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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.

Software engineering best practices are to have as many people as possible testing said software in order to identify and fix bugs prior to it going on general release. The more people testing the more bugs are going to be found

The people beta testing dev builds are by far a minority of users but as long as those people are reporting feedback to Apple to allow bugs to be fixed they are actually helping the development process
 
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!
I think those on the dev beta from sites like these are probably more likely than public beta users to file bug reports as they’re enthusiasts, they just hold off on filing given they got the beta from an unofficial source.
 
I think those on the dev beta from sites like these are probably more likely than public beta users to file bug reports as they’re enthusiasts, they just hold off on filing given they got the beta from an unofficial source.
Well, the example the other poster gave of kids wanting the latest beta (presumably to one up their friends) was what I was referring to. Users like those wouldn’t file bug reports, or at least good bug reports.
 
I don't understand why people still use these sites or why they even exist when there is a PUBLIC BETA program... There are almost no differences between the dev and public betas other than devs get them slightly earlier and possibly a few bug fixes that the devs had to deal with. I'm a paid developer, but I'm going to cancel my subscription since I haven't done any iOS dev in the last year, and I'm not currently running the beta.
 
I think those on the dev beta from sites like these are probably more likely than public beta users to file bug reports as they’re enthusiasts, they just hold off on filing given they got the beta from an unofficial source.
I've been using betaprofiles for iOS and MacOS for years, and happily file Feedbacks as required. Admittedly they're usually ignored, but occasionally I end up in dialogue with someone at Apple and it doesn't seem to matter that I never gave them $100 to play with their buggy software.
 
I don't understand why people still use these sites or why they even exist when there is a PUBLIC BETA program... There are almost no differences between the dev and public betas other than devs get them slightly earlier and possibly a few bug fixes that the devs had to deal with. I'm a paid developer, but I'm going to cancel my subscription since I haven't done any iOS dev in the last year, and I'm not currently running the beta.
It’s pretty simple—the dev profiles come out a lot earlier than the public profiles. Just people antsy to get the beta early.
 
I don't understand why people still use these sites or why they even exist when there is a PUBLIC BETA program... There are almost no differences between the dev and public betas other than devs get them slightly earlier and possibly a few bug fixes that the devs had to deal with. I'm a paid developer, but I'm going to cancel my subscription since I haven't done any iOS dev in the last year, and I'm not currently running the beta.

You’ve answered your lack of understanding why people use the dev beta program rather than the public one. Because the public betas don’t align with the dev betas
 
I've been using betaprofiles for iOS and MacOS for years, and happily file Feedbacks as required. Admittedly they're usually ignored, but occasionally I end up in dialogue with someone at Apple and it doesn't seem to matter that I never gave them $100 to play with their buggy software.
Well, that happens to devs, too. Radar (Apple’s bug reporting system) is the first man made black hole. But sometimes we get Hawking radiation in the form of actual responses.
 
Apple could very easily lock down dev betas to those who have paid dev accounts, why are they doing this pointless nonsense?
I'm sure there's always gonna be a way to go around that (like how they tied it with your UDID number. not sure if they are still doing it)
 
I don’t get it. Betaprofiles has been around for a long time. Why now? It isn’t like these site just popped up. I figured Apple just reached a point that they were going to ignore it existed. I mean, it has been 3 or 4 years since these sites started.
 
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Apple could very easily lock down dev betas to those who have paid dev accounts, why are they doing this pointless nonsense?

Because they don’t want to open up the black market for UDID slots that existed when developer betas were locked to dev accounts and before there was a public beta

People were signing up to a dev account for $99 and then profiting from people paying $5 or so for a slot on their dev account

That was a far worse situation than what Apple seem to be trying to prevent now
 
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They change them for major versions so it’s only going to work for the 16.x beta train. But as others have said there will always be a way around it
Ahh you're right, had forgotten they did that. Will have to jump to public beta at some point then.
 
Because they don’t want to open up the black market for UDID slots that existed when developer betas were locked to dev accounts

People were signing up to a dev account for $99 and then profiting from people paying $5 or so for a slot on their dev account

That was a far worse situation than what Apple seem to be trying to prevent now
They still do this for app signing, wouldn't make much of a difference and would significantly cut down on the number of dev betas out there either way.
 
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.

Apple don’t want public media coverage from the Dev beta. The dev branch specifically forbids devs from publicly talking about the beta and sharing screenshots and videos. The clue is in the name, it’s for developers, not public consumption.
 
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.
You could have hashed them to verify but ok.
 
I have been and still am a registered developer with Apple for over a decade but the one thing I found convenient about sites like betaprofiles.com was for downloading AppleTV betas. It’s always been a complete pain in the A—- to get the beta profile loaded onto an AppleTV.

Often I have to setup a web server just to deliver the profile to the unit. Or I have to go through a convoluted process with Xcode (which I don’t like loading onto every single Apple computer I may have in use).

I know this may be an edge case but the process was much easier when we had the option to cable load things onto the Apple TV.

Aside from that the developer website is fine.
 
They still do this for app signing, wouldn't make much of a difference and would significantly cut down on the number of dev betas out there either way.

The public beta program made a huge difference. Prior to that there were websites charging $5 to $10 for a UDID slot which was necessary to activate the dev betas

The public beta program killed those sites dead. I still get emails from some of them begging me to pay them for a slot which is no longer needed because Apple stopped needing UDID’s to be registered the year they launched the public beta program

As I’ve mentioned earlier in the thread the number of people running a dev beta isn’t an issue as long as those people are contributing to the development process by reporting bugs
 
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