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Apple Moves to Prevent iPhone Users From Getting iOS 17 Developer Beta for Free
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I cannot be the only one that refuses to ever buy a new Apple product until TC steps down and Apple begins to care about the user experience again. Milking and squeezing and crushing their pirchasers for ever last extractable penny, while, in reality providing nothing really new since 2014, has got to start angering even the stupidist consumers eventually. Though their strategy of Marketing over Substance remains remarkably profitable, at a certain point it's going to backfire. History is littered with megacorps who thought they would never fall from dominance.
It's a few weeks before the public beta after a new series of OS's is announced at WWDC 2023 for example. That would be beta 2 or 3 before PB testers get to try it out. The rest of the year its not like that.
Since when has any of the OS's cost you anything? New hardware is never free but you can always opt for slightly older models that are newer than what you are using to save money.
I'm sure a few million users of Macs dating back to 2008, would like to have the option of just clicking a button and paying for an official Ventura install, rather than going through the convoluted buggy unofficial way of doing it now - or just risking going on without security holes patched.
Just a question... do you need to pay the $99 to submit apps to the App Store?
The main reason I ask is because it feels like my company waits until the actual launch of the iOS version to start working on app compatibility. I can't figure out why they don't mind paying for Slack with a company of 100k employees but some apps stop working if you're on public beta.
See my post above.
ETA: also, buying old hardware now is risky, because TC and the marketing machine are busy discontinuing every perfectly functional piece of hardware they think they can get away with, trying to force new hardware purchased.
My experience has been that people who install alphas know exactly what they are getting into, and provide feedback at least as good as "professionals."
The dev betas that follow WWDC don’t get public betas until about a month later (usually around beta 3), but otherwise it’s just a day at most.
They’ve been really working overtime lately to milk every possible cent.
Increasing battery replacement costs, decreasing trade-in value, increasing the price of iPhones and Macs in Europe, etc etc
Increasing battery replacement costs, decreasing trade-in value, increasing the price of iPhones and Macs in Europe, etc etc
Tim Cook is no visionary, we all know that. I guess he’s good at monetizing the here and now incremental spec bumps we’ve seen for the past 12 years or so. Yawn. He sucks.
Chum in the water fest. Again.
Of course people who aren't developers (and thus haven't paid the $99 fee) could simply wait for the free public beta.
But then, there wouldn't be an opportunity for having a good whine about not getting free stuff, like they're apparently already accustomed to in life.
Of course people who aren't developers (and thus haven't paid the $99 fee) could simply wait for the free public beta.
But then, there wouldn't be an opportunity for having a good whine about not getting free stuff, like they're apparently already accustomed to in life.
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Apple really needs that extra $99 a year so they can keep the prices down for consumers…
Spot on.
"Waiting a week isn’t the end of the world and being able to select which release channel you want via settings instead of having to install or uninstall a profile is a welcome step forward."
True. But so people many need to be aggrieved over the tiniest little things in order to feel good.
And not to mention, free developer accounts are a thing... I have one. You don't have access to the betas, but you can download Xcode. A lot of people don't know this.
I remember when I used to get excited about doing that. Now I've got the ipad on iOS14 and that's where it's staying. And thank goodness, bc iOS is a UI mess.
Glad to hear you have inside information on exactly what iOS 17 contains! Weird that Apple would break literally years and years of tradition with their x.0 updates by introducing absolutely no new features, but thanks for the heads up!
I don’t think you are correct on how this works. I think everyone will get the ability to pick which betas they want to try. I only have the public beta yet I have the option to turn on the developer betas in settings in iOS 16.4 beta 1.
Starting with the iOS 16.4 beta, the iPhone has a new "Beta Updates" menu in the Settings app under General → Software Update. This menu will allow members of Apple's Developer Program to enable iOS developer betas directly on an iPhone, without needing to install a configuration profile from the Apple Developer website.
The menu will only appear if a user's iPhone is signed into the same Apple ID they used to enroll in Apple's Developer Program. In future iOS releases, Apple says this menu will be the only way to enable developer betas, as profiles will stop working.
This change will prevent iPhone users who aren't enrolled in Apple's Developer Program for $99 per year from installing the iOS 17 developer beta for free when it is released at WWDC in June. Until now, anyone could easily install iOS developer betas for free by downloading the profiles from websites such as BetaProfiles.dev.
Apple already cracked down on websites sharing developer beta profiles last year. BetaProfiles.com shut down in August to avoid a "legal battle with Apple," while Apple lawyers provided Twitter with DMCA takedown notices for over a dozen tweets containing links to IPSW.dev. BetaProfiles.dev remains live and appears to be a carbon copy of BetaProfiles.com, but it's unclear if the website has the same ownership.
iPhone users who don't want to pay $99 per year for Apple's Developer Program will have to wait for the public beta of iOS 17, which will likely be released in July. Users can enroll in Apple's public Beta Software Program for free.
Users may still be able to install the iOS 17 developer beta for free using an IPSW file, but it remains to be seen if this will be an option. Many years ago, Apple only allowed beta IPSW files to be installed on devices registered to an Apple developer account, and Apple could choose to reintroduce this former policy. At a minimum, the elimination of configuration profiles will make the task more tedious in the future.
Article Link: Apple Moves to Prevent iPhone Users From Getting iOS 17 Developer Beta for Free
I suspect anyone who NEEDS the betas won’t care. If your in IT your company can sign up for their “Seed for IT” or whatever it’s called to get betas to test internal tools with, or if your a developer then you already have access to betas.
For everyone else it’s a want not a need. Apple isn’t obligated to released unfinished software to the wider world. And if you really NEED it, then join the public beta or register as a developer.
For everyone else it’s a want not a need. Apple isn’t obligated to released unfinished software to the wider world. And if you really NEED it, then join the public beta or register as a developer.
It’s to reduce the number of developer accounts needed for enterprise or small dev team environments. Apple wants a head tax.