iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4 inch closer to public release

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iPhone 7 in hand
Apple's new iOS update is nearly ready for primetime.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Developers received new beta software updates today for iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, possibly signaling that a public release is just around the corner.

The new updates come just a few days after Apple dropped the last betas of macOS 10.12.4 and iOS 10.3 on developers. Both updates come with a number of bug fixes and under the hood improvements to go with new features that were added in previous versions.

iOS 10.3 brings a number of changes to devices, including a new Find My AirPods feature. Apple is also switching to its more-secure file system and finally adding iCloud calls for Verizon. There are some tweaks made to the podcasts widget and CarPlay. Apple even added a secret one-handed keyboard for iPad.

The improvements added to macOS 10.12.4 aren’t quite as impressive as iOS 10.3 but there are some new goodies. Apple is bringing Night Shift mode to the Mac after adding it to iOS devices last year. Other new additions include cricket scores for Siri, Shanghainese dictation support, improved PDFKit APIs, and more.

Release notes from Apple on iOS 10.3 beta 6 and macOS 10.12.4 beta 6 don’t mention any major improvements or changes. Considering these are the sixth beta builds, Apple’s engineers are focusing on getting all the bugs squashed and ready for launch.

Other updates for watchOS and tvOS are also in the works and will likely be made available to the public at the same time as iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4.

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