Apple Seeds New Public Beta of macOS Monterey

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Apple today seeded a new public beta of the macOS 12 Monterey beta to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the new macOS Monterey software ahead of its public release. The fourth beta comes two weeks after Apple released the third macOS Monterey public beta.

macos monterey tidbits feature copy
Public beta testers can download the macOS 12 Monterey update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.

macOS Monterey introduces quite a few major updates for the macOS operating system. Universal Control, for example, lets a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard be used across multiple Mac or iPad devices, and it's now possible to AirPlay directly to a Mac from an iPhone, ‌iPad‌, or even another Mac.

Safari has an updated tab bar and support for Tab Groups to keep tons of tabs organized, and FaceTime now features support for spatial audio, Portrait Mode (M1 Macs only) and Voice Isolation for cutting out background noise. A SharePlay ‌FaceTime‌ feature lets Apple TV users watch TV, listen to music, and share their screens with one another.

Shared With You, another new feature, keeps track of the music, links, podcasts, news, and photos that people are sent in Messages, highlighting it in the relevant apps. Notes has a new Quick Note feature for jotting down thoughts, and the Shortcuts app is now available on the Mac.

A dedicated Focus mode helps people stay on task by cutting out background distractions based on what's going on, and there's an updated Maps app with a whole slew of new features. With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images. The new beta adds Live Text support for Intel Macs.

Mail Privacy Protection hides IP and prevents tracking through invisible pixels, and iCloud Private Relay keeps Safari browsing protected. There are many other new features in ‌macOS Monterey‌, with a complete overview available in our macOS Monterey roundup.

Related Forum: macOS Monterey

Top Rated Comments

vagos Avatar
vagos
19 months ago

"With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images."
It's still text detection since bird is the word.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
velocityg4 Avatar
velocityg4
19 months ago

It's still text detection since bird is the word.
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Braderunner Avatar
Braderunner
19 months ago

Someone yesterday sent me a photo of a bird and wanted to know if there was an app that would identify it. I wonder if that Focus mode would have identified the bird correctly using Monterey. I ended up using iBird Pro and manually identified the bird.
What?! o_O
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bobout Avatar
Bobout
19 months ago

Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word
Damn it now that song is in my head.. thanks. ?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BornAgainMac Avatar
BornAgainMac
19 months ago
Someone yesterday sent me a photo of a bird and wanted to know if there was an app that would identify it. I wonder if that Focus mode would have identified the bird correctly using Monterey. I ended up using iBird Pro and manually identified the bird.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BornAgainMac Avatar
BornAgainMac
19 months ago

What?! o_O
This feature. There is more info about it in the WWDC keynote and on Apple's website.

"With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images."
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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