14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is teasing members of its AppleSeed customer program by mentioning potential “hardware-specific” software updates that may include “special features,” as well as bug fixes, enabling Mountain Lion builds to work well on certain types of hardware.
The Apple Software Customer Seeding enables select customers to receive invitations to test pre-release software “in order to provide Apple Software Engineering with real-world quality and usability feedback.”
The user must not only install whatever Apple asks them to (i.e. in this case, OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3), but also a tool called FeedBack Assistant.
“We are preparing for possible hardware specific software updates on OS X Mountain Lion,” Apple tells customers. “These contain hardware-specific bug fixes or even special features!”
“In order to make sure you can participate in these exclusive seeds, we need your most up-to-date machine configuration information. The easiest and most efficient way to do this is with Feedback Assistant,” the company states.
One such hardware-specific feature could be the Retina display on future versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac computers. Apple is said to have prepared such an announcement for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicking off June 11th this year.
“Software seeding is not for everyone,” Apple notes. “Participants testing developmental software must tolerate the unpolished nature of a pre-release product. There is always the risk of data loss.”
The Apple Software Customer Seeding program allows the Mac makers to collect feedback from its customers to improve the overall quality of its products by testing it in many different environments and scenarios.
“Your experience with our products impacts our future success and this program will help us facilitate that goal,” says the company.
You can log in to Apple Software Customer Seeding here.