Apple has just released the update to macOS Monterey, bringing it to version 12.4.

Release notes state that the Podcasts app has been improved, and now includes a new setting to limit episodes stored locally, and automatically delete older ones. This update also introduces communications safety settings in Messages, with safety warnings, as Apple has previously explained.

There’s a separate Studio Display Firmware Update which Apple states refines the built-in camera, improving its noise reduction, contrast and framing. It’s not clear whether this display update requires 12.4 to be installed first: Apple had stated that it didn’t want to tie it to a particular version of macOS, but that intention may have been limited by the requirements imposed on the installer. My own Studio Display update wasn’t revealed in Software Update until after I had updated that Mac Studio to 12.4.

I understand that this update includes firmware updates for many if not all supported models. For T2 Macs, this brings them to 1731.120.10.0.0 with iBridge 19.16.15071.0.0,0; for M1 series Macs, this brings iBoot to 7459.121.3. I have already updated those in my firmware database, accessible using SilentKnight.

Download size is relatively modest, at 3.11 GB for M1 series models, and around 2.78 GB for Intel Macs. The Studio Display update to version 15.5 (19F77) is 487 MB.

When my iMac Pro updated, it simply shut down at the end of its T2 firmware update, and had to be restarted manually to complete the rest of the update. Once it had booted back into 12.4, it underwent a period of ‘optimisation’ while mds and other related processes tried to max out its cores. Once that had settled, I restarted again, just to ensure the update had taken fully.

Also released are Big Sur 11.6.6 and Catalina Security Update 2022-004, together with accompanying updates to Safari. The Catalina SU is available as a standalone update from here.

[Updated 0610 GMT 23 May 2022. Thanks to Nelson for the link to the Catalina update.]