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Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 13.7 to Developers With New Exposure Notification Opt-In [Update: Public Beta Available]

While this is great, especially since it's turned on by default, I think Exposure Notifications should be renamed to Government Notifications, which should also list 3 other government alerts (AMBER, emergency, and public safety). Even when COVID-19 is behind us, I would like to see this feature stay for other health alerts (e.g., flu).
 
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Not sure who would trust Apple or the government and opt in - well I guess lots of 🐑 believe what the TV tells them.

I did not update to the first version of this dystopian software and I usually update iOS first day - Apple should release parallel updates without this code at all - not just a toggle.
 
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Based on the current rumors the iPhone 12 arrives in October, the 12 Pro models in perhaps November. The rumors also say the Apple Watch and new iPads of some kind could arrive as soon as September...

I ASSUMED this meant for the first time ever Apple would be releasing iOS 14 as normal in September WITHOUT the new iPhones being ready in order to support the Apple Watch Series 6 and new iPads. Perhaps iOS 13.7 implies that instead Apple will be holding iOS 14 until the October launch of the iPhone 12 after all, which more importantly also likely means none of the new products we are expecting including the new watches will be out until then either?

UPDATE: seems Mark Gurman confirms that both iOS 13.7 AND 14.0 will still launch in September with 14.1 arriving with iPhones in October / November. guess my thought was wrong.
 
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zorinlynx said:
Why does something this minor need a full version bump to 13.7? Can't this just be a 13.6.2?
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Apple typically does a pretty good job of following semantic versioning. API-breaking changes require the major version number (the first) to be incremented by one. Additive but non-breaking changes require the minor version number (the second) to be incremented by one. Bug fixes increment the patch number (the third) by one.
 
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nutmac said:
While this is great, especially since it's turned on by default, I think Exposure Notifications should be renamed to Government Notifications, which should also list 3 other government alerts (AMBER, emergency, and public safety). Even when COVID-19 is behind us, I would like to see this feature stay for other health alerts (e.g., flu).
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COVID-19 Exposure Notifications are an entirely different animal from WEA, the alerts you're describing. Between that and the inherent distrust that can come with the word "government," probably best not to.
 
HeavenDynamic said:
Mark Gurman just confirmed that iOS 14 will be released in September as usual.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1298687564447019009
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Mark Gurman likely isn't wrong then. Seems so odd, but perhaps it is because they know some users won't update to iOS 14 until the new phones arrive so they want to offer important COVID updates to them too? I'll be updating to iOS 14 immediately on my 11 Pro to support new Apple Watches that hopefully as rumored arrive in September.
 
I'm surprised there are still efforts to make a "major" iOS 13 release.
I supposed all efforts at Apple were geared towards iOS 14, or towards security fixes on iOS 13.
 
jonnyb098 said:
Is there even any mass use of this? Not to mention who would actually use it? By the time all this becomes even remotely useful the pandemic will most likely be behind us.
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growing evidence that you can get it twice. I read a few reports about it this week alone. This might be the new normal.
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canyonblue737 said:
Mark Gurman likely isn't wrong then. Seems so odd, but perhaps it is because they know some users won't update to iOS 14 until the new phones arrive so they want to offer important COVID updates to them too? I'll be updating to iOS 14 immediately on my 11 Pro to support new Apple Watches that hopefully as rumored arrive in September.
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There's thousands dying every day from COVID. 13.7 is to address the urgency behind the pandemic.
 
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Good! This will help local health departments that do implement the joint API. The standard point update is a lot easier to manage than "update to iOS 14" coming from local officials.
 
JPack said:
The U.S. has at least a couple more years before this thing is resolved.

Other countries beat this thing and have hosted pool parties for the past couple weeks.
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Yeah, pool parties everywhere (at least here in Spain). Now, few weeks later, the transmission of the virus and the infections are almost as high as when we had the first wave, and probably a second wave with collapsed hospitals is coming again, thanks to those pool parties.

People don’t want to understand that this is now a completely different world.
 
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jonblatho said:
COVID-19 Exposure Notifications are an entirely different animal from WEA, the alerts you're describing. Between that and the inherent distrust that can come with the word "government," probably best not to.
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Government Alerts are existing settings on the iPhone. As for Exposure Notification, I would argue that it is far more controversial (at least in the US) than AMBER, emergency, and public safety alerts.

It is sad that alerts that are meant to protect people are seen as controversial, although not entirely unwarranted.
 
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jonnyb098 said:
Is there even any mass use of this? Not to mention who would actually use it? By the time all this becomes even remotely useful the pandemic will most likely be behind us.
Click to expand...
I for one don’t believe in the “it’s going to just disappear one day, like magic” theory. Exposure notification will be useful for the foreseeable future, at least in the US.
 
I totally did not expect a feature update this late in iOS' cycle. This would already be quite late in the game for Apple to release the final EOL version of iOS before the new version rolls out.

Because every device that supports iOS 13 will also support iOS 14, I don't expect that Apple will do an expanded period of security updates for iOS 13 like they did for iOS 12 (which was the EOL version of iOS for the widely used A7 and most A8 processors).

But, a lot of iOS users will put off updating to iOS 14 until after the XX.1 update (or later) comes out. So, in the meantime, at least iOS 13.7 would support the COVID notification function for that sizable group of users.

I had assumed that iOS 13.6.1 would be the EOL version, since that added the bug patches to what would normally have been the final feature update to iOS 13. Now, I have to wonder whether Apple will issue a 13.7.1 update at some point to address any remaining bugs that accompany iOS 13.7. Apple has never left EOL'd an iOS version as a feature update. They've always added the XX.X.X bug fix and/or security update before calling it night.

Here's Apple's history with the EOL versions of iOS, along with their release dates.

iPhone OS 1 - 1.1.4 released 2/26/08 (1.1.5 released 7/15/08 for iPod touch only)
iPhone OS 2 - 2.2.1 released 1/27/09
iPhone OS 3 - 3.1.3 released 2/2/10 (3.2.2 released 8/11/10 for iPad only)
iOS 4 - 4.3.5 released 7/25/11 (4.2.10 released 7/25/11 for CDMA phones only)
iOS 5 - 5.1.1 released 5/7/12
iOS 6 - 6.1.3 released 3/19/13 (6.1.4 released 5/9/13 for iPhone 5 only; 6.1.5 released 11/14/13 for iPod touch 4G only; 6.1.6 released 2/21/14 for iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4G only)
iOS 7 - 7.1.2 released 6/30/14
iOS 8 - 8.4.1 released 8/13/15 (8.4.4 released 3/24/20 for Apple TV 3G only)
iOS 9 - 9.3.5 released 8/25/16 (9.3.6 released 7/22/19 for iPhone 4s and cellular iPads only)
iOS 10 - 10.3.3 relased 7/22/19 (10.3.4 released 7/22/19 for iPhone 5 and cellular iPad 4G only)
iOS 11 - 11.4.1 released 7/9/18
iOS 12 - 12.4.1 released 8/26/19 (12.4.8 released 7/15/20 for A7 and most A8-powered devices only)
 
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