3 weeks > 2 weeks beta timeline?

Apple marches to the beat of their own drum, 6 years of iOS development and I have yet to see a set time frame for their beta.

They're more likely to tweak little things (like maybe icon designs) when they have more time to change things around before release. Once it is released they get feedback on bugs and fix those instead.

They've done 3 week and other length beta update cycles with previous iOS versions, nothing new.

The dev center being down might have had an impact if there was some plan to release an update this week, but no one really knows if that was the plan to begin with.

beta 4 taking 3 weeks to test

Apple added iWork,including Pages, Numbers and Keynote to IOS bete 4, so, they knew that they should give developers more time to test and they chose 3-week.

jbenkelman said:

I was under the assumption that the developer site being down was probably a big reason we didn't see an update, but with maverick updating that chance got slimmer. I know that developers need the Xcode but I still think apple could have released without the site.

Any thoughts?

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Mavericks is released via the Mac App Store, not the developer site so it is less reliant on that and can be released as expected. You must have access to the dev site to download the full release of iOS 7 Seed 4 on the other hand. Yes they can do it OTA for an upgrade but I believe debs need Xcode and a clean install primarily.

Please people, stop it with the 2 week intervals for the betas, betas do not work like that.

I think that because iOS 7 brings so many changes to the UI, people (mostly non developers) are like crazy trying it and desperate to have changes every 2 weeks, again, betas are not like that.

This is like the 5th time I post this link, this gives you how betas are released.

http://willhains.com/iOS-version-history

jbenkelman said:

This post was not about a beta release schedule.

Simply asked if people think the 3 weeks (an increase over the previous 2 week schedule for the first 3 betas) is thought to be because things are smoothing out, or because they are doing some major work.

I could care less when they release it. They obviously don't have a schedule other than get it finished by fall.

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I realize that. With iOS 7 I feel like nothing is the same though. Either were going to get an update where little has changed, or its going to be a huge update where it starts to really refine into what the GM is going to look like. Thats what I am getting at.

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There's absolutely no way to know what they are working on right know, could be normal schedule smoothing things out or could be that bug that put the phone into DFU in beta 3 and it's taking them longer to solve.

Nobody knows unless you work at Apple.

jbenkelman said:

This post was not about a beta release schedule.

Simply asked if people think the 3 weeks (an increase over the previous 2 week schedule for the first 3 betas) is thought to be because things are smoothing out, or because they are doing some major work.

I could care less when they release it. They obviously don't have a schedule other than get it finished by fall.

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I realize that. With iOS 7 I feel like nothing is the same though. Either were going to get an update where little has changed, or its going to be a huge update where it starts to really refine into what the GM is going to look like. Thats what I am getting at.

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Taking longer than 2 weeks between betas is not unusual and is actually the historic norm beyond the fist few betas. So it really doesn't mean anything in particular, (and even if it somehow might, no one would really know that anyway until the next beta is out and we see what's in it).

jbenkelman said:

Thats pretty obvious. My question was...since this is a forum...what people think the next beta is going to look like given that we know now that its not following the previous 2 week release.

I feel like people are very touchy about this topic. It's not about knowing whats going on, its simply about what your opinion is. For me...I think its going to be a bigger update than we have seen in the past with iOS betas. To me...this is exciting...because I think that there is a lot of room for improvement, and the potential for this to be an amazing iOS GM is there...but with work.

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Again no, betas don't get 'bigger updates" in 3 weeks, in fact, they don't get that many new stuff to begging with, specially Apple ones, what you see in beta 1 it's most likely to be the end of that, all there is major improvements of performance and bug fixing, maybe tweak the fonts a little, but that's it, when the GM is released, it will look like beta 1 in almost every aspect.

Sorry, but I don't see any major update coming, now, for the iPhone 5S/6 there's probably a new/hidden feature that will be known when they start selling it.

nikicampos said:

Again no, betas don't get 'bigger updates" in 3 weeks, in fact, they don't get that many new stuff to begging with, specially Apple ones, what you see in beta 1 it's most likely to be the end of that, all there is major improvements of performance and bug fixing, maybe tweak the fonts a little, but that's it, when the GM is released, it will look like beta 1 in almost every aspect.

Sorry, but I don't see any major update coming, now, for the iPhone 5S/6 there's probably a new/hidden feature that will be known when they start selling it.

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So tweaking the fonts is just a small deal to you? That's never been done in any iOS beta before. EVER. So I think people who claim to know what Apple is planning to do with iOS7 are clueless. iOS7 is a different animal, with a different beta process. iOS7 had a much shorter development time compared to previous version, so anything is possible at this point. There are quite a few differences between beta 1 and beta 3, so my guess would be that we should see more changes happening (transitions, transparency, notification center) and some new items for the fall event.

jbenkelman said:

In the past the three weeks between a beta usually meant that they were getting to a point where the kinks were not as numerous and therefore there was just less to have to fix and give developers to test out.

With iOS 7 I feel like the three weeks could be an indication of lots of work being done between b3 and b4.

I was under the assumption that the developer site being down was probably a big reason we didn't see an update, but with maverick updating that chance got slimmer. I know that developers need the Xcode but I still think apple could have released without the site.

Quick reply...I'm talking to you.

Any thoughts?

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7 is a major major rewrite, so I would not be comparing timelines to prior releases.

Apple will release a new beta when they have new things for developers to TEST.

AS an end user you really can't judge what is going on between betas by looking at the UI. apple could have rewritten half the code running the OS (and half the code that makes up the developer frameworks) and you wouldn't know by looking at it. however it may behave differently internally (again, in ways you may not SEE - but with regards to how developers can use the OS), and there may be new bugs. hence... beta.

Changes you can see as an end user will be merely scratching the surface.

VSMacOne said:

So tweaking the fonts is just a small deal to you? That's never been done in any iOS beta before. EVER. So I think people who claim to know what Apple is planning to do with iOS7 are clueless. iOS7 is a different animal, with a different beta process. iOS7 had a much shorter development time compared to previous version, so anything is possible at this point. There are quite a few differences between beta 1 and beta 3, so my guess would be that we should see more changes happening (transitions, transparency, notification center) and some new items for the fall event.

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Wooow dude calm down, you call major changes to some new transitions and transparency, and maybe to include the temperature in Notification Center, no, they are not.

One thing is an educated guess and the other (like you) saying anything is possible, no, it will not have 3D, NFC or things like that.

saving107 said:

Apple marches to the beat of their own drum, 6 years of iOS development and I have yet to see a set time frame for their beta.

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Best answer for anything about Apple and schedules. Don't try to figure it out. Just keep your hands and feet in the car and enjoy the ride

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jbenkelman said:

Thats pretty obvious. My question was...since this is a forum...what people think the next beta is going to look like given that we know now that its not following the previous 2 week release.

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My opinion, since you asked, is that it will look like what it looks like and release when it is released.

It's a beautiful day, instead of bugging over when the next beta might come out, if there even is one, go outside and enjoy the day.

nikicampos said:

Wooow dude calm down, you call major changes to some new transitions and transparency, and maybe to include the temperature in Notification Center, no, they are not.

One thing is an educated guess and the other (like you) saying anything is possible, no, it will not have 3D, NFC or things like that.

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I'm calm, what made you think otherwise?
Listen, nobody was talking about 3D. Let's be real, 3D is dead. You're just throwing things out there. NFC, fingerprint sensor are hardware additions. We were talking about software. The changes so far from beta 1 to beta 3 have been pretty major if you take into account previous beta changes.
Here's an educated guess: additional functionality to NC (Today, Sharing widget), maybe Quick Reply (since notification banners are so much bigger in iOS7) count in my book as pretty major additions between b1 and Gm.

VSMacOne said:

I'm calm, what made you think otherwise?
Listen, nobody was talking about 3D. Let's be real, 3D is dead. You're just throwing things out there. NFC, fingerprint sensor are hardware additions. We were talking about software. The changes so far from beta 1 to beta 3 have been pretty major if you take into account previous beta changes.
Here's an educated guess: additional functionality to NC (Today, Sharing widget), maybe Quick Reply (since notification banners are so much bigger in iOS7) count in my book as pretty major additions between b1 and Gm.

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We have a very different opinion to what "major" means.

Have a good day sir.