Apple on Wednesday released the second public beta of macOS Sierra, the newest operating system designed for the Mac. Today’s second public beta comes two weeks after the release of the first macOS Sierra public beta and just a few days after the launch of the third developer beta of macOS Sierra. The second public beta and the third developer beta offer the same features.
macOS Sierra offers a plethora of new features. That includes the ability to use Apple Pay, the company’s mobile payment option, from within Safari for partners that include Gilt, and other major brands. With it, users will be able to authenticate purchases on their desktop by using Touch ID on their iPhone.
macOS offers other new Continuity features, including the ability to unlock your MacBook –avoiding the part where you input your password– by having your Apple Watch on your wrist. Another big addition to the software is Picture-in-Picture support, which will let users pop out a video and continue to watch it while they navigate other apps behind it. The picture can be resized, moved around, and it will stay on the top of other apps as the user moves from one virtual desktop to another.
The biggest new addition for macOS Sierra is Siri, which lets users ask the digital personal assistant to do a variety of things, like find files, contacts, and use more complex voice queries to find specific elements on their computer from specific dates or from other people. Siri can also play music from Apple Music, send messages, and much more.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program will receive the macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store. Those who want to be a part of Apple’s beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.
Now that the public beta is available, do you plan on checking it out?