Eighth developer betas of Apple's High Sierra, iOS 11, tvOS 11, watchOS 4 now available [u...

AppleInsider

Keeping up with the one per week cycle one more for the most part Apple has updated all of its developer betas, with eighth releases of iOS 11, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4.

macOS 10.13 High Sierra

The macOS High Sierra update, with build number 17A358a, contains a number improvements like Apple File System integration, migration from H.264 to H.265, and Metal 2, alongside other refinements. The previous beta sported build number 17A352a.

Alongside beta 5 of High Sierra, Apple launched a Safari extensions section of the Mac App Store. This most recent beta version adds APFS support to the 2012 Mac Pro tower.

What will not ship with High Sierra in the fall is eGPU support. Apple's inclusion of the technology allowing Thunderbolt 3 PCI-E enclosures with a GPU installed to connect, and accelerate, graphics in High Sierra will come at at some point in the spring of 2018.

iOS 11

The most notable changes in iOS 11 overall are back-end enhancements and an improved voice for Siri, plus Apple Pay and Photos services enhancements. The Do Not Disturb While Driving feature was introduced during the second beta. The seventh beta of iOS 11 has build number 15A5368a, with the previous holding number 15A5362a.

The "Messages in iCloud" feature was removed in the iOS 11 beta 5 release, and Apple claims that it will ship in a future software update to iOS 11. Users can continue to receive and store messages on each device, and they can continue to backup and restore messages using iCloud Backup.

WatchOS 4

Apple's watchOS beta 4 has build number 15R5371a. The previous built was build number 15R5365a.

Prior betas delivered the announced "Toy Story" watch faces to testers, and also fixed issues related to haptic feedback, music playback, location-based HomeKit triggers and Siri usability.

tvOS 11

Release notes for the eighth tvOS beta remain very short, with very few issues noted or changes specified. The previous tvOS build was numbered 15J5369a, and the current has been incremented to 15J5374a.

The previous updates were on August 21, with it only a week after the previous beta. The increments of the beta numbers narrowing between iterations suggests that Apple is planning a release soon.

Apple is rumored to have a product release on or about Sept. 12, with the "iPhone 7s" family, the "iPhone 8," and possibly a new 4K Apple TV expected. The new versions of the operating systems will likely be available at the same time the associated products ship, with High Sierra at about the same time to support the other releases.

Update: Apple has also released public beta versions of iOS 11, macOS High Sierra and tvOS 11.

SendMcjak

I'm hopeful that this beta maybe doesn't cause constant lagginess and freezes.

kkqd1337

The beta is pretty good/stable for me now. Use it on my main phone no problems at all. 

For me the the change from iOS 10 to 11 is pretty insignificant in terms of features tho.

SendMcjak

kkqd1337 said:

The beta is pretty good/stable for me now. Use it on my main phone no problems at all. 

For me the the change from iOS 10 to 11 is pretty insignificant in terms of features tho.

I've been waiting on Apple Pay p2p and AirPlay 2 as far as the main new features ... still unseen.

As far as an update goes, this is -- by far -- an iPad-centric release.

Calikid55

But when will this FINALLY be released?? During the week of the keynote?? Or after?? 

doozydozen

For the discerning tech nerds YouTuber EverythingApplePro (4M subscribers) always publishes a video detailing the most minuscule changes between betas, and the video is usually up within 24 hours a new beta is released. The subtle changes discovered give subtle insights into the principles (and sometimes lack there of) Apple designs UI/UX with. Great stuff. AppleInsider covers the big changes (which anyone can just pull off the release notes), whereas EverythingApplePro employs forensic methods to find seemingly unnoticeable changes.

tkrunner1738

Isn't the public beta still stuck on 6? I haven't seen any updates for that.

Soli

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

wizard69

SendMcjak said:

I'm hopeful that this beta maybe doesn't cause constant lagginess and freezes.

ON?

I've noticed issues with the previous beta on Mac OS with the reliability of the WiFI subsystem.    In fact just before this download I had to reboot.   Locked up so hard that even diagnostics would not finish.    Otherwise things are looking really good, in fact it is snappy.    I'm actually liking the betas which frankly even with a few glitches are more reliable than Windows at work.

wizard69

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

dick applebaum

Ha!  I wonder if this once-a-week release is a new Apple marketing strategy... Get some hidden new features out there -- so some enterprising developers can dig them out and pre-announce them!

dick applebaum

wizard69 said:

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

Are you running APFS on a Fusion Boot drive?  I tried that a few betas ago on my early iMac 27 5K -- and it took over a week of long trial-and-error sessions to make it right without APFS.  Really a hassle -- starting the 5K in target disk mode to an earlier iMac -- had to buy a FireWire to USB adapter, and put up with a lot of other crap.

Soli

dick applebaum said:

wizard69 said:

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

Are you running APFS on a Fusion Boot drive?  I tried that a few betas ago on my early iMac 27 5K -- and it took over a week of long trial-and-error sessions to make it right without APFS.  Really a hassle -- starting the 5K in target disk mode to an earlier iMac -- had to buy a FireWire to USB adapter, and put up with a lot of other crap.

When did they finally say that APFS was working with Fusion?

Soli

tkrunner1738 said:

Isn't the public beta still stuck on 6? I haven't seen any updates for that.

Public beta 7 is out.

StrangeDays

Calikid55 said:

But when will this FINALLY be released?? During the week of the keynote?? Or after?? 

What do you mean by emphasizing FINALLY? iOS releases are pretty routine. They're released after the September event. Never before.

dick applebaum

Soli said:

dick applebaum said:

wizard69 said:

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

Are you running APFS on a Fusion Boot drive?  I tried that a few betas ago on my early iMac 27 5K -- and it took over a week of long trial-and-error sessions to make it right without APFS.  Really a hassle -- starting the 5K in target disk mode to an earlier iMac -- had to buy a FireWire to USB adapter, and put up with a lot of other crap.

When did they finally say that APFS was working with Fusion?

I did not see any notice that it was not working.  Especially Maddining because it defaults to use APFS and the checkbox is covered by a dialog box.

Soli

dick applebaum said:

Soli said:

dick applebaum said:

wizard69 said:

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

Are you running APFS on a Fusion Boot drive?  I tried that a few betas ago on my early iMac 27 5K -- and it took over a week of long trial-and-error sessions to make it right without APFS.  Really a hassle -- starting the 5K in target disk mode to an earlier iMac -- had to buy a FireWire to USB adapter, and put up with a lot of other crap.

When did they finally say that APFS was working with Fusion?

I did not see any notice that it was not working.  Especially Maddining because it defaults to use APFS and the checkbox is covered by a dialog box.

It's been an issue since the very first beta. I just checked for beta 8 and it still says:

Some iMacs with 3TB Fusion drives and BootCamp may be unsupported for use with APFS. (31851687)

Here's a segment from the 4th beta:

Apple File System (APFS)
Known Issues
• Unsupported configurations in this seed release:
          • HDD-only Macs cannot be converted to APFS.
          • Some iMacs with 3TB Fusion drives and BootCamp may be unsupported for use with APFS.
          • APFS support for Mid 2012 Mac Pro will be included in an upcoming seed.
• Resizing APFS containers is currently not supported in Disk Utility.
• Workaround: In Terminal, use the diskutil tool to resize APFS containers.
• Some third-party applications may not correctly recognize volumes that are formatted using APFS.
• Encrypted APFS volumes can’t be decrypted. Decryption support will be added in an upcoming beta.
• The X11 window manager cannot be used on APFS formatted installation of macOS.
• Systems may panic during app installation.

To me it seemed like everyone was saying not to even try APFS if you didn't have a single volume, Apple SSD.

dick applebaum

Soli said:

dick applebaum said:

Soli said:

dick applebaum said:

wizard69 said:

Soli said:

I love the betas once a week. I wonder why the change over waiting a fortnight between updates.

It generally has been every two weeks in the past unless they have something exceedingly bad happening.   


Frankly I need at least two weeks between release to pick up on some of the more obscure bugs.    The funny thing here is that I've seen very few bugs that I can really help out with in the High Sierra betas.

Are you running APFS on a Fusion Boot drive?  I tried that a few betas ago on my early iMac 27 5K -- and it took over a week of long trial-and-error sessions to make it right without APFS.  Really a hassle -- starting the 5K in target disk mode to an earlier iMac -- had to buy a FireWire to USB adapter, and put up with a lot of other crap.

When did they finally say that APFS was working with Fusion?

I did not see any notice that it was not working.  Especially Maddining because it defaults to use APFS and the checkbox is covered by a dialog box.

It's been an issue since the very first beta. I just checked for beta 8 and it still says:

Some iMacs with 3TB Fusion drives and BootCamp may be unsupported for use with APFS. (31851687)

Here's a segment from the 4th beta:

Apple File System (APFS)
Known Issues
• Unsupported configurations in this seed release:
          • HDD-only Macs cannot be converted to APFS.
          • Some iMacs with 3TB Fusion drives and BootCamp may be unsupported for use with APFS.
          • APFS support for Mid 2012 Mac Pro will be included in an upcoming seed.
• Resizing APFS containers is currently not supported in Disk Utility.
• Workaround: In Terminal, use the diskutil tool to resize APFS containers.
• Some third-party applications may not correctly recognize volumes that are formatted using APFS.
• Encrypted APFS volumes can’t be decrypted. Decryption support will be added in an upcoming beta.
• The X11 window manager cannot be used on APFS formatted installation of macOS.
• Systems may panic during app installation.

To me it seemed like everyone was saying not to even try APFS if you didn't have a single volume, Apple SSD.

Yeesus Marta!  

Thx for the info!

I don't know how I missed that!   

Though, I am not using Bootcamp -- I'm MS Free... Yea!

ericthehalfbee

"Keeping up with the one per week cycle"

How fitting. Goes along with the "once per week" cycle of Android malware in Google Play (for those not aware, another round of 300 Apps got removed for taking part in a coordinated DDoS attack).

macxpress

StrangeDays said:

Calikid55 said:

But when will this FINALLY be released?? During the week of the keynote?? Or after?? 

What do you mean by emphasizing FINALLY? iOS releases are pretty routine. They're released after the September event. Never before.

Apple does however get it released about a week before the next iPhone ships. I assume this is to try and alleviate stress on Apple's servers a little with everyone activating their phones and running any updates for them at the same time as everyone updating to iOS 11. 

[Deleted User]

The videos posted on Youtube, show that beta 8 is markedly slower than 10.3.3 in booting, app launch, general benchmarks. Especially on older phones.
The iPhone 6 is really crippled in that sense, and it is by no means a "slow" phone, considering the changes are mostly graphical, at least from what I see.
I have a saddening feeling that they are optimising the code for 7, 7S (8) and "forgetting" either willingly or not, older but still perfectly usable hardware, for the latest and greatest. Forcing then in a way, people to upgrade. Which is quite contrary to their policy, which is an excellent one, to provide latest iOS versions for several years, contrary to what happens in the Android world.

Moreover, APFS is not really mentioned by anybody as working properly on Fusion Drives and if Time Machine will finally work more intelligently and faster using delta updates at block level, rather than copying the whole file. As far as I know, APFS seems to be working only on single drives and that's it....and if you upgrade a drive to APFS, it will simply add a layer on HFS to implement APFS, but will not really change the structure of the drive. Meh.