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Apple Cracks Down on Websites Sharing iOS 16 Developer Beta

techfreak23 said:
Or you could wait for the public betas which are, you know, FREE...
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Pointless. The whole point of getting beta through dev is to experience new features asap. If I have the patience to wait for public beta, I might as well just wait for public release.

Different people with different strokes I know. No need to point out the obvious.
 
Shirasaki said:
No need to point out the obvious.
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Yet, people complain about a site like this going down. Apple needs to be able to differentiate the feedback from true developers and public users, hence the public beta program. Plus, it's their IP. It requires you to agree their Terms to use and install it. Developer agreements are different than public agreements. Apple doesn't want people that should be on the public beta on the developer beta. They usually fix more severe bugs by the time the public beta is released. That's why there is usually a 1-2 week delay between them.

I understand wanting the latest features as quickly as possible. I actually signed up for the developer beta after a few years last year specifically for that, but also dabbled in some of the new features in the SDK. I used to do a lot of iOS dev and could justify me going the developer route. Previous years, I just waited for the public beta and submitted feedback just like a developer.
 
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techfreak23 said:
Apple doesn't want people that should be on the public beta on the developer beta.
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For those folks who wants the latest feature asap but can’t afford or can’t justify the $99, those sites is the best alternative for them. Those folks will not wait a month or longer to get public beta to experience new features. They simply can’t wait. As such, they rightfully don’t care what apple think about the situation because apple won’t care about theirs.
techfreak23 said:
They usually fix more severe bugs by the time the public beta is released
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In my past few years testing dev beta, the most severe bug I encountered was iOS 9 beta 1 draining battery 🪫 at an alarming speed even when doing nothing. Other times, I don’t really notice personally. That bug did get fixed before public beta.
 
Apple is a bunch of haters. They get free beta testers this way finding bugs for them at all steps of the development process. Apple apologists will point to the Public Beta program, but those updates come out less frequently than the Developer Betas.

Hopefully, new sites just pop up in their place moving forward. Beta profiles.com was great.

edit: Keep hitting that thumbsdown. 1) I'm right and 2) you've got something there on the tip of your nose.
 
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Shirasaki said:
For those folks who wants the latest feature asap but can’t afford or can’t justify the $99, those sites is the best alternative for them. Those folks will not wait a month or longer to get public beta to experience new features. They simply can’t wait. As such, they rightfully don’t care what apple think about the situation because apple won’t care about theirs.

In my past few years testing dev beta, the most severe bug I encountered was iOS 9 beta 1 draining battery 🪫 at an alarming speed even when doing nothing. Other times, I don’t really notice personally. That bug did get fixed before public beta.
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You conveniently left out the feedback issue and the agreement issue. Most people don't know how their devices work. The BEST most people will be able to do (unless they are developers) is give UI/UX feedback. That is useful, but more useful from the public perspective. Apple is also likely getting ridiculous feedback from average users on the dev beta with nothing more than "It's broken! FIX IT!" Developers give useful detailed feedback about the underlying APIs, which is infinitely more useful because a lot of those affect the UI/UX. The agreement is important as well. If you are installing the beta using another profile other than your own, that is technically fraud. If anything goes wrong with your device, Apple is in no way obligated to help you. It seems to me that they are taking action now in an attempt to clean out the clutter.
 
techfreak23 said:
You conveniently left out the feedback issue and the agreement issue. Most people don't know how their devices work. The BEST most people will be able to do (unless they are developers) is give UI/UX feedback. That is useful, but more useful from the public perspective. Apple is also likely getting ridiculous feedback from average users on the dev beta with nothing more than "It's broken! FIX IT!" Developers give useful detailed feedback about the underlying APIs, which is infinitely more useful because a lot of those affect the UI/UX. The agreement is important as well. If you are installing the beta using another profile other than your own, that is technically fraud. If anything goes wrong with your device, Apple is in no way obligated to help you. It seems to me that they are taking action now in an attempt to clean out the clutter.
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Which now begs the question, with all of those agreements etc in place and sites exist for years, why now?

I understand that someone who knows more than mere appearance can provide better feedback than general public can. But with public beta out there, I’m sure apple will receive way more UI/UX bug reports than more in-depth reports. And that’s why auto report prompt exist in iOS 16 beta iPadOS beta macOS Ventura beta, to help apple to figure out app crashes and fix them.

Ultimately, the amount of people who jumps on the dev beta through those means aren’t gonna be majority I suspect. Regardless, after the stage manager controversy, apple takes action to take down those big sites, and it is a sad day for many enthusiasts. People would have to find their dev profile through “darker” means, give up testing beta altogether, or unlikely, move to public beta. Agreement for those enthusiasts don’t matter, and apple would have to provide some form of support for people using beta either way, even when they are also actively denying service for devices running beta software (I experienced this myself a couple times already).
 
Shirasaki said:
Pointless. The whole point of getting beta through dev is to experience new features asap. If I have the patience to wait for public beta, I might as well just wait for public release.
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So, for someone wanting to experience the new features, waiting for the public release is pretty much the same as getting the public beta 6 weeks after the first dev beta? Even though the public beta is available 2 months or more before the public release?

I mean, if that what you want to do.
 
Unregistered 4U said:
So, for someone wanting to experience the new features, waiting for the public release is pretty much the same as getting the public beta 6 weeks after the first dev beta? Even though the public beta is available 2 months or more before the public release?

I mean, if that what you want to do.
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For those enthusiasts, waiting for public beta is essentially the same waiting for public release yes. The hype, the excitement, the eager, to experience the latest and the greatest, is only possible through dev beta 1. Public beta is for more casual users who are a bit curious about future software release but don’t want to deal with critical bugs that can appear in developer beta.

Basically, timing is all that matters.
 
KrisLord said:
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.
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Is it not free now?

I am perplexed as to why I can still get dev betas from the dev site, despite not paying for a dev account over 5 years ago.
 
Xenden said:
I don’t think it has to do with entitlement, it has to do with people being excited about new features of an OS, and wanting to experience the features immediately.
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That is not the point of a developer release. Apple Developer Program
If you’re interested in creating apps for distribution on the App Store, Apple Business Manager, or Apple School Manager, join the Apple Developer Program.​

That's the point of the Public Beta. Apple Beta Software Program

If people want the developer release, do it the proper way; pay the $99 as per the rules of being a registered developer. Otherwise, those trying to get their hands on proprietary software for free, just to see what it's like first, absolutely do it as a feeling of entitlement.
 
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theotherphil said:
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.
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Officially but…

…Apple and Microsoft look like they don’t care since 2010 about people talking about betas.

It’s year long free marketing when people share screenshots and videos of upcoming features.

Whole sites are dedicated to talking about beta builds.
 
So many are asking "Why now?"

Could it be that Apple have identified some significant security issues? Possibly things we haven't even seen hinted at here.

If nothing else, unidentified access to betas gives those with malevolent intent more time to prepare their future attacks. Sure, if there are other ways to access betas, the issue remains. But possibly they are going to do more to block those other routes?
 
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Eorlas said:
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.
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Probably, but they have enough big hammers to cause pain and give some second thoughts.

I suspect, if it becomes a big problem, Apple will find a way to track access to dev betas by account and shutdown access to those that appear to excessively d/l betas; if they already haven’t done that.

Eorlas said:
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.
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A good reason to control access to dev betas to avoid people bricking their machines and screaming about it.

davethorp said:
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
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Allowing anyone access to early betas is not a good practice. Many of them may use them on machines they use, not for development and testing, but for regular use. A critical bug that renders the computer unusually would no doubt cause much complaining when apple says “Sorry, not a warranty issue since you installed a pirated copy of a beta.”

You want testers who know how to beta test and write useful bug reports; not a whole bunch of people who will clog up the system with useless reports making it harder to find the good ones. You control who has access until you feel confident the software is reasonably stable and then open it up to a broader audience.

davethorp said:
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
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The question is what is the quality of the reports. 'This is broke - fix' is pretty useless.
 
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Maybe there is something in these latest dev beta's that was never in previous dev beta's and thus there was never any impetus from Apple to prevent them being leaked to the public until now.
 
techfreak23 said:
Or you could wait for the public betas which are, you know, FREE...
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There are no guarantees that GM/prod versions of any OS are going to work without problems, big or small. There were many cases where Apple's GM/prod versions bricked end user devices. I don't believe there are many people using betaprofiles, just tech savvy, curious ones. I wouldn't ever recommend dev betas or even public betas to ordinary folks.
 
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