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MacOS update 10.12.2 brings graphics fixes, Touch Bar screenshots and more

A few new features from Apple, but mostly bug fixes in the latest update.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
2 min read
apple-watch-desbloqueo-mac-macos-sierra.png

Unlocking a MacOS Sierra MacBook with an Apple Watch.

Apple

A new MacOS update from Apple will be available starting today. The MacOS Sierra 10.12.2 update includes a wide variety of fixes and tweaks, but also a couple of new features, including one of special interest to owners of the new Touch Bar version of the MacBook Pro .

Highlights include:

  • Setup of Auto Unlock, which uses an Apple Watch to unlock a Mac, has been simplified. The original setup, which I wrote about here, was especially time-consuming and cumbersome.
  • The newest Grab app goes form beta to official release. With it, you can grab screenshots of the new MacBook Pro's secondary Touch Bar screen.
  • Two MacBook Pro issues -- a graphics issue with the AMD graphics chips in the 15-inch Pro, and a problem with a security feature called System Integrity Protection being mistakenly turned off by default, have been addressed.
siri-macos.jpg

Siri is one of the major features in MacOS Sierra.

Sarah Tew/CNET

We've also been told that with this new update, the battery life indicator on MacBooks is going to lose its "estimated time remaining" clock, and instead just rely on the battery percentage left. For years, variable power states and CPUs that can clock up or down depending on your activity have made these countdown clocks unreliable across both Windows and Mac computers .

Apple's full list of system notes is as follows:

  • Improves setup and reliability of Auto Unlock
  • Allows addition of a Chinese Trackpad Handwriting button to the Touch Bar Control Strip
  • Adds support for taking screenshots of the Touch Bar using the Grab app or Cmd-Shift-6 shortcut
  • Fixes an issue that caused the Touch Bar emoji picker to appear on the display
  • Resolves graphics issues on MacBook Pro (late 2016) computers
  • Fixes an issue where System Integrity Protection was disabled on some MacBook Pro (late 2016) computers
  • Improves setup and opt-out experience for iCloud Desktop and Documents
  • Fixes an issue with the delivery of Optimized Storage alerts
  • Improves audio quality when using Siri and FaceTime with Bluetooth headphones
  • Improves the stability of Photos when creating and ordering books
  • Fixes an issue where incoming Mail messages did not appear when using a Microsoft Exchange account
  • Fixes an issue that prevented installation of Safari Extensions downloaded outside the Safari Extensions Gallery
  • Adds support for new installations of Windows 8 and Windows 7 using Boot Camp on supported Macs

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