Apple on Tuesday seeded the fifth beta release of macOS Monterey 12.3 to developers for testing. The new beta comes one week after the release of the fourth beta.
The developer build of macOS Monterey 12.3 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center and once the correct profile is installed, succeeding betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.
Registered Public Beta Testers can download and install the new macOS 12.3 Monterey public beta through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile.
Mac users who want to be a part of Apple’s beta testing program can sign up to participate on the Apple Beta Software Program website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS betas
macOS Monterey 12.3 introduces Universal Control, a feature that Apple first teased last June at WWDC and then was delayed for several months. Universal Control allows you to use a single mouse/trackpad and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads running iPadOS 15.4.
Universal Control allows your Mac’s cursor and keyboard to work on the iPad and vice versa. The second macOS 12.3 update adds an icon that you’ll see in the menu bar to indicate that the feature is activated.
macOS Monterey 12.3 also adds support for updating the AirPods firmware when the earbuds are connected to a Mac. The update deprecates kernel extensions used by Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive. It also eliminates Python 2. Developers are advised to use Python 3 or another scripting language going forward.
As usual, MacTrast and Apple both warn users to not install any betas on their daily driver Mac, instead only installing betas on devices set aside for testing purposes.
