Considering macOS Sierra Public Beta? Not Just Yet

I downloaded and installed the macOS 10.12, Sierra public beta yesterday. I put it on my late 2013 15” MacBook Pro. I’m one of those lucky people with multiple (3) Macs, so I never run the risk of upgrading myself out of production. To be fair, I’ve had pretty good luck installing OS X betas. Even before Apple’s public beta program, my developer status afforded me access to early copies of everything Apple published. I hardly ever install a “Rev 0” version of anything, but Apple has a decent track record of releasing mostly stable versions of their OS by the time it gets to “public” status. I didn’t have that experience yesterday.

So, why would a semi-intelligent person like myself risk the utility of a multi-thousand dollar laptop by installing a half-baked operating system? Well, there was one feature of macOS Sierra I couldn’t wait to try. I wanted my Watch to unlock my MBP by simply coming in proximity. I never got there. More on that in a minute.

First, the install went without a hitch. I went to Apple’s developer site, clicked the “Download” button for macOS Sierra Beta 2. That launched the Mac App Store app where I redeemed a code that started the download. 4.86 GB later, the install screen appeared.

 

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Broken Watch

Well, after a year and a half I did it. I fumbled my Watch onto the tile floor in my dining room. Do you know what an idiosecond is? That’s a segment of time measured from the instant you drop your glass-laden Apple device to the instant it hits the floor/ground. It is right around one-second-long, but due to the time-dilation that takes place, it feels like much longer. Although your entire life doesn’t flash before your eyes, a significant portion does. You think, “Oh shit!”, “Is it in my Lifeproof case?”, “Can I break its fall with my foot?”, “Is my AppleCare up-to-date?”, and you swear profusely against whichever god suits you. All this in the span of a single idiosecond. If you’re like me, you spend the next couple of seconds asking forgiveness from whichever god you just profaned while asking him/her to please let your device be OK. My poor Watch wasn’t. The screen was completely shattered. I could tell immediately which corner it landed on. The scratch-proof sapphire turned to dust on the upper right-hand corner and the rest of it completely spider-webbed. It was so bad that when I did the “slide to power off” thing, my thumb came back bloody.

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