14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is reportedly gearing up to send OS X 10.7.4 builds to its developer community, first only to a handful of testers, then to the rest of the people registered with the company’s developer programs.
People familiar with Apple’s roadmap are telling AppleInsider that Cupertino is preparing to roll out a pre-release build of OS X 10.7.4 that will be handed to a limited number of developers within a matter of days.
The sources said Apple was planning a wider release to all members of the Apple Developer Connection by the end of the week.
OS X 10.7.4, which may well be last update to Lion before OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) is released this summer, was mistakenly referenced last week in a promotional page on its web site.
It is still mentioned on the Australian version of Apple’s web site as a requirement for iPhoto on Mac OS X: “iPhoto for Mac works with any Mac running OS X v10.7.4 or later.”
Apple this summer will release OS X Mountain Lion, the next major iteration of its operating system for full-fledged Macintosh computers.
Acting as the next logical step for Apple in its crusade to unify the user’s experience across iOS devices and Macintosh computers, Mountain Lion will bring some of the iPads’s best features over to the Mac.
Those include Messages, Notification Center, Twitter integration, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, iCloud-integration, and more.
The developer preview of Mountain Lion introduces Gatekeeper, a security feature that will help keep customers safe from malicious software. Gatekeeper offers complete control over what apps are installed on a Mac.
The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members for free.
Cupertino confirmed in February that end-Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store in late summer 2012.