Apple Cracks Down on Websites Sharing iOS 16 Developer Beta

[MacRumors]

Two websites that provided download links for pre-release Apple software like iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and tvOS 16 have shut down in recent weeks, including BetaProfiles.com and IPSW.dev. Both websites are no longer accessible.

In a tweet, BetaProfiles.com said it shut down to avoid a "legal battle with Apple," but it's not clear if the website (or IPSW.dev) actually received any threat of legal action from Apple or if the websites shut down on a precautionary basis. Apple, BetaProfiles.com, and IPSW.dev did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1557246301640617984

In addition, lawyers representing Apple at Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton LLP allegedly provided Twitter with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice related to over a dozen tweets containing links to websites like IPSW.dev. The alleged notice claimed that the tweets infringed on Apple's proprietary beta software. All of the tweets listed are no longer visible "in response to a report from the copyright holder."

IPSW.dev provided users with access to IPSW files for the iOS 16 developer beta and other pre-release Apple software, with download links via Apple's servers, file sharing website WeTransfer, and torrents, while BetaProfiles.com provided links to both beta profiles and IPSW files. BetaProfiles.com said users must be enrolled in Apple's Developer Program in order to download the profiles, but users could avoid this warning.

Apple's developer betas are only intended for members of Apple's Developer Program, which costs $99 per year in the United States, and it appears that Apple is attempting to uphold this policy by cracking down on websites like BetaProfiles.com and IPSW.dev.

Those interested in trying out Apple's betas for free can sign up for Apple's public beta program.

Update: When reached for comment, BetaProfiles.com said it received a letter from lawyers representing Apple and shut down the website to avoid potential litigation.

Article Link: Apple Cracks Down on Websites Sharing iOS 16 Developer Beta

 

[sniffies]

Where there's a will, there's a way 😉

 

[macduke]

Apple, we’re just going to find another way. We always have, we always will.

Sure they have public betas now, but those come out later, and updates to them come out later too.

 

[KrisLord]

Apple should just offer free access to dev betas so there’s no need for these.

the developer program should be only needed if you want to submit an app to the store.

 

[kc9hzn]

I understood the appeal of sites like these back before there was an Apple Watch public beta and even a HomePod public data, but now that every current Apple device gets a public beta, you might as well just join the public beta officially. It’s better than trusting the beta profiles that were probably safe but you had no way of actually confirming.

 

[theotherphil]

Apple should just offer free access to dev betas so there’s no need for these.

the developer program should be only needed if you want to submit an app to the store.

It’s called a public beta.

 

[exoticSpice]

Apple should just offer free access to dev betas so there’s no need for these.

the developer program should be only needed if you want to submit an app to the store.

There's public beta

 

[chrisdazzo]

Unfortunately, this won’t cut down on the hordes of children downloading the beta on their daily drivers and complaining about bugs instead of filing them.

 

[xxray]

Daaaamnnn… I was literally just on BetaProfiles for the first time on Monday.

 

[NJRonbo]

Boo!

Guess there's always bittorrents

 

[Eorlas]

It’s called a public beta.

sure, however this retort is intentionally missing the point to make another that is not really relevant.

and apple should know that this is just a game of whack a mole, they'll never really win this.

not to mention, people seeking out the dev betas outside of a dev program are just trying to play around with the bleeding edge, and disregard the warning that comes with taking on a dev beta.

not to mention, past the first couple weeks, the dev beta updates on precede the public beta by a day. there's a point at which splitting them doesnt make a whole lot of sense, much like shutting down these sites.

 

[max2]

This is one fight I want Apple to win but I know they won't.

 

[kc9hzn]

Unfortunately, this won’t cut down on the hordes of children downloading the beta on their daily drivers and complaining about bugs instead of filing them.

Alas, you’re probably not wrong. Public betas aren’t there so you can get the latest and greatest a couple months early. (And there’s no reason to try to do so, app support always has to wait until the public release*.) People who download betas without filing bug reports are probably every QA engineer’s nightmare (well, at least the ones who do QA for public facing software, so glad the QA work I do is internal).

* I suppose if you were participating in TestFlight betas of some app, that might be a reason to have the beta. But, if you’re signing up for TestFlight testing, you’d better been filing bug reports on that app, as well as the beta OS!

 

[ponzicoinbro]

Good.

Who knows what virus they may inject into a fake installer.

Doing Justice League **** against villains is good.

 

[pdaholic]

Apple was losing out on that $100 per year to enroll in the developer beta program. Had to shut these sites down, times are tough for a trillion dollar company.

 

[ghostface147]

There are ways around this.

 

[kc9hzn]

Good.

Who knows what virus they may inject into a fake installer.

Doing Justice League **** against villains is good.

View attachment 2041576

I don’t think they generally put anything in the installer, usually it was a system profile that would enable the beta update stream, and then you’d download the beta using Software Update. But you never knew if they didn’t do something dodgy to the system profile you had to download. I honestly don’t remember whether they were signed by Apple or not, though I suspect they were and were the same profiles from the developer portal. Even then, you just never knew for sure. The one with ipsw in its name sounds like it might have been hosting actual ipsw bundles, though. Again, signed by Apple so they probably shouldn’t have been tampered with, but you could never tell.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

There are ways around this.

Yeah…

Go to….

developer.apple.com

Sign up for public beta if you’re not a dev.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I don’t think they generally put anything in the installer…but you could never tell.

👏🤣

👏🤣

 

[KrisLord]

There's public beta

The public beta is released weeks after the keynote presentation.

apple want the media coverage of all the new features and that obviously means people are excited to try those features even if they are a work in progress.

if the dev beta was open to all then people using these sites would be more willing to provide feedback.

They’d also save the cost of having lawyers chasing these beta sites.

 

[kc9hzn]

👏🤣

👏🤣

Well, it all depends on whether it was signed with Apple’s certificate and how secure the signing algorithm is! And you couldn’t trust any hashes these sites gave you, you’d never know if that was the hash of the profile from Apple or if it was their hash.

 

[KrisLord]

I understood the appeal of sites like these back before there was an Apple Watch public beta and even a HomePod public data, but now that every current Apple device gets a public beta, you might as well just join the public beta officially. It’s better than trusting the beta profiles that were probably safe but you had no way of actually confirming.

The sites give you a profile that is validated by Apple, so if they had tinkered with the profile it wouldn’t work.
the beta itself is then downloaded from Apple. So there was never any risk.

 

[davethorp]

Massive step backwards from Apple. Where there is a will there is a way even back in the day when you had to register your phone to a dev account to activate the beta

Those saying there’s a public beta that would be well and good but PB1 usually comes out after the first couple of dev betas and once public betas start coming out they come out days behind the dev betas

If people want to run betas they will. I’ve been beta testing iOS since iOS 4. My iPhone is practically never on a general release. I’ve reported so many bugs to apple prior to general release. Maybe apple should make access to dev betas open to more people or at least those who provide them bug reports through the feedback app

 

[1557750]

Surprised it has taken this long.

I’m sure there will be other places to snag profiles for those that don’t want to wait for registered ones on their devices.

I prefer to enroll and wait for PB’s when they're released vs dev releases.

 

[kc9hzn]

Massive step backwards from Apple. Where there is a will there is a way even back in the day when you had to register your phone to a dev account to activate the beta

Those saying there’s a public beta that would be well and good but PB1 usually comes out after the first couple of dev betas and once public betas start coming out they come out days behind the dev betas

If people want to run betas they will. I’ve been beta testing iOS since iOS 4. My iPhone is practically never on a general release. I’ve reported so many bugs to apple prior to general release. Maybe apple should make access to dev betas open to more people or at least those who provide them bug reports through the feedback app

And there’s a good reason why the public has to wait a few weeks after the devs get it. You don’t want the general public mucking around with an alpha build or early beta build in case there are unexpected issues (or even known issues) with them. Apple doesn’t do external alphas, so having devs take the first crack at the betas means that developers who likely already know how to fill out a bug report (and who can actually test what the bug is) are the first external folks to get access. This is just software engineering best practices.