Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming macOS macOS Monterey 12.3 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming a week after the release of the fourth macOS Monterey 12.3 beta.
Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.
macOS Monterey 12.3 is a major update that introduces Universal Control, a feature that Apple first teased at WWDC and then delayed for several months. Universal Control is designed to allow you to use a single mouse/trackpad and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads (with iPads running iPadOS 15.4).
After updating your devices to macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4, Universal Control works automatically, allowing your Mac's cursor and keyboard to work on the iPad and vice versa. It's simple and intuitive to use.
macOS Monterey 12.3 adds support for updating the AirPods firmware when the earbuds are connected to a Mac, plus it deprecates kernel extensions used by Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, and it eliminates Python 2, with Apple instructing developers to use an alternative scripting language like Python 3 going forward.
There are also new emoji characters, including melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.
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[SPOILER="macOS Monterey 12.3 Beta 5 Release Notes"]
[HEADING=2]Kernel[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* The kernel extensions used by Dropbox Desktop Application and Microsoft OneDrive are no longer available. Both service providers have replacements for this functionality; Dropbox is currently in beta. (85890896)
[HEADING=2]Python[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* Python 2.7 was removed from macOS in this update. Developers should use Python 3 or an alternative language instead. (39795874)
[HEADING=2]Universal Control[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12.3 Beta 5[/HEADING]
* Fixed: Unexpected disconnections might occur on initial connection. (88106231)
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* Drag-and-drop scenarios might not work for some file types and apps. (88106322)
* Some third-party keyboards and mice might encounter issues when using additional functionality, like scroll wheels. (88106362)
[HEADING=2]WebKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* Support for inline viewing of PostScript files is no longer available. (88172449)
[/SPOILER]
Safari Version 15.4 (17613.1.17.1.6)
System Firmware Version: 7459.101.2 (M1 based Macs) No change
Darwin Kernel Version 21.4.0: Mon Feb 21 21:57:28 PST 2022; root:xnu-8020.101.4~4/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 arm64
Beta 4
Safari Version 15.4 (17613.1.17.1.5)
System Firmware Version: 7459.101.2 (M1 based Macs)
Darwin Kernel Version 21.4.0: Mon Feb 14 22:26:41 PST 2022; root:xnu-8020.101.3~4/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 arm64