Phase.org

OK, this *is* described by CCP on the EVE forum, but it's spread around over several posts and pages and doesn't clarify that some steps may not be required. In any case, it's a bit of a clumsy process. The most critical point is that you may not need to run a patch.

So here's what worked for me:

Notes; TQ refers to Tranquility, the "live" server. SI is Singularity, the primary "test" server.

1. Rename your existingEve Online.app to Eve Online - TQ.app (or similar). (This is to protect it from overzealous patching).
2. Copy that app to Eve Online - SI.app
3. Go into your EVE settings folder:
   /Users/yourMacUser/Library/Preferences/EVE Online Preferences/p_drive/Local Settings/Application Data/CCP/EVE/c_program_files_ccp_eve_tranquility/settings.
4. Copy the prefs.ini file to prefs.ini.TQ
5. Open the original prefs.ini file in a text editor and add the following final line:
   server=87.237.38.50
6. Copy this new prefs.ini file to prefs.ini.SI
7. You can now start the Eve client app. Make sure it's the SI copy.
8. The login area should look something like this: (The important thing's that it says "Server: Test Server (Singularity))."
   
9. Various things can happen at this point:
   • If the display is as shown, you can log straight into the test server. Enjoy.
   • If server status is Offline, Singularity's down (it's a test server after all and downtime varies). See the Eve Servers Status page to confirm.
   • You may get an "Incompatible Protocol Version" message. This means your Singularity copy of EVE needs to be patched. Chances are it'll offer you a patch download automatically. Accept it only if you've got two copies of Eve Online.App as above.
   • You may need to patch manually. If so, visit the Mac Singularity Patch Page and download the patch application. Make sure you run it on the Eve Online - SI.app not the TQ one!
   If you run a patch, either automatically or manually, it will rename your Eve Online - SI.app back to Eve Online.app! This is what we in the software industry technically call DUMB. Make sure you rename it back to Eve Online - SI.app straight away. Otherwise the copies will collide at some point.
   Note that any time you patch your live copy it'll also do this. Make sure you tidy up after it!
10. If you've run the patch and renamed the app, you can now run it and connect to the test server.

IMPORTANT NOTE! You now cannot connect to Tranquility even with your Eve Online - TQ.app copy! To do that, you'll need to copy prefs.ini.TQ back over prefs.ini (or just remove the server line from it, and then run Eve Online - TQ.app
You will need to copy or edit prefs.ini every time you change servers!

Now, in my professional opinion as a software developer and sysadmin, that's a lot of hoops to make your testers jump through. No doubt CCP wonder why they get so few early bug reports from Mac users... I hope they'll make this process simpler soon; if not I may try to provide an automated tool to do the above for you.