Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.4: Here’s What’s New

Apple has just released the final version of macOS Sierra 10.12.4 – making it the fourth major update since Sierra was released 6 months ago in September last year. The latest version of macOS was under beta testing since January and went through eight betas before finally being available to general users.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings a number of bug fixes and security enhancements among other changes.

The most notable feature of this update is Night Shift. The Night Shift feature automatically shifts the colors in your display from the cooler end to the warmer end of the spectrum after dark and can help you sleep better at night. Apple first released Night Shift with iOS 9.3 about a year ago.

Now that Night Shift is natively available with macOS, users will no longer need third-party apps like f.lux to use the feature. Night Shift is compatible with the following Apple computers.

• MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or later)
• MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or later)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• Mac mini (Late 2012 or later)
• iMac (Late 2012 or later)

The latest macOS update also brings something for cricket fans. It adds Siri support for cricket scores, schedules and player rosters from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and International Cricket Council (ICC).

The macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, and is recommended for all users.

Whether you’re all excited for Night Shift and cricket updates or not, it is strongly recommended that you install this update as soon as it hits your device. macOS 10.12.4 brings a number of security updates and you don’t want to miss the patches.

macOS 10.12.4 Changelog

According to Apple’s update page, the latest version of macOS Sierra carries the following features, fixes or improvements.

• Adds Night Shift for automatically shifting the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum after dark.
• Adds Siri support for cricket scores, schedules, and player rosters from the Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council.
• Adds Dictation support for Shanghainese.
• Improves right-to-left language support for the Touch Bar, toolbar, and visual tab picker in Safari.
• Resolves several PDF rendering and annotation issues in Preview.
• Improves the visibility of the subject line when using Conversation View in Mail.
• Fixes an issue that may prevent content from appearing in Mail messages.
• Adds support for more digital camera RAW formats.

Enterprise content:

• Adds the tethered-caching command, which optimizes certain downloads for iOS devices tethered via USB. For details, enter man tethered-caching in Terminal.
• Updates the security command to include the delete-identity option, which deletes both a certificate and its private key from a keychain. For details, enter man security in Terminal.
• Updates the profiles command to include the -N flag, which displays a device-enrollment notification that prompts the user to complete Mobile Device Management (MDM) enrollment. For details, enter man profiles in Terminal.
• Fixes an issue that causes notebook computers connected to certain docking stations to display a blank screen instead of the macOS login window on the built-in display.
• Fixes an issue that causes a newly changed user-account password to be rejected at the macOS login window, if FileVault is turned on.
• Adds the ability to automatically renew certain certificates delivered via a configuration profile.
• Includes numerous Xsan fixes.

Information about the security content of macOS Sierra 10.12.4 can be found here.

How to Update to the Latest macOS Version

Updating your device to the latest version is a simple process.

To install updates, just open App Store and click ‘Updates’ tab. Let it search for available updates.

Once the list of available updates is displayed, click ‘Update All’ to install all updates.

Updating macOS requires your device to be restarted. So make sure you save your work and restart your device to finish the update process.

Along with the update for macOS, Apple has also released iOS 10.3, watchOS 3.2, tvOS 10.2, and macOS Server 5.3 for different devices. Apple iWorks suite has also been updated with several new features to each app.