Apple releases first public beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3

Apple has seeded the first public beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3. The latest update is released just 2 days after the company rolled it out to developers for testing. Earlier, the company also released an updated version of the first developer beta of iOS 14.5 and not the second version of the new iOS 14.5 developer beta.

This month, Apple released the public update for macOS Big Sur 11.2 without any new noticeable features but several bug fixes for external display connectivity with M1 Macs, iCloud Drive, Bluetooth, Keyboard, System Preference and more.

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta

• More customization options for Safari browser to personalize the Start Page and speech recognition support by Web Speech APIs for developers’ websites.
• Improvements to iOS and iPadOS apps on M1 Macs.
• Updated Reminders app gets better organization features like priority, title, due date, or creation date.
• A new ‘Made For You’ section in Apple Music and Listen Now section highlights live and upcoming events.
• Redesigned News+ tab on the Apple News app to quickly find newspapers and magazines, and manage downloaded issues.
• Support for new PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X/S controllers for macOS games.
• An updated ‘Support’ UI in the “About This Mac” feature gives details of the device’s warranty, option to start a repair right.

macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta compatible Macs

macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta is compatible with the following Macs:

• MacBook Air (2013 and newer)
• MacBook Pro (late 2013 and newer)
• MacBook (2015 and newer)
• iMac (2014 and newer)
• iMac Pro (2017 and newer)
• Mac mini (2014 and newer)
• Mac Pro (2013 and newer)

Download macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta

To download the beta version of macOS Big Sur, users must be registered to Apple’s developer program for $99/year to get beta access utility which needs to be downloaded and installed to enroll their Mac in the beta program. Alternatively, they can simply wait for the public beta update, which is released to users who are part of Apple’s beta software program. The program is free and gives you access to public beta builds, which are released a few days after developer betas.

Existing users already enrolled in a beta program can download macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta by opening System Preferences > Software Update. As this is beta software, make sure that you have properly backed up your data before updating, as there might be bugs in the update that could cause data loss.