In keeping with previous years, the public beta versions of Apple releases public betas of iOS 17, iPadOS17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 Sonoma have been made available to everyone who is game to try out the next generation of Apple’s software. This follows about a month of developer betas and represents an opportunity to try the latest Apple software. But beware of the risks.
Apple has provided plenty of information on what we can expect from the new operating platforms at the Apple developer website. Developers received the third developer beta early this week so it’s likely the public beta is similar to that or the second developer beta. I’ve been running developer betas of macOS Sonoma on my MacBook Air (2020 model running an M1 system on a chip) and have not found any major issues. However, I don’t run any exotic or particularly complex software on that machine.
In other words, you may have a very different experience depending on the apps you run. If you run older applications, you may find they stop working reliably, or at all, as Apple often makes system changes that are not outwardly visible but impact underlying services. I have friend running a ten year old Mac simply because changes Apple made to it’s underlying audio subsystems made it harder for them to use with an external keyboard/synth.
To access the public betas, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID at Apple’s developer site. Once you do that, you’ll be able to download a profile that will link your device to Apple’s software servers so that you can access the betas via Software Update on your devices.
As always, these are beta versions. That means you may suffer some stability issues. Apps may crash or totally fail. I do not recommend installing beta versions on primary systems you rely on.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.