Download: macOS 10.13.4 Beta 1, tvOS 11.3 Beta 1 Released To Developers

Today has been another big 24 hours for Apple’s software team, with a raft of new beta releases made available for download by developers.

While iOS tends to be the platform that grabs all the attention, two others have also received beta releases today; macOS High Sierra and tvOS.

While decidedly less sexy, tvOS 11.3 beta 1 should not be ignored, partly because it adds one important feature for non-Apple TV 4K users. That feature is frame rate matching, something that was previously only available to owners of Apple’s latest and greatest set top box. Another change includes the fact that Apple TVs will now show up in the iOS Home app, and Match Content has also been improved according to the release notes. Speaking of which:

NOTES AND KNOWN ISSUES

General

New Issues

-The TV Provider sign-in prompt may not appear during initial tvOS setup (36559610)
Workaround: Authenticate with the TV provider using the Settings app.

Foundation

Known Issues

-Clients of NSURLSessionStreamTask that use a non-secure connection fail to connect when an error occurs during PAC file evaluation and the system is configured for either Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) or Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC). A PAC evaluation failure can occur when the PAC file contains invalid JavaScript or the HTTP host serving the PAC file is unreachable. (33609198)
Workaround: Use startSecureConnection to establish a secure connection.

Mobile Device Management

New Features

-Added the following settings to device management. For more information, see the Configuration Profile Reference and MDM Protocol Reference.
-Restrict explicit music and book store erotica by rating.
-Restrictapps,moviesandTVshowsbyrating.
-Skip the Privacy screen during setup.
-Skip the “Where is this Apple TV” screen during setup.
-Restrict Remote app connections to specified iOS devices.
-Update an app while in Single App Mode.

Known Issues

-It is not possible to skip all initial setup screens when using an MDM server configuration with Device Enrollment Program supervised devices. (35919886)
-Upgrade installs will trigger additional setup prompts for supervised devices. A remote is needed to complete the upgrade. (36674710)

Mode Switching

-New Features Added support for automatic frame rate to AVKit for the 4th generation Apple TV. Apps that don’t use AVKit for video playback can add support using APIs previously introduced in the tvOS 11.2 SDK. For more information, see: https://developer.apple.com/fall17/503.

Moving on, we have macOS 10.13.4 beta 1 which comes just a day after macOS 10.13.3 final version was made available to the public, including important security fixes. This new beta brings with it its own new features though, including a new Privacy explainer specific to macOS and a warning that pops up when a 32-bit app is launched, similar to iOS. There is also an opt-in tick box for Messages in the Cloud, something that is worth remembering for users of the popular iOS and macOS instant messaging service.

Both the tvOS and macOS updates re available to download now for those registered as developers from developer.apple.com.

You may also like to check out:

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the Web.