Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS High Sierra to Developers

Apple today announced new versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and following the conclusion of this morning's keynote event, new betas are being distributed to developers. macOS High Sierra beta 1 is now available for download.

The new beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center, and once installed, subsequent betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

macOS High Sierra builds on the features introduced with macOS Sierra and introduces new core storage, video, and graphics technology. macOS High Sierra supports the new Apple File System (APFS) and High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), plus it introduces an updated version of Metal with VR support.

Photos is gaining a new sidebar that makes it easier to access editing tools and albums, plus there are new editing options like Curves and Selective Color, and it supports external editing apps like Photoshop and Pixelmator.

There are improvements to Safari, including speed improvements and a new feature that blocks tracking data, Siri on the Mac has expanded music capabilities and a new more natural voice, and Spotlight has been updated with flight status information.

At the current time, macOS High Sierra is only available for registered developers. Apple will make a public macOS High Sierra beta available later this summer, giving public beta testers a chance to try out and test the software before it sees a public release in the fall.

Top Rated Comments

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mmomega

32 months ago

Only getting 6MB/s over Gigabit.
I say only like that's terrible but... about 3 minutes from install.

Rating: 6 Votes

PowerBook-G5

32 months ago

Ridiculous name. Can't believe they're actually using it.

Rating: 5 Votes

MacHiavelli

32 months ago

https://images.apple.com/macos/high-sierra-preview/overview/hero/image_large_2x.jpg

https://images.apple.com/macos/high-sierra-preview/overview/beta/image_large_2x.jpg

Rating: 4 Votes

milo

32 months ago

Wasn't APFS released with macOS Sierra? Now I'm really confused =/

It was included but not the default file system, now it is.

What are the hardware requirements? I'm wondering if my mid-2010 MacBook Pro will support it or if it is now legacy hardware.

Same as Sierra.

Rating: 2 Votes

mox358

32 months ago

I still can't believe thats the real name... I kept waiting for Craig to say "Just kidding, we're not that crazy!". I was really hoping they would get away from the whole mountains theme this year personally.

Rating: 2 Votes

cableguy84

32 months ago

High sierra ? Garbage name

Rating: 2 Votes

mikesilv

32 months ago

High sierra ? Garbage name

Actually, no. It's what the highest peaks and backbone of the Sierra Nevada range is called. Perhaps, not known by non Californians or Nevadans. But if you're just being a prude because he made a weed joke, go ahead and grow up.

Rating: 1 Votes

redheeler

32 months ago

Ridiculous name. Can't believe they're actually using it.

In the past Craig had joked about the name. Couldn't tell if he was serious or joking with this one at first.

But eventually everyone gets used to it. I thought "El Capitan" was ridiculous at first.

Rating: 1 Votes

mithion

32 months ago

High Sierra seems pretty light on features. I figure the move to APFS was probably a big one and they probably poured a lot of resources to make the transition smooth and the final product robust. Still disappointed they haven't touched a couple of areas which are pain points like network drives and openGL support. Seems like they're banking on Metal a lot but I just don't see a whole lot of support for it in the 2-3 years where it's been available.

Rating: 1 Votes