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Apple Moves to Prevent iPhone Users From Getting iOS 17 Developer Beta for Free
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Yeah that was such an annoyance it (+ a few other probs) absolutely ruined the usability of my other iPad and I had to sell it off. i even got a new mini 6 thinking it must integrate better on their new hardware, and it was even more chaotic bc with no real bezel left your hand would end up touching them holding it, or endlessly turning it around to straighten it out without anything visually grounding one side of the device to orient it. I mean try having that thing be your gps in the car while in traffic and it just goes berserk every time you need it most. iOS15 & iPad mini6 confirmed my suspicion that no one at Apple actually uses an iPad mini or knows how anyone else does. Pretty sure they just design that thing on paper and build it & no one thinks critically about it ever. I wish I still had a mini 5 on 13. That was definitely the sweet spot.
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1. I’d think most of the people who actually go through the trouble to install developer betas may actual report bugs and not just do it for fun?
2. How would it differ with people who use the public beta? Other than major releases in the summer the public betas usually come out the next day. Why have a public beta at all then as I don’t see any difference here. I think that those of us who use developer betas are more likely to report bugs, I know I do and have been for years.
LOL probably some schmo used to a big and wide corporate budget. Most corporations don’t even pay for employee cell phone service let alone extra “dev only” devices when the developers have devices in hand they can use.
Even so, it’s just a bad practice to beta test application development on an unused or “dedicated to testing” device. The only way to get a thorough sense of what is going on during development is to do deployments in environments where people either use the devices as daily drivers or the devices are their daily drivers.
It’s hard work being “effective” in technology. So all these “betas are for beta devices” comments just ring hollow to most talented and efficient developers. Haha
I can confirm this as a former Apple Store employee for 5 years. It’s ridiculous.
Part of what attracts Apple fans is retail store support. You can't resolve everything over the phone so they schedule appointments for users and send them to stores for assistance when necessary. A installed beta seed is not much of an issue for DFU assistance for example. It's just the amount of Apple device users is huge.
Part of what attracts Apple fans is retail store support. You can't resolve everything over the phone so they schedule appointments for users and send them to stores for assistance when necessary. A installed beta seed is not much of an issue for DFU assistance for example. It's just the amount of Apple device users is huge.
It is much of an issue for you an employee when getting an appointment is difficult and people want to spit in your face because you can’t help because they were stupid and put a beta on their device that’s crippled their main life line to the world.
This change is definitely based on employee feedback and experience than Apple trying to reign in control.
Are you suggesting Apple stop all external beta testing? Because if the dev seed isn’t utilized, then the PB tester seed would be. Same situation if a user doesn’t heed the advice of backing up device before installing a beta seed for their device.
Certainly recognize that people come in upset and you feel why I am tolerating these situations all the time, but that is customer service role. Apple has been releasing public seeds for years. I've forgotten how many years it's been since they first started that?
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I think it's a pretty dumb move. Only benefit is a week or two earlier releases than public beta. Developer betas are sometimes dangerous to install though. Maybe Apple is trying to limit liability for failed hardware due to a beta update.
Most if the time PB seed is a day or two delay against the same build. Been very consistent last couple of years. The PB seed is delayed 3 to 4 weeks from the new OS dev beta seed issued at WWDC.
Downloading a developer beta profile from a random website that's putting it up with no waivers or anything like that is very different than a public beta where people are prompted to accept a terms and conditions, etc. so they sort of know its on them and not Apple's fault
Sure they knew the risk, but that is the same as a PB seed installation. Yes Apple in the past has given PB testers something not great too.
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Dude you have no idea what youre talking about imo.
remember ios 12? It was amazing! No bugs, nothing, just sublime useage. ive been waiting for a maintenance update in years. This is the time when the features will actually be good.
Isn't iOS 17 bringing sideloading with it? That's reportedly what has taken up a lot of Apple's developer time and resources.
Yeah iOS 17 is bringing Sideloading to Europe not uk yet ignore Kylo83. Apple might be keeping features secret not telling Gurman or anyone. iOS 17 is a major update ignore everyone else who says iOS 17 is a minor update
Agree on one point. Software QA at Apple is going to the dogs. iCloud file sharing is broken and then re-brocken every major release. I've spent hours with senior engineers on the other end of a phone documenting the broken aspects of iCloud file sharing in macOS, and to work out workarounds in some cases. Only to see an improvement a few minor upgrades later and then it broken even worse in Ventura than it was originally in Monterey or Big Sur or Catalina.
the latest breaks make it totally unusable for me. it can take 10 attempts to generate a simple file share link (collaborate, view only) to use in a shared document with colleagues. even after 10 attempts using the Notes, Email, Messages and other ways to generate the link url I may be no closer to getting something as simple as a link url. How f.u.c.k.e.d. is this? iCloud is a decade old… it's unfathomable how they manage to f.u.c.k it up every major macOS release. What's the point of spending several hours to document and screen record all the bugs, and then repeats that all with senior engineers when they put junior bozos on their coding team and supervise them with bozo level QA and management. I simply don't understand how such a successful company can fail so badly in some areas and win so comprehensively in broader terms. I just wish Woz or someone outside Apple who they respect discovers the same issues I've been having with iCloud link generation for bloody years and tells them about it. I've given up with their feedback avenues, it's only ever a temporary fix in my experience. To bad Dropbox told SJ to take a hike when he tried to buy them out in the early days.
This one aged well, lol! 😂🤣. Everyone just assumed Apple was trying to “gatekeep” developer betas so you’d have to pay for them, but Apple was really just trying to make it easier for everyone to access, lol! 😂🤣. Now the developer betas are available for free to members of the free developer program, and it also doesn’t require janky configuration profiles installed from the web. You just go to Settings and install it. It’s funny how often sites want to try to assume the worst.
It’s not hard to see why people assume the worst.
How many examples do you have where customer is benefiting from an upgrade or strategic directions Apple is taking ?
Still no 120hs displays on the most expensive phones on the world? (Non pro), Delayed 5g when phones that cost $100 had the feature, lightning cables with slow charging for like 10 years. Annoying iCloud pop ups to upgrade storage. Charger removed from iPhones being sold. But please buy a fast charger separately.
They do a lot of great stuff, but why wouldn’t we have assumed that a fee for a beta would be something ridiculous that they would do. If you follow them it wouldn’t shock you.
Apple has plenty of motivation to "gatekeep" the betas.
If betas are easy for anyone to install, people will, then they'll experience bugs and complain to support. This creates a burden on their support infrastructure.
Maybe they determined it wasn't that bad, and/or they just wanted more people running betas so they can suss out more bugs. Who knows. But assuming Apple wanted to gatekeep betas to reduce support load was a very reasonable assumption even if it turned out to be false.
Well, in many cases people just assume the worst of Apple, even though most of the things Apple does are good. It seems like criticizing and assuming the worst of Apple is some people’s idea of a hobby. Not saying this about you, just some I’ve run into. And most of Apple’s decisions do benefit users in my opinion. Part of the problem was with the obvious negative slant of the headline as well. The headline says “Apple Moves to Prevent iPhone Users From Getting iOS 17 Developer Beta for Free”, when it should instead have said “Apple Moves to Make it Easier for Developers to Install Developer Betas”.