Busy day for Apple customers as new updates are available

Jul 19, 2016 07:23 GMT  ·  By

Apple has released new beta and stable updates for iOS earlier today, but the company has also shipped new improvements to the Apple Watch and Mac OS X (or macOS, as Apple will call it starting with the next release) aimed at both retail users and developers.

These updates can be downloaded right away by those with an Apple Watch and a Mac OS X device, but keep in mind that, in the case of beta versions, bugs are very likely, and this clearly makes sense since we’re still in testing stage.

Apple Watch

In the case of Apple Watch, Apple has rolled out watchOS 2.2.2, a new version for stable users that brings only bug fixes and performance improvements. There are no new features, and the chances are that you won’t notice anything new after updating unless there was an issue that you came across before and that has been fixed in this release.

watchOS 3 beta 3, on the other hand, allows developers to test the upcoming version and optimize their apps ahead of the public release scheduled to take place in September.

This new beta fixes issues making it impossible to reply to an Activity Sharing notification from a friend, but also a bug that reset the clock face layout after reboot. Notifications should also work correctly after updating, and call handling should no longer be impacted by bugs causing calls to drop.

Don’t forget that having your Apple Watch connected to the charger is a must in the case of watchOS updates, and it takes a little bit longer than expected, with version 2.2.2 installing on our devices in more than 15 minutes.

OS X/macOS

As far as the desktop platform is concerned, Apple has released OS El Capitan 10.11.6 and is once again focused on fixing bugs and improving performance ahead of the public launch of macOS.

Apple has decided to rebrand OS X as macOS in order to bring more consistency in its product portfolio and align the desktop platform with iOS and watchOS, and the public debut of the new version is expected to take place in the fall.

In the meantime, Apple is testing macOS with beta versions, and a new one was released yesterday too, so developers can already download macOS 10.12 Sierra beta 3 from the Mac App Store. Release notes aren’t yet available, but the focus was most likely on addressing issues, so expect this new version to run more smoothly and be faster than the previous versions.

Once again, installing betas comes with several risks, as bugs are very likely, and Apple doesn’t recommend deploying pre-release software on your main system.

WatchOS 3 Beta 3