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Apple Releases First macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Public Beta With New Night Shift Mode

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two days after seeding the first 10.12.4 beta to developers and three days after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the 10.12.4 macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas should not be installed on a primary machine due to the potential for instability.


macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS's popular Night Shift mode to the Mac, allowing users to cut down on blue light exposure. Believed to affect sleep by upsetting the body's circadian rhythm, blue light is thought to be more harmful than yellow light.

With Night Shift, the Mac's display automatically shifts from cool to warm at sunset and then shifts back at sunrise. Users can also set custom times for the display's colors to shift, or toggle the effect on manually. A Toggle to turn Night Shift on is available in the Notification Center, and Siri can also be used to activate the feature. macOS Sierra 10.12.4 also includes Shanghainese dictation support, cricket scores for Siri, and PDFKit improvements.

Related Forum: macOS Sierra

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Top Rated Comments

routine_analyst Avatar
126 months ago
How about a system wide "dark mode" that goes beyond the menu bar and dock?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
willmtaylor Avatar
126 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
You're relatively new here, aren't you?

You see, this is a public forum where people can add their opinions and ideas concerning any given topic publicly.

If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave or continue ignoring anyone and everyone who rubs you the wrong way. Additionally, you may flag any comment you feel inappropriate, and forum moderators will take a look.

Best of luck, and may I suggest lightening up a bit?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mac Fly (film) Avatar
126 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
This forum was great 4-8 years ago. It's become overrun by teenagers and what appears to be people who genuinely just don't like Apple and as you know competing companies have been caught astroturfing before and my opinion is there is lots of that here too. Heck, if the NSA and GCHQ can do it then Samsung and other terrible entities are too. And they absolutely are.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
126 months ago
I hope Apple is working hard at this.
Probably at night to make sure it works.
[doublepost=1485456495][/doublepost]
How about a system wide "dark mode" that goes beyond the menu bar and dock?
How about just switching your machine off.
Works flawlessly without OS X issues..
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kaibelf Avatar
126 months ago
You're relatively new here, aren't you?

You see, this is a public forum where people can add their opinions and ideas concerning any given topic publicly.

If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave or continue ignoring anyone and everyone who rubs you the wrong way. Additionally, you may flag any comment you feel inappropriate, and forum moderators will take a look.

Best of luck, and may I suggest lightening up a bit?
Perhaps longtime readers don't appreciate users like yourself dragging down the discourse and content of the site with meaningless nonsense. If you have nothing to contribute, perhaps it is you who should leave instead of ruining it for the people who DO care about the site and the information here.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hourglass111 Avatar
126 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
I haven't logged into MacRumors for so long I can't even remember what my account used to be, and I reregistered just to say

THANK YOU.

I love Apple of old, and I love Apple now. Maybe those who don't feel the same can switch to Windows and Android, or at least start adding value to the forum.

Regarding the actual topic, I've used f.lux for years, including on jailbroken iPhones back when I did that. Night Shift functions way more smoothly, and I'm expecting the same to apply to macOS.

I still have issues on there with f.lux, where sometimes it'll flicker, or if I quit it it won't disable. These are the cons of switching through color profiles to make it work.

However, the ability to disable per-app may be missing (anyone looked into it?), which I'll submit a feature request to Apple for.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)