Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014


Apple on Wednesday supplied developers with the third preview build of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, giving developers a chance to test out the latest version of the prerelease software.



According to people familiar with the latest build, a number of known issues remain in Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3. They include a bug that can occur on systems with FileVault enabled where a password dialog may not appear at boot time.



In addition, iTunes is said to no longer sync Notes, and the photo browser in Apple's Mail application cannot access the iPhoto library.



The third build also includes an error where Back to My Mac doesn't work for the first five minutes after rebooting. Those familiar with the build said that the DVD Player also may not launch after inserting a disc.



The pre-release software also reportedly has a handful of issues with the new Game Center for OS X. Currently, no "Top Games" are displayed in the "Me" tab, and recommendations are not shown in the "Games" tab either.



Multiplayer gaming between OS X and iOS is said to not currently be available with Game Center on Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3. The application also does not currently display game detail information such as pricing.



As before, the OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview is only supported on a specific list of Macs that support running on a 64-bit kernel:



iMac (Mid 2007 or later)



MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)



MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)



MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)



Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)



Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)




Apple provided developers with the second preview of Mountain Lion in mid-March. The software is due for public release on the Mac App Store this summer.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Seems odd that they'd leave a flaw like this in a dev release?



    Quote:

    Some Apple menu items such as Restart may not work when a sandboxed app is in the foreground



    I realize that yes, it's a dev release, but this sounds more like a 'fix it in the alpha' problem to me.



    Of course, what do I know; Apple still won't reorder their wake priority to get Wi-Fi working like it used to.
  • Reply 2 of 17
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I expected it last Friday. Glad to see it's finally here as Preview 2 introduced some odd GPU issues that could crash my system when playing back any video type in any browser.
  • Reply 3 of 17
    gustavgustav Posts: 827member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Seems odd that they'd leave a flaw like this in a dev release?







    I realize that yes, it's a dev release, but this sounds more like a 'fix it in the alpha' problem to me.



    Of course, what do I know; Apple still won't reorder their wake priority to get Wi-Fi working like it used to.



    Traditionally a dev build is a rougher build than alpha.
  • Reply 4 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Seems odd that they'd leave a flaw like this in a dev release…

    I realize that yes, it's a dev release, but this sounds more like a 'fix it in the alpha' problem to me.



    I understand that this may not apply to you but some people just do not understand what the point of developer previews are. A developer preview is not supposed to be for Apple to have others test out the OS to get it ready for public release, it is supposed to give developers access to the new APIs to make sure their existing and future apps work correctly with the new operating system.



    I see that confusion a lot when the iOS betas come around.
  • Reply 5 of 17
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    According to reliable sources....



    Gotta love journalism. You go and register and pay to get access to Pre-release software and you state in your article,``According to people familiar with the latest build...''



    Come on. I know you guys are trying to skirt around the NDA, but come on. This gets old.
  • Reply 6 of 17
    chabigchabig Posts: 641member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    According to people familiar with the latest build, a number of known issues remain in Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3.



    If there weren't any issues, this wouldn't be a developer preview would it?
  • Reply 7 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    .... Apple still won't reorder their wake priority to get Wi-Fi working like it used to.



    Poor wi-fi behaviour, especially not waking up, is the biggest problem I have with all my Apple gear.



    Back to My Mac hardly works at all as a result and without spam protection in iOS, all my devices start spamming me and continue all day long until I get home and wake up the desktop computer. When I'm at home, I periodically have to walk around the house wiggling mice and fiddling with keyboards to get everything to wake up and talk to each other. Apple TV is a pain in the bum as a result also.



    In short, everything works like in an Apple commercial until something goes to sleep and can't be woken up remotely. Ridiculously shoddy behaviour, considering it's Apple.
  • Reply 8 of 17
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chabig View Post


    If there weren't any issues, this wouldn't be a developer preview would it?



    Yeah, but the issues are usually supposed to be discovered, not there already.



    I've noticed that the 'Reading Pane' button in Safari appears to have a progress bar letting you know that it's syncing.



    I'm glad to see that Apple isn't going overkill on the 'minimalistic look' at the cost of convenience/functionality.
  • Reply 9 of 17
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    Poor wi-fi behavior, especially not waking up, is the biggest problem I have with all my Apple gear.



    Did it start with the Lion GM for you, too? Or had this been a problem for you before Lion? I've seen a few people say they had it before Lion, but I never heard that until Lion came out.



    Quote:

    When I'm at home, I periodically have to walk around the house wiggling mice and fiddling with keyboards to get everything to wake up and talk to each other.



    HOW IN THE WORLD DID I FORGET THAT. Yes, I HATE THAT. Lion and Mountain Lion have broken sleep completely.



    Plugging and unplugging USB devices doesn't wake from sleep anymore. Neither do Bluetooth devices. Or, rather, it DOES, it just doesn't actually ever wake up. My fans just spin at maximum RPMs until someone comes along and hits a key on the keyboard. Then it wakes up fine. How do you screw that up, Apple?!



    I come down in the morning and there's my Mac Pro, having been on for WHO KNOWS how long, roaring its fans waiting for someone to hit a keyboard key.
  • Reply 10 of 17
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Seems odd that they'd leave a flaw like this in a dev release?



    Developer releases are pretty tuff. In my case I don't even try to use them, it is extremely frustrating to say the least.

    Quote:



    I realize that yes, it's a dev release, but this sounds more like a 'fix it in the alpha' problem to me.



    In effect developer releases are alpha releases, things often change drastically before finalization. This often causes developer the need to rework significant amounts of code.

    Quote:



    Of course, what do I know; Apple still won't reorder their wake priority to get Wi-Fi working like it used to.



    Well that is a different issue, OS's don't often evolve in a way to suit everybody. Sometimes it takes years before a reason for a change becomes obvious. One example here is features in the SDK that eventually had Grand Central Dispatch put under them. Developers that followed Apples advice got a nice little boost in app performance right after GCD debuted.



    I know many get upset at the thought that Mac OS is evolving, but the alternative is even worst. That would be the stagnation seen in Windows. Not everybody will accept every new feature, but you can't dwell on one feature. It is the package of new features that has to be accepted or rejected.
  • Reply 11 of 17
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    Couldn't it be that some of these flaws are added on purpose to make it unusable by the average user wanting to download it illegally and install it?
  • Reply 12 of 17
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ClemyNX View Post


    Couldn't it be that some of these flaws are added on purpose to make it unusable by the average user wanting to download it illegally and install it?



    ? No, Apple is not purposely making their real users' experience worse just to "get back" at the few thousand people that Hackintosh via 'legal' or illegal means.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Seems odd that they'd leave a flaw like this in a dev release?







    I realize that yes, it's a dev release, but this sounds more like a 'fix it in the alpha' problem to me.



    Of course, what do I know; Apple still won't reorder their wake priority to get Wi-Fi working like it used to.



    I haven't "heard" of the issue of missing or unavailable menu items when using sandboxed applications nor have I "heard" of any Wi-Fi issues in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (12A154q). I have "heard" about a lot of crashes, as in more than once daily for 10.8 Mountain Lion (12A154q); I have "heard" that the crashing is very irritating for at least one user in particular.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacBook Pro View Post


    I haven't "heard" of the issue of missing or unavailable menu items when using sandboxed applications nor have I "heard" of any Wi-Fi issues in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (12A154q). I have "heard" about a lot of crashes, as in more than once daily for 10.8 Mountain Lion (12A154q); I have "heard" that the crashing is very irritating for at least one user in particular.



    Interesting. I've had no crashes; the system's as solid as a rock. Though Safari became finicky when I updated to DP2 (on which I currently remain until I can get a Time Machine backup done before DP3), but that seems to be a trend with Safari and second dev releases.



    Hopefully DP3 and the third Safari beta will fix that.



    You've not heard of the Wi-Fi issues? Does your Wi-Fi on Lion operate as it had before upgrading?
  • Reply 15 of 17
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Interesting. I've had no crashes; the system's as solid as a rock. Though Safari became finicky when I updated to DP2 (on which I currently remain until I can get a Time Machine backup done before DP3), but that seems to be a trend with Safari and second dev releases.



    Hopefully DP3 and the third Safari beta will fix that.



    You've not heard of the Wi-Fi issues? Does your Wi-Fi on Lion operate as it had before upgrading?



    Come to think of it, I think every crash has been when I was working with Safari.



    My Wi-Fi is actually improved dramatically from Snow Leopard. My Wi-Fi is flawless now but was horrid when I was using Snow Leopard but I think that was related my my router. My issues with Wi-Fi may have been resolved by a new Apple AirPort Extreme router.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    I have a sneaking suspicion that at least one of the team members from MobileMe got 'disbanded' into the Wifi section at Apple.



    Although I personally have never had an issue with wifi with either of the MBA's that I have owned (1x Snow Leopard, 1x Lion) I was fortunate enough to have wifi issues with both my iPad 1 and my current iPad 3.



    It's an area I'd like to see to see them concentrate on in the future.
  • Reply 17 of 17
    Safari and specifically playing videos in Safari were very unstable in DP2 for me. I also had many system hangs in DP2 as well. Of course all that is to be expected with pre-release software.
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