Focus areas remain unchanged in the fourth beta in this cycle

Jun 26, 2014 07:01 GMT  ·  By

Apple is extending the development cycle of OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 with a fourth beta featuring an unchanged set of focus areas and six increments added to the build number. The download is immediately available from the Mac Dev Center for all registered Apple Developers, as well as through Software Update for those with an older beta installed.

Mavericks 10.9.4 is not publicly available yet, meaning regular customers can’t update using traditional methods, but they can grab hold of it through a beta program. Nor should it be available via software update, since such betas are offered solely for finding and fixing bugs.

“This build is being provided to you for testing and development purposes. Should you encounter any problems, please submit a bug report using the online Bug Reporter at bugreporter.apple.com,” Apple says.

“Please make sure to include ‘10.9.4 (13E25)’ in the bug title and description. This information will ensure that your bug is processed quickly,” the seed note states, according to a person who is familiar with the build.

This developer tells us that Apple has left the focus areas intact. Testers are asked to look for issues in Graphics Drivers, Bluetooth, Audio Drivers, Finder, App Store, and the Safari web browser. 10.9.4 will, therefore, not introduce any new features, or at least Apple isn’t documenting them in the official seed notes just yet.

To download OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 as your first beta, you’ll first need to visit the Mac Dev Center with your Apple Dev credentials in hand, log in, and download the OS X Software Update Seed Configuration Utility.

Once you have installed OS X Software Update Seed Configuration Utility, the Mac App Store opens automatically. In the Mac App Store you must click on the Updates panel and the latest version of OS X Mavericks will show up as available for download.

If you already have OS X Software Update Seed Configuration Utility installed, simply choose Software Update from the Apple menu or from the Mac App Store.

To run Mavericks you’ll need iMac (Mid-2007 or later), MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later), MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later), Mac mini (Early 2009 or later), Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later), or Xserve (Early 2009).

Other minimum requirements include OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 installed, 2 GB of memory, and 8 GB of available disk space.