Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of iOS 11.3 to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

[lec0rsaire]

Just replaced the battery in my mom’s iPhone 6 a couple of days ago. I’ve kept it on 10.3.3 for her and performance is really good for a phone on its 4th year. Do you guys think I should leave it on 10.3.3? Right now battery life is fantastic and she has the benefit of still being able to use classic 32-bit apps which will never be updated. How has the 11.3 beta been performing on iPhone 6 for those who still have one in use?

I have my 7 Plus on 11.2.6 and still experience GUI glitches when opening the multitasking screen. It doesn’t happen 100% of the time but many apps become “invisible” when I either go to switch to them or close them. 11.2.6 did improve the battery drain I was experiencing on previous versions of 11.2. When my phone was on 10.3.3 the battery would last a ridiculous amount of time. I only had to charge it every two days or so. While it stopped draining by itself, it doesn’t last anywhere as long as it used to and I bought this phone in March 2017. Coconut battery and Lirum both show my battery health near 100%.

 

[-BigMac-]

I'm willing to bet the team that works on iMessages is not the same team that works on emojis...

Yeah, because it seems there is no team working on iMessages

 

[Wanted797]

I'd say its to save face. Honestly, in my opinion, giving a bunch of people who don't fully understand the reasoning why the throttling is done...the option to disable it...was the wrong move. They don't seem to care about why it was done. Just that it was. Which means they don't have a full grasp of the issue it prevents. Because now, people will turn it off seeing it as just an annoyance and then proceed to complain that their phone repeatedly shuts off. End result? They complain anyway. As someone who understands why the throttling happens...I think a "slower" phone...is a much smaller price to pay than one that shuts down constantly and can ruin data. Given a choice...I'd take the throttled phone, no questions asked. I think that when they see the alternative (repeated shutoffs at REALLY bad times)...they'll realize the throttling is a much better alternative. I would rather my phone slow down while I'm completing an important task, than have it shut down completely during that same task.

Giving people the choice is pretty much a double edged sword for Apple. They will not win either way. People complain that their phones slow down, so they turn off the throttling. Phone shuts down because throttling is off...people will complain. Apple pretty much loses no matter what.

I think Apple had to offer choice to avoid the lawsuits coming their way.

Stupid consumers will always complain and it will always be the company’s fault for their ignorance.

I’m sure if someone come in complaining about crashing they’ll check that feature and tell them they have to leave it on. Or pay for a new battery (if out of warranty).

 

[macmyworld]

No AirPlay 2, pass Apple Homepods will become doorstops.

 

[BWhaler]

Please tell me it fixes the messages sorting bug.

 

[Neebee]

If an iPhone is crashing because of a worn out battery, it's much better to prevent a future crash by throttling (or replacing the battery) than crashing repeatedly. Crashes can corrupt files.

You've lost perspective, unfortunately.A battery should never ever cause your device to crash. It's bad software engineering...pure and simple.

Apple knew that, but general public is dumb and think they want the choice (although there are valid reasons of wanting to have the actual choice, though not for the dumb general public).

Haha. In this case, it's not the general public is dumb. It's the few individuals who side with Apple, regardless of any wrongdoing.

 

[asv56kx3088]

Just replaced the battery in my mom’s iPhone 6 a couple of days ago. I’ve kept it on 10.3.3 for her and performance is really good for a phone on its 4th year. Do you guys think I should leave it on 10.3.3? Right now battery life is fantastic and she has the benefit of still being able to use classic 32-bit apps which will never be updated. How has the 11.3 beta been performing on iPhone 6 for those who still have one in use?

Yes you should -- On the 6, performance wise 11.3 is now roughly the same as 10.3.3, but battery drains way faster.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Yes you should -- On the 6, performance wise 11.3 is now roughly the same as 10.3.3, but battery drains way faster.

Thanks for replying. Yeah, this is what I was leaning towards. It’s the first time I’ve held back an iDevice from the latest iOS release. I should’ve left my iPad Air on 10.3.3 as well. For me it’s hard to resist the urge to always be running the latest firmware on everything. I’ll never forget ruining my perfectly smooth iPhone 3G on 3.1.3 with 4.2.1. Apple should’ve never greenlighted 4.0 for that phone. The new features are nice of course but not worth the trade-off in performance.

iOS 11 is really made for devices with 2-4GB of RAM and it doesn’t hurt to at least have an A9/A10.

 

[B4U]

Not saving any time really. We still have 24hrs/day. HAHA

In fact, it hurts the citizens. We have way too many statistical data to support the argument that DST is useless.

 

[Keirasplace]

Yes you should -- On the 6, performance wise 11.3 is now roughly the same as 10.3.3, but battery drains way faster.

Maybe it drains faster because your battery is now 6 months older, something to think about... Or your usage, settings are not exactly the same.

 

[asv56kx3088]

Maybe it drains faster because your battery is now 6 months older, something to think about... Or your usage, settings are not exactly the same.

Or I have 2 iPhone 6 with brand new batteries, exactly same settings. One on 10.3.3 and one on 11.3 beta 5.

 

[Lab4Us]

No AirPlay 2, pass Apple Homepods will become doorstops.

LOL, I know mine won’t...none of them. Even without “immediate gratification”, HomePod provides a unique listener experience. I am more than hapoy to let Apple get Airplay 2 and stereo pairing properly working before release.

I bet a good majority of the folks who complain about Apple not releasing flawed software are the same folk who are the first to complain when PC and video games need to be patched after release to remove bugs.

 

[typicaluser]

Apple knew that, but general public is dumb and think they want the choice (although there are valid reasons of wanting to have the actual choice, though not for the dumb general public).

It appear mysterious to me that only Apple has this throttling thing while there is no report found on other brands. And what's more is that throttling was not necessary on iOS prior to maybe version 10.

 

[skillwill]

It appear mysterious to me that only Apple has this throttling thing while there is no report found on other brands. And what's more is that throttling was not necessary on iOS prior to maybe version 10.

It would have been "necessary", they just didn't do it. Phones were crashing, so they implemented it.

 

[MrZippyUK]

And still 3rd party apps drop frames/stutter when scrolling. This is appalling on the worlds fastest smart phone - currently using iPhone X.

Why is no one picking up on this glaring poor user experience, the Twitter app is easiest place to see. Yet Safari is pretty much always butter smooth when scrolling. Seems to be lists with images that I notice in most.

My old iPhone 6S on iOS 11.2 and 11.3 were smooth, so maybe this is an iPhone X issue, my wife’s iPhone X is the same.

Any yes I submitted feedback from the public beta, done more than once against different builds. I could file a formal bug report, but unless my wife and I have the only iPhones that suffer from this I would imagine it’s a bug that’s being chosen to be ignored.

 

[HugoSon]

...
Why is no one picking up on this glaring poor user experience, the Twitter app is easiest place to see.
...

...blame Twitter for not having a native implementation but an HTML5 client.

 

[atoqir]

How stable is this?

Is it GM quality by now or better to hold off? (iPhone X user here)

 

[MrZippyUK]

...blame Twitter for not having a native implementation but an HTML5 client.

Really? So this is sort of an app issue, although html5 should surely be smooth in an app, as it is in Safari.

I see stutter in Weather Pro and Sky News too.

 

[wd32lily]

I'd say its to save face. Honestly, in my opinion, giving a bunch of people who don't fully understand the reasoning why the throttling is done...the option to disable it...was the wrong move. They don't seem to care about why it was done. Just that it was. Which means they don't have a full grasp of the issue it prevents. Because now, people will turn it off seeing it as just an annoyance and then proceed to complain that their phone repeatedly shuts off. End result? They complain anyway. As someone who understands why the throttling happens...I think a "slower" phone...is a much smaller price to pay than one that shuts down constantly and can ruin data. Given a choice...I'd take the throttled phone, no questions asked. I think that when they see the alternative (repeated shutoffs at REALLY bad times)...they'll realize the throttling is a much better alternative. I would rather my phone slow down while I'm completing an important task, than have it shut down completely during that same task.

Giving people the choice is pretty much a double edged sword for Apple. They will not win either way. People complain that their phones slow down, so they turn off the throttling. Phone shuts down because throttling is off...people will complain. Apple pretty much loses no matter what.

 

[wd32lily]

I'd say its to save face. Honestly, in my opinion, giving a bunch of people who don't fully understand the reasoning why the throttling is done...the option to disable it...was the wrong move. They don't seem to care about why it was done. Just that it was. Which means they don't have a full grasp of the issue it prevents. Because now, people will turn it off seeing it as just an annoyance and then proceed to complain that their phone repeatedly shuts off. End result? They complain anyway. As someone who understands why the throttling happens...I think a "slower" phone...is a much smaller price to pay than one that shuts down constantly and can ruin data. Given a choice...I'd take the throttled phone, no questions asked. I think that when they see the alternative (repeated shutoffs at REALLY bad times)...they'll realize the throttling is a much better alternative. I would rather my phone slow down while I'm completing an important task, than have it shut down completely during that same task.

Giving people the choice is pretty much a double edged sword for Apple. They will not win either way. People complain that their phones slow down, so they turn off the throttling. Phone shuts down because throttling is off...people will complain. Apple pretty much loses no matter what.

The smokescreen is Apple providing a redundant/ineffective “Throttle Off” ability thereby appearing to get in front of the issue in a transparent manner.

Our iPhones definitely slowed down ahead of the introduction of the new versions without any regard to battery life cycle with the full intent to encourage loyal iPhone owners to upgrade.

In my case within our family iPhones 6, 6 Plus and 7 are in use. Both the 6 and 6 Plus operated perfectly with 90%+ batteries (coconut analysis) until September 2017 when both experienced noteable slow downs simultaneously. The battery in the 6 Plus was replaced by Apple in November (too early for discount pricing), the 6 while slower continued to operate slowly but nonetheless it worked with a battery over 90% until February 2018 at which point it began frequently rebooting. The 6 is running the beta ios and therefore had access to the throttle switch feature and showed the battery at over 90% and able to meet peak demands till it began to reboot insistently. The throttling made no difference whatsoever to reducing the frequency of the reboots. The battery at this point was finished and replaced.

Was it pure coincidence both our 6 iPhones experienced slow downs simultaneously, were the batteries simply worn or did a non disclosed ios operating feature cause the slow down. Yes, many variables in play but, the fact remains both slowed at the same time and Apple confirmed the slow down feature existed. Notwithstanding the published admission the question remains as why. The timing and supposed intent are highly suspect.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

You've lost perspective, unfortunately.A battery should never ever cause your device to crash. It's bad software engineering...pure and simple.

An empty gas tank should never turn my car off. It’s bad software engineering pure and simple.
It’s not a software issue. It’s a physical reality that the battery degrades overtime.
You should refrain from repeating your clearly wrong idea.


Unless of course you meant the throttling should have been built into the software in the first place.
[doublepost=1520949495][/doublepost]Without knowing anything about battery voltage curves this opinion makes sense. A quick google search will show you that the capacity of the battery declines immediately after the first few uses and then slowly declines until there are too many irreversible side products formed within the battery. You’ll notice this by the lower capacity. The accumulation accelerated near the end of the batteries life and this date happened to be a few months ago for iPhone 6 owners. Next year 6S users will be experiencing the same thing.

The point is Apple knows approximately when this will occur and the engineer their devices to end near a new release. They’ll never admit this though.

 

[Peperino]

Thank god Apple did 4 new Animojis...
Who cares??
How about you do some good old darn computers...?

 

[maflynn]

How about you do some good old darn computers...?

iPhones and iPads are computers

 

[levifig]

iMessage on iCloud is interesting and all but until I can get a new device, log in to my iCloud account and get the ENTIRE history of iMessage available on that device, it’s usefulness is beyond limited. Synchronized deleting? That’s like an interesting but mostly useless feature… Read status was already mostly synced (when it worked).

It’s becoming baffling how terrible Apple is at Cloud stuff, from iWork to Mail. I’m all understanding about Apple wanting to have strong privacy settings, and I appreciate that quite a bit. But when they can’t grt SYNC right, it bothers me. Using iMessage as an example, I just want them to SYNC between devices, that’s all. No need to store on cloud or whatever… Just sync database from all devices, merging the database. We’ve been doing that for ages; it’s not rocket science (yes: it’s not easy either).

 

[iOS Geek]

No it does not apply to the watch yet unfortunately.

Alright, thanks! I figured it would make sense to include it since it seems odd to just leave one device out. But I will admit I had a feeling it wouldn't be part of it!