Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.4 to Developers

Comparison of 14.4 beta to previous 14.3 RC

macOS 14.4 beta (23E5180j)

* Safari Version 17.4 (19618.1.11.11.3)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.100.738.0.1 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Fri Jan 12 22:41:06 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.100.610.0.2~19/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

macOS 14.3 RC (23D56)

* Safari Version 17.3 (19617.2.4.11.8)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.81.1 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.3.0: Wed Dec 20 21:30:27 PST 2023; root:xnu-10002.81.5~7/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

* Apple Music/TV now 1.4.4.29 was 1.4.3.27

Note the higher build letter to start "j"

SDK notes say:

* Updates to macOS 14.4 starting from macOS 11.0–12.3.1 will not work. (120548971)
Workaround: Update to macOS 12.4 or later, and then update to macOS 14.4.

I wonder if that is why some Big Sur users got pushed to Sonoma MacOS 14.3 accidentally, instead of with admin permissions.

[SPOILER="macOS Sonoma 14.4 Beta Release Notes"]
CreateML ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#CreateML')
Resolved Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Resolved-Issues')

* Fixed: When using the transfer learning algorithm option, the CreateML app and framework object detection template might fail to converge and cause poor model quality and produce more than expected false positives. (114480994)

Finder ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Finder')
Resolved Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Resolved-Issues')

* Fixed: Resolves an issue where tiling a window causes the desktop picture to turn black. (118044617)

Messages ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Messages')
Known Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Known-Issues')

* Memoji and 3rd party Stickers do not display in the tray. (120994483)

Software Updates ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Software-Updates')
Known Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Known-Issues')

* Updates to macOS 14.4 starting from macOS 11.0–12.3.1 will not work. (120548971)
Workaround: Update to macOS 12.4 or later, and then update to macOS 14.4.

StoreKit ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#StoreKit')
New Features ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#New-Features')

* You can use the productDescriptionHidden(_:) API to configure the visibility of product descriptions in ProductView, StoreView and SubscriptionStoreView instances within a view hierarchy. When building with Xcode 15.3, you can use this view modifier even if your app is running on iOS 17.0, iPadOS 17.0, macOS 14.0, tvOS 17.0, watchOS 10.0, visionOS 1.0, or later.
If you implement your own product view style, you can support this new view modifier by checking the descriptionVisibility property on the configuration value. (110414819) (FB12261973)
* You can use SubscriptionStoreView ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/subscriptionstoreview') to present promotional offers by adding the subscriptionPromotionalOffer(offer:signature:) modifier.
If you’re already using inAppPurchaseOptions(_:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view/inapppurchaseoptions(_:)') modifier to support promotional offers for StoreKit views, you should adopt the new API instead when your app is running on iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, tvOS 17.4, watchOS 10.4, visionOS 1.1 or later. Do not use both APIs to apply a promotional offer for the same view. (115358806)

Resolved Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Resolved-Issues')

* Fixed: The isEligibleForIntroOffer ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/3803203-iseligibleforintrooffer') property and isEligibleForIntroOffer(for:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/3791958-iseligibleforintrooffer')method now reflect ineligibility in cases where a customer would otherwise be eligible for the offer if they weren’t actively subscribed. This means a customer which is not currently eligible for an introductory offer may become eligible in the future.
Customers who redeem an introductory offer for a given subscription group will continue to never be eligible for another introductory offer in that subscription group. You can detect this case this by checking if any one transaction with a matching subscriptionGroupID ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/3749718-subscriptiongroupid') has the type ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/offer/4307073-type') property on offer ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/4307076-offer') set to introductory ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction/offertype/3822309-introductory'). (103604770) (FB11889732)

SwiftUI ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#SwiftUI')
New Features ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#New-Features')

* Table now supports dynamic numbers of columns with the new TableColumnForEach. (79492167) (FB9189673)

Resolved Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Resolved-Issues')

* Fixed: DatePicker in macOS reset focus to the first date component when its bound date changes and timeZone is overriden in the environment. (97376561)

Weather ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Weather')
Known Issues ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14_4-release-notes#Known-Issues')

* Weather might crash on launch on Intel macOS hardware. (121294923)

[/SPOILER]

Yes! Exciting! Let's see if this finally brings the Music widget!

You do have an Apple Music player also under control center. (at bottom)
No Music widget yet under Notification Center -> edit widgets

Apple disabled custom fan control in the new firmware shipped with Sonoma 14.4.
Checked at least on M1 Pro/Max 16" MacBook Pro models

Build number is 23E5180j

There is also

macOS Ventura 13.6.5 RC 1 build 22G605

macOS Monterey 12.7.4 RC 1 build 21H1105