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Apple seeds OS X Yosemite Public Beta 6 to testers

Apple on Monday pushed an update to the public beta of its next-generation desktop operating system, granting members of the prerelease program access to a sixth revision that brings it up to speed with the version released to developers late last week.

Public beta members will find the new version available via the Updates tab in the Mac App Store. While the exact changes are not enumerated, it likely matches up with the third "golden master" version that registered developers received last Thursday.

Such a public beta program is rare for Apple, who previously strictly limited access to unfinished software to developers. That remains the case for the company's mobile operating system, iOS.

When announcing the public beta program, Apple indicated that they would accept up to 1 million beta testers. Though it is unclear how popular the program has been, sign-ups remain open, suggesting that they have thus far fallen short of that figure.

OS X Yosemite brings new Continuity and AirDrop features to OS X and iOS, which allow owners of devices running iOS 8 to perform cross-platform operations like creating ad-hoc data connections for transporting files, routing iPhone voice calls through a Mac and continuing in-app functions across devices. The next-gen operating system also incorporates a "flat" iOS-style user interface and other graphical tweaks.

Apple is expected to provide more detail about OS X Yosemite, and its release, at a media event on Thursday, Oct. 16. AppleInsider will be on hand at Apple headquarters in Cupertino and will bring live coverage from the event.