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Apple today seeded the seventh beta of OS X Yosemite to developers, three days after seeding the sixth OS X Yosemite beta and two months after releasing the first OS X 10.10.3 beta.
The new beta, build 14D130a, is available for registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Mac Developer Center.
In today's beta notes, Apple has added Safari and Mail as focus areas for testing, in addition to previous testing areas that include Wi-Fi captive networks, screen sharing, and Arabic/Hebrew system languages. The known issues section lists just one remaining issue with missing thumbnails when using Time Machine to restore a Photos library upgraded from Aperture.
OS X 10.10.3 includes several new features, like the Photos for OS X app. Designed to integrate with iCloud Photo Library and the Photos app on iOS, the Photos for OS X app is a replacement for both iPhoto and Aperture. Reviews have suggested that while Photos is a suitable replacement for iPhoto, with more advanced tools and performance optimizations, it may leave professional users disappointed in its initial incarnation.
Along with the new Photos for OS X app, earlier OS X 10.10.3 betas have introduced a redesigned emoji picker that consolidates emoji into a single scrollable page with clear labels, new diversified emoji and emoji skin tone modifiers, new flag emoji and updated emoji for the iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch, and support for Google 2-step verification when setting up accounts in System Preferences.
With the fifth and sixth OS X 10.10.3 betas, there were just two minor bug fixes, and today's update likely includes similar small changes. Given that we're on the seventh beta, OS X 10.10.3 is undoubtedly getting close to completion and we may see a public release of the software in the near future.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Is every single beta seed really worth an article?
Yes.
Is every single beta seed really worth an article?
Is every snarky remark worth a post?
At this rate, we will see 10.11 (or will it be 11.0) before 10.10.3 is finalized!
Honestly I wish Apple would skip 10.11 this year.
Releasing a new OS X every year is what caused Yosemite and Mavericks to be fairly buggy releases; not enough time to get the kinks out.
They should keep Yosemite around for at least another year and perfect it before going forward. They didn't used to have a yearly cycle; I remember back when a new OS X release was a rare thing and not fraught with so many problems.
The problem began though with people and their 3 second attention span. People were getting annoyed with the long time chunks between releases so Apple turned it into a yearly release cycle.
I distinctly recall complaining when it was announced that Apple was going to a yearly release cycle. I remember the Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion era as being the peak of stability of OS X.
Mountain Lion (the first yearly release) seemed slightly unpolished but was alright. Then it was downhill since then, with the OS finally becoming fairly bug-free right before the next version is released.
It's time for a two year cycle again.