Sonata Gains Stability in 3rd Beta

On Tuesday, Apple seeded the third beta of Mac OS 8.7, code-named Sonata, to developers. The build, which is individually code-named "Signed," is the first that is said to be "fully suitable for everyday use." This is just the 7th privately-seeded build of Apple's next-generation Mac OS, which is scheduled to turn Golden Master sometime a little later this summer.

New in this build is a beta of Macintosh Manager 1.1. In the new version, user documents have been moved to the workgroup data volume sharepoint, inside the Users folder, in the folder that has the user's name. The user preferences are now handled by the Mac OS, and in most cases are redirected to the server volume. This will improve login times, since the user's own preferences do not have to be copied back and forth between the server and the client workstation, sources said.

Sherlock's QuickTime Interface.

Additionally, the latest version of Network Browser includes an "apple.com" group, which sources say will be available via Sonata's TCP/IP services. Due to this addition, servers over a local AppleTalk network will not load automatically when the Network Browser is loaded, but will instead be grouped in their own "AppleTalk" workgroup.

Furthermore, it appears that Apple has made some cosmetic changes to the new Multiple Users control panel, while stabilizing the Multiple Users feature for extensive testing. Voice-activated logins now function properly in the beta releases as does Sherlock II, which has since obtained the complete QuickTime 4.0 interface as shown in the image above.

Finally, an option to encrypt data files has now been inserted into the Finder's File menu. As always, a complete rundown of Sonata's features, and links to previous coverage can be found in our Mac OS 8.7 Information Archive.