, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio). There's really a lot of graphics related issues with external display. Waking from sleep and properly connecting to an external display has been rough for a few years. Apple still doesn't support / promptly communicate EDID data that's been industry standard for years. Don't get me started on ultra-wide support.

Apple's hardware reliability has gotten a lot better since moving from intel. Though, Bluetooth on the Mac mini and Mac Studio is shockingly terrible with ambient noise and range, especially compared to their other products.
 
I find it ridiculous how emojis are repeatedly highlighted as update features, when that's like one of the least important or useful things and should just be footnotes.
Hi, I totally agree on emojis highlighting. Seems something ridiculous to me.
 
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more dumb features, meanwhile bug fixes and stability remains ignored

no competition to macOS either so this will never change

im so checked out
Plenty of bug fixes if the developer notes are anything to go off of.

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)

Synchronization

New Features

  • New os_sync_wait_on_address APIs have been added. They are expected to be used for implementing synchronization primitives that do not have a sense of ownership. Please file feedback if you need Synchronization functionality not covered by existing API. (94759935) (FB10141068)
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Victor Mortimer
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