Following the release of the first developer beta of macOS Sierra last week, Apple today has made the Safari 10 beta available for users on El Capitan and Yosemite. This means that developers can test the upcoming version of Safari without having to update their entire operating system.
Two weeks after releasing the first beta of OS X 10.10.5, Apple today has released beta 2 of the operating system to developers. The second beta build carries the build number 14F19a and is available to testers via the Mac App Store now.
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Apple has just published two new software betas for developers on its Developer Center. The new betas cover both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, with what appear to be bug fix releases on each platform. You can find the change logs below. We’ll also include a running list of changes.
Apple recently distributed iOS 9 beta 3 to developers and beta testers, and OS X 10.10.4 to the general public. iOS 8.4 was released around the same time to introduce Apple Music support on mobile devices.
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Yes, you read that headline right. The long-awaited Yosemite update for Tweetbot is finally here. The application has been rebuilt with a new look and updated controls for several features that make things like creating columns and tracking down the tweet associated with an image much easier.
The main attraction for most users will be the new design, so let’s take a look at that in a bit more detail first…
After many complaints from the developer community about poor networking performance on Yosemite, the latest beta of OS X 10.10.4 has dropped discoveryd in favor of the old process used by previous versions of the Mac operating system. This should address many of the network stability issues introduced with Yosemite and its new networking stack.
The discoveryd process has been subject to much criticism in recent months as it causes users to regularly drop WiFi access and causes network shares to list many times over, due to bugs. Many developers, such as Craig Hockenberry, have complained about the buggy software and workarounds have been found to include substituting the older system (called mDNSResponder) back into Yosemite.
discoveryd would cause random crashes, duplicate names on the network and many other WiFi-relate bugs. In the latest beta, Apple appears to have applied the same fix as the enthusiasts by axing discoveryd completely.
A long-running Apple Support Communities thread with 257 posts complaining of audio issues when using a pre-Bluetooth LE Mac on Yosemite reports that the issue is still present in OS X 10.10.3 and 10.10.4 Beta . The issue reportedly affects a number of machines up to and including late-2011 Macs.
I am experiencing an issue with FaceTime video calls or voice calls (using FaceTime audio or the iPhone handoff feature) where all I can hear is a strange clicking sound, like static. The other person can hear me fine and I can see them fine if on FaceTime video, but I can’t hear them.
Various fixes suggested in the thread seem to work temporarily for some, including a restart and resetting PRAM, but the issue returns.
Some in the thread speculate that OS X 10.10 broke something when Apple attempted to ensure that phone continuity features worked only on Macs with Bluetooth LE. Some have had logic boards replaced by Apple with no change.
In addition to releasing the second beta versions of iOS 8.4 with the all-new Music app, Apple today issued a new pre-release build of OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 for testers. The latest build comes in at 14E11f. The update is available for both developers and public beta testers.
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Apple has released a graphics update for certain iMac desktop models intended to fix an issue that may cause the computer to become unresponsive. According to the release, iMac 2015 Update 1.o is intended to fix an issue for certain iMac owners running the latest version of OS X Yosemite.
If you’re using using OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 and one of the following iMac models, viewing certain very large JPEG (.jpg) images in the Finder or Preview can cause your iMac to briefly stop responding, display a black screen, and restart to a message that your computer restarted because of a problem.
The update is specifically available for the iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), and iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) as a standalone download or a software update through the Mac App Store.
Phoenix; RootPipe Reborn from patrick wardle on Vimeo.
A former NSA staffer says that the OS X 10.10.3 update which Apple claims fixed a significant security vulnerability has failed to do so, reports Forbes. Patrick Wardle, who now heads up research at security firm Synack, demonstrated the vulnerability in a video (without revealing exactly how it was done) to allow Apple time to issue a further fix.
The Rootpipe vulnerability allows an attacker with local access to a Mac to escalate their privileges to root – allowing them full control of the machine – without further authentication. A second security researcher confirmed the flaw …
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Apple today seeded the first developer build of OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite to testers. The build is labeled 14E7f and follows today’s supplemental update of OS X 10.10.3 and the first developer beta of iOS 8.4 which includes a brand new Music app and iTunes Radio experience.
Today’s release appears to only be available to registered developers and AppleSeed testers; public beta versions of OS X tend to follow in subsequent build releases. For registered developers and AppleSeed members with the Configuration Utility installed, the pre-release software update should be available through the Mac App Store. Apple says the update focuses on “stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.”
Apple quietly slipped support for a feature called NVMExpress into the latest version of OS X, which shipped early last week. This addition to the software enables some newer Macs using PCIe-based solid-state drives to achieve greater data transfer speeds.
Not every Mac that uses an SSD for storage will be able to take advantage of this new protocol, however. The screenshot above comes from a late 2013 MacBook Pro with a solid-state drive that doesn’t support the feature. The newest 13-inch MacBook Pros are also left out. In fact, at the moment it appears that only the 12-inch MacBook sports a support drive.
After Google Reader announced its closure, popular RSS client Reeder was forced to step back, retool, and eventually relaunch its Mac client with support for multiple RSS services. Now, Reeder is preparing to launch another major update to its Mac app with heavy design tweaks for OS X Yosemite.
Three days after the last release, Apple has seeded an updated build of the OS X 10.10.3 software update for Mac. The new build ranks in at 14D130a, just a few steps above the 14D127 build released at the start of the week, for both developers and public beta testers. The update measures in at 1.52GB and highlights stability and security improvements.
The new version of OS X Yosemite includes the all-new Photos for Mac app, new and diverse emoji characters, improved login for Google accounts, and developer APIs for Force Touch on the new 12-inch MacBook and 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. While Apple has not shared the exact release date for OS X 10.10.3, it describes the included Photos app as “coming this spring” meaning the public release is likely imminent.
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Fantastical’s ability to parse natural language input and create detailed appointment entries on your calendar has always been the primary reason to use it instead of or in addition to Apple’s own Calendar app on the Mac. Apple Calendar has picked up some language parsing smarts in recent updates, too, but it still doesn’t match Fantastical’s control and real-time appointment preview.
Still, I say in addition to because Fantastical for Mac has lived in the menu bar next to your clock, WiFi status, and other utilities where you can quickly access it for reference or adding an appointment from anywhere in the OS. The menu bar app includes a compact month view calendar above a streamlined, scrollable list view of appointments and reminders, but sometimes it’s nice to stretch out and view your schedule in a different context.
So when Fantastical first debuted on iPad almost a year ago putting the efficient list view next to a larger full calendar, I wrote optimistically that “the iPad’s app design could spill over into a future version of the Mac app (maybe as a dock app rather than a menu bar app).”
What Fantastical 2 for Mac actually became is even better: the same menu bar calendar users know and love (but new and improved!), and a full-sized calendar app with an optional dock icon. Both have been designed with the aesthetics of OS X Yosemite in mind and loads of under-the-hood features and improvements including the ability to actually change which calendars you see based on your location.
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Apple has released a new security update for OS X Yosemite, and a separate version of the update for Macs released in early 2015, including the new 13″ MacBook Pro with Force Touch trackpads and the upcoming MacBook.
The update is available for users running OS X 10.10.2 in the Updates tab of the Mac App Store, or as a standalone installer at the links above. Users on the public beta of OS X 10.10.3 apparently do not need the update, since the newer operating system likely already includes fixes for the problems addressed by this release.
Apple has not yet released the update notes to explain what has been fixed.
iPhoto has also been updated to improve compatibility with the upcoming Photos app that replaces it:
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Earlier this month, Apple released the first OS X 10.10.3 pre-release update to testers with a beta version of the iPhoto replacement app called Photos. Today an updated build is rolling out to testers through the Mac App Store. Apple has also released a new beta of iOS 8.3 for testers. We’ll dig in.
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Mark Jardine, designer for Tapbots apps including the popular Tweetbot app, tweeted a photo teasing the upcoming redesign of the Mac version for the third party Twitter client; the current version of Tweetbot for Mac features a heavier design aesthetic than the general user interface introduced with OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
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With Yosemite and iOS 8 you can use AirDrop to share files between your Mac and iOS devices. This is one of the features of Continuity, which further integrates and connects your Mac and iOS devices. Continuity also includes Handoff, Instant Hotspot, iPhone Cellular Calls and SMS Relay.
Initially AirDrop allowed you to share files between two Macs or between two iOS devices. Now, AirDrop allows you to share files and information between Mac and iOS devices. It is a device-to-device transfer that works even when the devices don’t have internet access, although Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have to be turned on. This includes sharing photos, videos, music, iWork documents, notes, contacts, links, directions and location data. Many third-party iOS apps like Dropbox, Runkeeper, eBay, Deliveries, and PDF Expert support AirDrop. Apple just added support to Logic to share files via AirDrop. When receiving a file, the recipient receives a notification, allowing them to download the file.
Apple’s Mac operating system is generally considered to be secure, but German security researchers have discovered what appears to be an oversight in how OS X 10.10 Yosemite’s overhauled search feature, Spotlight, handles remote content loading in messages through the default Mail app.
As Ars Technica reports, Spotlight search on OS X Yosemite appears to be overriding Mail’s security feature that prevents content stored on remote servers like images from being loaded which spammers can use to track personal information including IP address and more.
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Apple is now so focused on marketing-driven goals that its software quality has “taken a nosedive” in the last few years, argues a blog post by Instapaper creator and former Tumblr lead developer Marco Arment.
[OS X is] riddled with embarrassing bugs and fundamental regressions [and] I fear that Apple’s leadership doesn’t realize quite how badly and deeply their software flaws have damaged their reputation
People are sticking with OS X not because they love it, he suggests, but because Windows is worse and desktop Linux is too much hassle.
The issue, believes Arment, is that Apple is so focused on releasing a major new version of OS X each year that it is making it impossible for engineering teams to maintain quality.
We don’t need major OS releases every year. We don’t need each OS release to have a huge list of new features. We need our computers, phones, and tablets to work well first so we can enjoy new features released at a healthy, gradual, sustainable pace.
Twitter commentators seem largely in agreement. What are your views? Would you like to see a slower pace of development in order to have greater reliability? Or do the new features make any glitches worthwhile? Take our poll, and let us know your views in the comments.
Apple today released an OS X NTP Security Update for Mac users running 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9 Mavericks, and 10.8 Mountain Lion. The update is recommended for all users and fixes a “critical security issue with the software that provides the Network Time Protocol service for OS X,” according to Apple. Check the Updates tab of the Mac App Store to grab the security update. More details regarding the security update for OS X are able through this support document.
Readers report Apple has started rolling out a new public beta release of its 10.10.2 OS X Yosemite beta (build 14C81h). Developers received the third build of 10.10.2 earlier this month (build 14C81f).
Today’s beta release follows beta 3, which was released earlier this month. Not much seems to have changed between the two builds, but Apple says users on the new 10.10.2 build for developers should focus on fixes for WiFi, Mail, and VoiceOver, among other changes.
Apple has seeded a new build of pre-release OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 highlighting focus ares including WiFi, Mail, and VoiceOver. The third tester preview of OS X 10.10.2 brings the build number up to 14C81f following build 14C78c released earlier this month. We’ll update with any notable changes spotted in the new release for testers.
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Apple has released updated versions of Safari for OS X users running 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9 Mavericks, and 10.8 Mountain Lion. The latest versions of Safari for each respective OS X version now comes to Safari 8.0.2, Safari 7.1.2, and Safari 6.2.2.
Earlier this month Apple released updates for Safari for OS X, but later pulled the releases after a short period. Today’s update addresses a number of issues relating to iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain, and what Apple calls a rare issue caused by the previous release.
Apple has posted a document detailing the changes in the latest versions. The update is available through the Mac App Store. In addition to releasing new Safari updates, Apple also updated its TestFlight beta distribution app to version 1.0.2 noting “minor stability and performance improvements.”
