Wesley Hilliard
Apple on Thursday released the first public beta of macOS Big Sur and the fourth iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 betas to the public software testing program.
While iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 is in its fourth public beta release, this is the first time macOS Big Sur has been available to the public. Sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program on the website.
The latest iOS and iPadOS updates include new widgets for the TV app and the return of the Weather widget. Exposure notification also gets its own menu in the Settings app.
The macOS Big Sur public beta should reflect the same build as the fourth developer beta released on Wednesday. The biggest changes in macOS are in its design, with rounded windows and more transparency throughout. This beta also enables 4K playback of YouTube videos for the first time when using Safari.
Apple has not released the public beta for watchOS 7 yet.
AppleInsider, and Apple itself, strongly recommend users don't install the betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, as there is the remote possibility of data loss or other issues. Instead, testers should install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to make sure there are sufficient backups of important data before updating.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
11 Comments
Installing on my iPad now. Preparing has been going for a while.Update...
Preparing update took over one hour. The file for my iPad (6th gen) was less than 500 mb.
Now installation is dragging along-10 minutes and counting now.
Update 2...
Bar completed and then screen flashed and now bar starts again. Finally finished after 15 minutes.
Finally, Big Sur.
New SE here, again had long upgrade time, with “Attempting Data Recovery.”
Can't download in New Zealand for some reason, have tried on both my MacMini and MacBook Pro and both say there is no updates available.
Might try again a bit later in the day. Damn, was looking forward to having a play over the weekend.