Apple today released the third beta of macOS Ventura 13.4 to its public beta testing group, allowing the general public to try out the software ahead of its official launch. The third macOS Ventura 13.4 public beta comes two weeks after Apple seeded the second public beta and a day after the beta was provided to developers.
Public beta testers can download the macOS 13.3 Ventura update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.
The macOS Ventura 13.4 beta adds a new beta installation method where developers and public beta testers can opt-in to receive beta updates without the need for a profile to be installed. For developers, an Apple ID needs to be associated with a developer account to get access to a developer beta, while public beta testers need to sign up on Apple's public beta website with their Apple ID and then elect to receive beta updates using the System Settings app.
Work on macOS Ventura is winding down as Apple prepares to shift its focus to macOS 14, the as-of-yet-unnamed next-generation version of macOS that we expect to see introduced this June at WWDC.
Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update.
Apple Music
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Will upgrade to Ventura in October, Monterrey is stable and super reliable. Thank you all for continued beta testing, carry on!
This year was the first time I never updated any of my devices to the "current OS". Every device is a generation back, and I have no issues or problems that I am aware of. When I sit down to work I work for me, not Apple by trying to debug something they have borked.
There's always the hope that bugs are fixed... There's a truly horrendous bug in 13.3.x on Apple Silicon that randomly ejects external hard drives.
That's the BIG one that I care about too. And it's been an ongoing problem since Big Sur, not just 13.3.x. Only some externals are affected, not all. It seems to be a greater problem for HDD-based enclosures than SSD (but SSDs are not immune). Age is not a factor as I've tested some ancient ones (pulled out of retirement enclosures to test this) that work fine, while some much newer ones will NOT stay connected. Many think it is connected to sleep, but I've seen plenty of ejections while actively transferring files to/from affected drives. It is not brand based as I have 2 from the same (good) brand and one works fine while the other "unexpectedly ejects."
Fans will visit every thread about this issue and redirect to cable, settings, user, firmware, etc- anything other than Apple/macOS- but same drive + cable hooked to an older Mac running macOS BEFORE Big Sur is typically just fine.
There are also plenty of posts by people who simply upgraded on the SAME Mac and crashed into this problem- fine with the prior macOS version, "unexpected ejections" on newer macOS. It mattered enough to some of those people to downgrade back to the prior version of macOS and all was fine again- no cable change, same user, no firmware change, etc. Particularly in those cases, it seems it can only be macOS bugs because EVERYTHING else remained the same.
There are LOTS of threads about this both here and elsewhere (including Apple's own support forums). For some reason, this (almost certainly) buggy port management code cannot seem to get attention at Apple (yet). Hopefully, THIS time someone finally got to it. I've got a great external temporarily retired because I can't keep it attached while using it... unless I hook it back up to any other Mac (or a PC I now own too) and all is fine again. Older Macs running older macOS? All just fine. Latest, greatest, "most powerful ever" Mac running latest macOS? "Unexpected ejections." I really miss "just works" Apple.
.4 already? Looks like we are getting closer to a brand new macOS soon. I can start thinking about installing Ventura on my work machine, but will probably wait to .5 as a year should be enough for Apple team to iron out most of the issues.
