Apple seeds macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta 8 and watchOS 3.2 beta 7

Apple on Monday seeded an eighth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and a seventh beta of watchOS 3.2 to its registered developers and members of the Apple Developer Program. Both macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta 8 (build 16E192b) and watchOS 3.2 beta 7 (build 14V5249a) can be deployed over-the-air on devices running a prior beta and a using a special configuration profile that can be downloaded from Apple’s portal for developers and beta-testers.

The latest Sierra beta follows the previous release four days ago. watchOS 3.2 beta 7 follows a sixth beta, which was seeded to registered Apple developers six days ago.

Apple should release the major iOS 10.3, macOS Sierra 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2 and tvOS 10.2 software updates later this month, maybe even later this week following possible product refreshes that could occur tomorrow morning.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 features

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings Night Shift Mode to your Mac. Night Shift mode was originally designed to help iOS users adjust the temperature of their display from cool to warm, manually or based on the time of day.

You can access Night Shift for Mac in System Preferences, Notification Center or via Siri.

A dedicated preference pane makes it easy to quickly adjust when a Mac’s display should start gradually shifting from blue to yellow in order to cut down on exposure to blue light, which is said to cause sleeping problems.

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In addition to Night Shift, macOS Sierra 10.12.4 includes Dictation support for Shanghainese, an updated PDF API fixing a few annoying bugs and a new iCloud Analytics feature while enabling Siri look-ups of cricket schedules, scores and rosters for two new cricket leagues and other perks.

Keep in mind that macOS betas are available for public beta testing to those enrolled to Apple’s Beta Software Program.

watchOS 3.2 features

watchOS 3.2 brings Theater Mode to Apple Watch via a new toggle in Control Center.

With Night Mode on Apple Watch, features like Raise to Wake and audible alerts get disabled or muted temporarily while still keeping system haptics on.

According to Apple:

Theater Mode lets users quickly mute the sound on their Apple Watch and avoid waking the screen on wrist raise. Users still receive notifications (including haptics) while in Theater Mode, which they can view by tapping the screen or pressing the Digital Crown.

Be sure to read our full coverage of Theater Mode in watchOS 3.2.

watchOS 3.2 will also let you control apps via Siri, like you can on iOS 10.

You’ll be able to tell your Apple Watch to send a message, make a payment, book a ride, start a workout, call a contact or search photos in compatible apps.

We’ll update the article with any changes found in the latest betas. Send us your own findings via tips@iDownloadBlog.com or share them in the comments below.