iOS 10 Beta 7 and Public Beta 6 were released last week

Aug 22, 2016 21:02 GMT  ·  By

Just a few moments ago, Apple started seeding the seventh and probably the last Beta of the forthcoming macOS 10.12 Sierra computer operating system to developers enrolled in the Apple Developer program.

Marked as build 16A304a, the macOS Sierra Beta 7 appeared today, August 22, 2016, on our Apple Developer account and it looks like it's installable, as usual, through the Mac App Store. maOS 10.12 Sierra Beta 7 requires a late 2009 or newer MacBook or iMac, as well as a 2010 or newer MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, or Mac Pro computer.

According to the internal release notes, this final Beta builds adds usability enhancements to AirDrop, the ability to create an Apple File System (APFS) container on an external disk drive using the "diskutil" command, a workaround for an Apple Pay issue, various networking improvements, and better Logitech Control Center support.

Support for portable home directories has been removed, SMB (Samba) is now the default file sharing protocol, FaceTime calls between Beta 7 and older iOS and macOS Beta are no longer supported, and it looks like there are also some core improvements that should speed up the entire operating system.

Final macOS 10.12 Sierra release arrives in September

The macOS 10.12 Sierra Beta 7 build was released today only to application developers that have a registered, paid Apple Developer account, but there's also a Public Beta 6 release available to public beta testers as well, because Apple seeded the both the Public Beta 6 and Beta 7 development builds of iOS 10 at the end of last week.

The final release of the macOS 10.12 Sierra operating system will arrive in September, along with the final versions of iOS 10, tvOS 10, watchOS 3, and Xcode 8. We expect that Apple will hold a press announcement in the first week of September, when the Cupertino company should unveil a new iPhone device to the world, the iPhone 7.