14 DAY TRIAL // Apple this week offers two new betas to employees in what appears to be a limited beta testing phase preceding the public launch of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and iTunes 11.1.6. Notably, the company is re-introducing the ability to sync contacts and calendar information to iDevices.
OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Build 13D19 was seeded to employees with no major changes and no known issues, according to people who are familiar with the software. The last beta asked developers to focus their attention on Graphics Drivers and Audio. Apple is expected to offer this update for public download much faster than the last Mavericks update (10.9.2).
One new feature discovered in OS X 10.9.3 is support for 4K displays running at Retina resolution at 60Hz. The update will most likely pack dozens of small fixes and tweaks as well as some security patches that will be detailed in a standalone advisory, as usual.
To give you an idea of what to expect, OS X 10.9.2 included the ability to make and receive FaceTime audio calls, added call waiting support for FaceTime audio and video calls, and offered the option to block incoming iMessages from senders that the user doesn’t want to be in contact with.
The update further improved the accuracy of unread counts in Mail, resolved an issue that prevented Mail from receiving new messages from certain providers, and improved AutoFill compatibility in Safari.
10.9.2 dealt a blow to some annoying bugs, such as an issue that may cause audio distortion on certain Macs, an annoyance that caused VPN connections to disconnect, and a more serious vulnerability involving SSL connection verification.
A beta of iTunes 11.1.6 is also being offered to Apple employees this week. According to a screen grab containing the release notes, “This update restores the ability to sync contacts and calendar information to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from your Mac running OS X 10.9.3,” says Apple.
Currently, the functionality can only be done via iCloud, to some customers’ dismay.
The last iTunes update released to end users was 11.1.5, on February 26. The main purpose was to fix a problem on OS X that may cause the app to quit unexpectedly when a device is connected. It also improved compatibility with iBooks on Mavericks systems.
For Windows users, the same update resolved an issue with typing Japanese text in the iTunes Store and addressed the same problem that caused iTunes to crash upon connecting external hardware to the computer.