Apple rolls out first public beta of macOS 10.14 Mojave
Apple has released its first beta of macOS 10.14 Mojave for testing by the public, one day after similar releases for iOS 12 and tvOS 12, giving Mac users prepared to install the beta their first taste of the upcoming operating system update.
Released on Tuesday, the macOS Mojave beta is available to download from the Apple Beta Software Program website, alongside its tvOS and iOS counterparts. The site requires users to register for the program in order to download the pre-release software, rather than downloading and installing it anonymously.
At a glance, it appears that the first public macOS Mojave beta is extremely similar to the second developer beta, which rolled out on June 19. Based on the cadence of the first to beta releases, a third developer beta could arrive later this week.
There are quite a few additions made to macOS Mojave that will make it useful for productivity, such as the new Stacks feature that can group files and images on the desktop. Many are made to Finder, including a Gallery view to show all media and metadata, and provide contextual quick actions to perform custom automator tasks on files.
Quick Look has been upgraded to invoke Markup without needing to leave the menu, and it can also be used to trim videos without requiring a separate video editor. A Screenshot HUD helps simplify the process of taking images of the desktop or recording screencaptures, with a reduced load on the processor.
Continuity Camera allows users to take a photograph using an iOS device's camera, and instantly insert it into a document without needing to manually send it between devices.
Part of a project to enable developers to convert iOS apps for use in macOS, Apple has updated some first-party iOS apps to work in macOS, including News, Stocks, Home, and Voice Memos. The Home app, used to maintain HomeKit, will be brought to the Mac in this way.
The Mac App Store is updated with a new user interface, including video previews, borrowing elements from the iOS App Store. New machine learning tools Create ML and Core ML2, as well as a Dark Mode, are also included in Mojave.
Just as with the developer betas, it is advised by both AppleInsider and Apple itself for users to not install beta versions of software on mission-critical systems, due to the potential of data loss. Users should try out such releases on secondary Mac desktops, and to have backups of any data held on those systems.
Released on Tuesday, the macOS Mojave beta is available to download from the Apple Beta Software Program website, alongside its tvOS and iOS counterparts. The site requires users to register for the program in order to download the pre-release software, rather than downloading and installing it anonymously.
At a glance, it appears that the first public macOS Mojave beta is extremely similar to the second developer beta, which rolled out on June 19. Based on the cadence of the first to beta releases, a third developer beta could arrive later this week.
There are quite a few additions made to macOS Mojave that will make it useful for productivity, such as the new Stacks feature that can group files and images on the desktop. Many are made to Finder, including a Gallery view to show all media and metadata, and provide contextual quick actions to perform custom automator tasks on files.
Quick Look has been upgraded to invoke Markup without needing to leave the menu, and it can also be used to trim videos without requiring a separate video editor. A Screenshot HUD helps simplify the process of taking images of the desktop or recording screencaptures, with a reduced load on the processor.
Continuity Camera allows users to take a photograph using an iOS device's camera, and instantly insert it into a document without needing to manually send it between devices.
Part of a project to enable developers to convert iOS apps for use in macOS, Apple has updated some first-party iOS apps to work in macOS, including News, Stocks, Home, and Voice Memos. The Home app, used to maintain HomeKit, will be brought to the Mac in this way.
The Mac App Store is updated with a new user interface, including video previews, borrowing elements from the iOS App Store. New machine learning tools Create ML and Core ML2, as well as a Dark Mode, are also included in Mojave.
Just as with the developer betas, it is advised by both AppleInsider and Apple itself for users to not install beta versions of software on mission-critical systems, due to the potential of data loss. Users should try out such releases on secondary Mac desktops, and to have backups of any data held on those systems.
Comments
Now, as I am not hearing any releases about how APFS finally works - ROBUSTLY - across every storage mechanism; I'm going to hold off on upgrading my system to Mojave; until I hear something. I have too much to lose - as my system conisists of a Fusion boot drive, and several external HDDs running HPFS+.
On the extremely unlikely chance that a "wipe the drive" type bug made it into a beta, having it on a separate partition wouldn't protect you. So much better to have an entirely-separate physical drive with a bootable system on it for testing Mojave if you only have one machine; of course the best practice is to confine Mojave to an entirely separate hardware machine (so it's useful that it supports a number of older models going back a significant way).
LOVE Dark Mode!
Just for "goth" mode. No. It is not worth it.
It doesn't matter if it's on a partition of your internal drive or installed on an external drive - anything attached to your computer (and mounted) is accessible by the beta OS. So, if something wonky happens it could affect all your drives.
If you only have one computer and want to play around with the beta, your best and safest bet, is back up your entire system onto an external drive and then detach it from your computer anytime you want to play with the beta. This keeps everything safe and provides you with a
working drive that you can reattach and boot from anytime you need it - including to restore from.
The great thing as I am sure you know, the new volume (which you do not allocate any pre determined size for if you have a brain) takes zero space and dynamically grows and shrinks as required so even on a small 256 GB SSD many MBPs have you can usually play with this beta. These new volumes are almost instant to create and delete.