OS X 10.10.3

Yosemite 10.10.3 beta with Photos for Mac now available via OS X Public Beta program

The first beta of the forthcoming OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 software update which contains the long-expected Photos for Mac application, is now available via the AppleSeed Public Beta service.

Participants in the OS X Public Beta program can download the software update right now via the Updates tab of the Mac App Store. The public beta carries a build number of 14D87, the same like the second 10.10.3 beta that the company seeded to its registered Mac developers a week ago.

OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite beta 2 seeded to devs

Alongside the just-released iOS 8.3 Beta 2, Apple on Monday also seeded the second beta of a forthcoming OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite software update to its registered Mac developers.

Carrying a build number of 14D87h, OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 beta 2 (like the first beta) bundles a pre-release version of Apple's long-expected Photos for OS X application that will replace iPhoto and Aperture on Macs.

Registered Mac developers can apply OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite beta 2 through the Mac App Store's Software Update mechanism. In addition to Photos for Mac, Apple is asking developers to specifically focus on Wi-Fi captive network support and screen sharing.

Emojis to get more diverse in OS X 10.10.3

Apple is bringing several enhancements to emojis in OS X 10.10.3, as placeholder emojis indicate we may see more diverse characters when the update is released to the public in the coming months.

Following word from the Unicode Consortium in March of 2014 that more diverse emojis are coming, there are now multiple versions of the same emoji character under a sub-menu.

Given the beta state of OS X 10.10.3, the menu is currently non-functional, but it does show the selected emoji followed by five instances of the emoji paired with a number one inside a black box, MacRumors first noted. This indicates we may see different skin tones for the "man" emoji and others.