While Tim Cook was doing his Spring Thing yesterday, or at most a few hours after, macOS 11.3 RC, iOS/iPadOS/iPodOS 14.5 RC, and WatchOS 7.4 RC were released to developers and beta testers alike. While it is not unheard of for there to be a second RC (release candidate) version that means macOS 11.4 beta 1, iOS 14.6/iPadOS/iPodOS 14.6 beta 1, WatchOS 7.5 beta 1, and iPodOS 14.5 beta 1 can't be far behind. It also serves as a reminder that it is only thirty-eight (38) days until the 2021 WWDC when we will find out what to expect in macOS 12, iOS/iPadOS/iPodOS 15, and WatchOS 8. (Or maybe, as it was suggested a decade or so ago, all of the Apple OS variants will finally have the same version number?)
Developers are apparently already receiving macOS 14.4 beta 1 and beta testers will likely get it tomorrow or the next day even before macOS 11.3 makes it to full releases some time next week. No word yet on what is included.
There is also speculation it may include support for the just announced iPad Pro. Certainly there is no reason it couldn't run on the new iPad Pro which has the exact same M1 Apple Silicon on a chip as the current, Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and the just announced 24" iMac.
I am installing 11.4 now and will let you know what, if anything, I discover. (I wish I had an M1 iPadPro to test it on.)
The macOS 11.4 beta 1 install was dead smooth. I didn't have timer on it, but the install seemed noticeably quicker than the just installed macOS 11.3 RC. The Release Notes mentioned added support for three high end graphics cards and deprecating some interim features in Xcode. My major outstanding issues (bootable clones and SoftRAID) were corrected in macOS 11.3 beta 7 or 8, but I had hoped to see improvements and/or additional functionality in both. Initial testing indicates both of those areas are unchanged in macOS 11.4 beta 1. 😣 Disappointing, but not surprising since by now the heavy lifting in OS development should be shifting from macOS 11.x to macOS 12 — if it hasn't shifted already.