{"id":6106,"date":"2014-07-30T12:25:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T16:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2014-07-30T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T16:25:53","slug":"13-things-os-x-yosemite-beta-testers-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/07\/30\/13-things-os-x-yosemite-beta-testers-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"13 things OS X Yosemite beta testers need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first time since the OS X beta test of 2000, Apple is allowing Mac users to test and provide feedback on a prerelease version of OS X. The first 1 million people to sign up for the beta program through Apple\u2019s Web page\u2014which crashed under heavy traffic on Thursday after the public beta became available\u2014get a redemption code to download the Yosemite beta via the Mac App Store.<\/p>\n

Remember this? The last time Apple offered a public beta was in 2000. The preview version of the first iteration of OS X came on a disk with a handy how-to guide.<\/p>\n

Further reading: Macworld’s Yosemite FAQ and hands-on with Yosemite series<\/p>\n

Design changes<\/p>\n

Notification Center<\/p>\n

Spotlight<\/p>\n

Safari<\/p>\n

Mail, Messages, and Calendar<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re lucky enough to be one of those beta testers, congratulations! Here\u2019s a quick rundown of what you should know and keep in mind about the beta as you start poking around Apple\u2019s latest operating system. (The final version is due out this fall.)<\/p>\n

1. The beta is a work in progress<\/p>\n

First and foremost, keep in mind that this isn\u2019t the official release of the software; Apple is still testing and tweaking Yosemite. That means it may not function as expected. Some features may be completely absent or could differ from what Apple showed off during its WWDC keynote in June\u2014and some features may look very different in the final release. Even some of the standard features available in Mavericks or earlier versions of OS X may be missing, nonfunctional or just different. That\u2019s because a major OS upgrade, particularly one like Yosemite that makes major changes to the user experience, often involves updating or altering existing functions, including core components that aren\u2019t visible to most users.<\/p>\n

2. A public beta isn\u2019t the same as a developer preview<\/p>\n

Apple has already released beta versions of Yosemite to members of its Mac developer program. The most recent was made available to them earlier this week, with revisions arriving roughly every two weeks. In fact, the version of Yosemite offered as the public beta has a different build number (it\u2019s one digit higher) than the version developers received on Monday.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s FAQ for the Yosemite beta indicates that beta testers may not see updates at the same rate as developers. There\u2019s a good chance this means beta testers will see less frequent updates than developers.<\/p>\n

Other differences are likely to include support, resources or some functionality. Developers are receiving the betas to build and\/or test apps running under Yosemite and make changes if needed. Beta testers are being asked to provide feedback. Those are rather different roles, and developers aren\u2019t likely to provide the type of feedback\u2014general user interface (UI) issues or consumer-oriented feature requests\u2014that Apple is looking for from public beta testers.<\/p>\n

3. Explore Yosemite and report back to Apple<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s goal with this program is largely to solicit feedback about Yosemite, particularly about its new UI. If there are things that aren\u2019t working, are confusing, seem like they should work better, or that you really dislike, you should report them to Apple using the Feedback Assistant that\u2019s included. During the public beta prior to the release of OS X in 2000, Apple made several changes based on user feedback\u2014the most obvious was restoring the Apple menu in the shipping version of OS X, which had been replaced with an Apple logo in the middle of the menu bar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Full Story: 13 things OS X Yosemite beta testers need to know | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time since the OS X beta test of 2000, Apple is allowing Mac users to test and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[785,1269],"class_list":["post-6106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-software","tag-os-x","tag-yosemite"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-1Au","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9655,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2021\/03\/09\/fuquay-varina-and-holly-springs-computer-repair\/","url_meta":{"origin":6106,"position":0},"title":"Fuquay Varina and Holly Springs Computer Repair","author":"NCCT","date":"March 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to our blog. 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