14 DAY TRIAL // Among the new betas released by Apple this week, one in particular has failed to garner any widespread attention – Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 build 370A51.
The software is used to manage Mac computers on a network, and while end users generally needn’t bother their heads with these beta builds, those who are enrolled with Apple’s developer program may want to have a look at the changes in this new build.
Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 is required for compatibility with OS X v10.9, aka Mavericks. If you’re planning to upgrade a room full of Macs to OS X Mavericks this fall, testing the new Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 against your network might be a good idea.
Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 supports computers using version 3.x of the client, so if your computers use version 2.x or earlier, you won’t be able to monitor those Macs using the new version, according to people who are familiar with the seed notes.
Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 is mainly geared towards adding full compatibility with OS X 10.9, and allows automatic copy / paste between computers during screen sharing sessions (local and remote), improves multi-display support, and facilitates managing computers with multiple IP addresses.
Developers testing the new build are given new focus areas, according to one person with access to the beta.
These include: “sharing the display(s) of an administrator’s computer or another computer; controlling, observing and multi-observing of remote computers; generating reports; and performing tasks for multiple client computers.”
A number of known issues are still waiting to be resolved, such as several multi-observe bugs. At the other end of the spectrum, build 370A51 also fixes a great deal of previously-reported issues.
These include mouse clicks getting ignored in full-screen, non-functional widgets, an issue causing screen sharing windows to continually resize on multi-display arrays, flickering during carouseling in multi-observe, and a flaw causing the software to quit out of the blue during Send UNIX Command tasks.
Developers looking to grab the new build can do so immediately by visiting the Mac Dev Center with their Apple credentials in hand.