Intro
As many of you know, Apple recently opened up its OS X beta testing program to anyone. So long as you have an Apple ID and a Mac that can handle Mavericks, you can test upcoming OS X releases. Note that this is not for iOS testing - that is still limited to developers only.
Please remember that discussion of how to get and run OS X betas is perfectly fine on AppleVis. However, when you agree to become a beta tester, you agree to Apple's non-disclosure agreement. Therefore, any talk about specific features, problems, or other aspects of beta versions of OS X is not allowed here. We understand that anyone can now run OS X betas, and that some people will wonder why we restrict discussion since anyone can grab the beta for themselves. The answer is simply that Apple asks everyone to honor the NDA, so talking about the specifics of betas is still against Apple's, and therefore our, rules.
Preparing
If you are interested in running OS X betas, you will want to do so on a separate drive, or at least a separate partition, if you only have one Mac. After all, betas may break important features or introduce serious bugs, which is why they are betas and not final releases. See this guide on partitioning a drive on the Mac to see how to set aside a section of your hard drive for testing.
Once you have a partition set up, or if you have a whole separate drive you will be using, download and run the OS X Mavericks installer from the App Store, You will be asked which drive you want to install Mavericks on; select your partition or external drive. Please be sure the drive is empty and/or backed up, as this process (or the process of preparing the drive) may erase data.
Switching Between The Beta and Stable Releases
After the installation completes and you have gone through the OS X setup process, you will be running the beta. To get back to your normal installation, simply open up System Preferences on the beta drive, go to Startup Disk, choose your regular drive (probably called Macintosh HD), and click Restart. You can now use this method to switch between your two operating systems at will. Alternatively, you can hold down the Option key during startup, but the menu that will appear does not have any way of speaking, so you will have to memorize the order.
Reporting Problems
If you encounter a bug, you are asked to report it via Apple's feedback tool. If the problem is specific to VoiceOver, please follow these instructions, sent to me by someone on Apple's accessibility team (I am restating these, not quoting directly). The sender gave me permission to distribute this information.
- Open the Feedback Assistant tool, which will ask you a series of questions about the problem you encountered. This will appear on your Dock of any OS X beta version.
- Select Accessibility as the answer to the first question, then VoiceOver for the second question.
- When entering the problem description, please be as detailed as possible. Often, things you would not consider to be important are key, such as the voice in use. If possible, give steps to reproduce the problem.
- Note that necessary files will be automatically copied from your computer (logs, for instance) to help Apple diagnose the problem. This is the other reason to specify that you are reporting a VoiceOver bug - if the problem is in VoiceOver and not, say, the Mail App, and you fail to say Voiceover is at fault, Apple will be looking for a problem in the Mail app when they should be looking in VoiceOver. To get the proper files and steer Apple in the right direction, please be clear about the problem. *Please remember to report all bugs, not just new ones. If you can reproduce an issue that has been around since OS10.8, report it. It may be something Apple thought was fixed, and your report will tell them it was not.
- Do not be too quick to blame VoiceOver for everything. If an app made by Apple has accessibility problems, the app should be reported, not VoiceOver. For example, unlabeled buttons are a problem with a specific app, while VoiceOver failing to switch to one of your Activities is a VoiceOver problem.
Comments
system naming
When you install a second copy of OS X on your drive, what will happen to things like the computer name and other identifying aspects of the computer? Like will it try to rename my drive from the computer name I gave it when I originally set it up?
OS X yosemite alternate name
hopefully this doesn't violate the NDA I signed, but it's public as of the wwdc keynote. I don't really like the name OS X Yosemite and it is the name they chose, but i'd rather OS X Ratcho cocoamonga. in wwdc, creg fetrerigy said that's the first name they came up with and I think that's the best, not to mention the funniest... ratcho cocomonga would send all the windows users to macs, just for the cool name. any thought fello apple vis users?
Private beta
First, you probably did violate the NDA you signed. We aren't supposed to say a word about the beta until it officially goes public. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone public yet. Finally, the name you created would probably make a bad reputation for MAC users, and Apple. We have to be serious, but fun with OS names...