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Feeling Hot,Hot, Hot about today
 
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Perhaps between the ramping up app store anti-trust probe by DOJ (Wallstreet today) and revising the content search methods in Apple Music and releasing Classical Music app its taking a lot longer to release 16.4 beta 1?
 
Perhaps between the ramping up app store anti-trust probe by DOJ (Wallstreet today) and revising the content search methods in Apple Music and releasing Classical Music app its taking a lot longer to release 16.4 beta 1?
Yeah but even with all of that, this is abnormally long. Something is definitely wrong. Maybe one of the new features they were planning to introduce blew something up.
 
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I guess I'll give in an install this 16.3.1 on my phone.... Other than google photos breaking, is everything else ok with this release?
 
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I think iOS 16 might be feature complete, with pay later, savings accounts being turned on server side. In 16 iterations of iOS only 6 have gone to .4 or higher, so it’s possible.

To clarify, I think there will addition updates, September is too far off to not have additional bug fixes, but I think it will be awhile.
 
I guess I'll give in an install this 16.3.1 on my phone.... Other than google photos breaking, is everything else ok with this release?
It seems like a solid release except trying to update via IPSW to 16.3.1 nearly bricked my device while OTA worked flawlessly.
 
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I think iOS 16 might be feature complete, with pay later, savings accounts being turned on server side. In 16 iterations of iOS only 6 have gone to .4 or higher, so it’s possible.

I honestly don’t think this is correct. That would mean that it was feature complete after 16.2, as 16.3 was essentially a bug fix release.

Apple has learned to drip drip drip its features throughout the year. Some of the later arriving features are previewed at WWDC (such as Freeform this year and Universal Control last year). Others are out of the blue (though usually these are not that significant).

They do this for 2 reasons: one, to take the load off the engineering and development teams in the race up to the major release in connection with the iPhone release in late September.
But, and this I think they have learned later, the second resason is that dragging out the features keeps the buzz going. We here in MR Forums and others like us at other sites are earned media for Apple and iOS, meaning unpaid - free!! - advertising, effectively. I worked at a very large company for a long time. They would have killed to get the kind of interest that is ginned up on sites like this, even if its simply wondering when the next beta would land.

I don’t see them stopping this this year, with a couple of caveats.

So what is the reason for the delay? It is possible that development resources have been redirected to the impending RealityOS preview and release. But that seems less likely than that there simply is a problem with 16.4 of some sort. It might be a bug (the existence of 16.3.1 and the revelation that it was a zero day patch is strong testimony, in my opinion, to this possibility). It might be, as suggested by others, that some ancillary feature, such as Apple Music Classical, is not ready for some reason (AMC seems like a good candidate, given how many times it has already been apparently delayed).

Or, in a riff on your thesis, it may be that 16.4 simply was programmed to be released later than is customarily the case to accommodate the potential need to divert resources to the RealityOS final touches. In other words, this was a planned-for hiatus.

At the end of the day, we may never know which (if any) of these are the reason, short of someone like Mark Gurman digging it up. Its telling, frankly, that he has not weighed in on this so far, which means either he doesn't know (perhaps due to super security at Apple on this issue) or is unwilling to say.

Only time will tell!
 
So what is the reason for the delay? It is possible that development resources have been redirected to the impending RealityOS preview and release.
Apple is looking at Augmented Reality being used to enhance web content to show more accurate representations than the 2D like content now. I don't see the rush for multi-media glasses achieving much initially unless Apple wants to jump in to AR used with medical or industrial technologies using that company they bought.

 
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I honestly don’t think this is correct. That would mean that it was feature complete after 16.2, as 16.3 was essentially a bug fix release.

Apple has learned to drip drip drip its features throughout the year. Some of the later arriving features are previewed at WWDC (such as Freeform this year and Universal Control last year). Others are out of the blue (though usually these are not that significant).

They do this for 2 reasons: one, to take the load off the engineering and development teams in the race up to the major release in connection with the iPhone release in late September.
But, and this I think they have learned later, the second resason is that dragging out the features keeps the buzz going. We here in MR Forums and others like us at other sites are earned media for Apple and iOS, meaning unpaid - free!! - advertising, effectively. I worked at a very large company for a long time. They would have killed to get the kind of interest that is ginned up on sites like this, even if its simply wondering when the next beta would land.

I don’t see them stopping this this year, with a couple of caveats.

So what is the reason for the delay? It is possible that development resources have been redirected to the impending RealityOS preview and release. But that seems less likely than that there simply is a problem with 16.4 of some sort. It might be a bug (the existence of 16.3.1 and the revelation that it was a zero day patch is strong testimony, in my opinion, to this possibility). It might be, as suggested by others, that some ancillary feature, such as Apple Music Classical, is not ready for some reason (AMC seems like a good candidate, given how many times it has already been apparently delayed).

Or, in a riff on your thesis, it may be that 16.4 simply was programmed to be released later than is customarily the case to accommodate the potential need to divert resources to the RealityOS final touches. In other words, this was a planned-for hiatus.

At the end of the day, we may never know which (if any) of these are the reason, short of someone like Mark Gurman digging it up. Its telling, frankly, that he has not weighed in on this so far, which means either he doesn't know (perhaps due to super security at Apple on this issue) or is unwilling to say.

Only time will tell!

I agree Apple likes to space out features, but I think its a possibility the code is complete for everything announced. Simply announcing a new feature is available will get the same reaction as dropping a beta.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind a break from updates for awhile. I have too many to update LOL
 
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Apple is looking at Augmented Reality being used to enhance web content to show more accurate representations than the 2D like content now. I don't see the rush for multi-media glasses achieving much initially unless Apple wants to jump in to AR used with medical or industrial technologies using that company they bought.


Not to be combative, but you think that is what Apple is doing. However, you likely don’t know that. They may have much greater ambition than that.

Given Tim Cook’s frequent references to AR/VR over the past few years (entirely at odds, I might add, with the company’s normal close-mouthedness about forthcoming technology), I would say that they assign a very high value to this technology. So I do think that it is not outside the realm of possibility that they would divert resources from iOS to RealityOS to achieve a satisfactory launch of the product.

I’m not saying that I 100% believe that is what is causing the delay in 16.4, but it is certainly a possibility.
 
Not to be combative, but you think that is what Apple is doing. However, you likely don’t know that. They may have much greater ambition than that.

Given Tim Cook’s frequent references to AR/VR over the past few years (entirely at odds, I might add, with the company’s normal close-mouthedness about forthcoming technology), I would say that they assign a very high value to this technology. So I do think that it is not outside the realm of possibility that they would divert resources from iOS to RealityOS to achieve a satisfactory launch of the product.

I’m not saying that I 100% believe that is what is causing the delay in 16.4, but it is certainly a possibility.
I previously said
The earliest AR experiences might not even be coupled with multi-media glasses or googles, but simply using your existing iOS/IPadOS/MacOS device. Apple has been supporting AR content authoring the last 2 years at WWDC.

MIXED REACTIONS ON AR TECHNOLOGY

Over the years, there have been mixed reactions regarding AR headsets. Apple CEO, Tim Cook has never been stingy with his praise for AR technology. He believes that AR can not only strengthen the connection between people, but also has greater application potential than VR. “AR has a profound impact on people’s lives, and it is simply impossible to live without AR in the future.”

However, IDC says that after two years of growth, the AR headset market may shrink this year. Shipments of AR headsets have been declining in recent quarters due to the unstable financial situation of some leading companies. By the end of 2022, shipments in the global AR headset market will decline by 8.7% year-on-year to about 260,000 units.

Although the AR headset market will shrink in 2022, IDC expects a compound annual growth rate of 70.3% in the next five years. The AR headset market will continue to grow in the future. By the end of 2026, AR headset shipments will reach 4.1 million units.

Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile and Consumer Device Tracking, expects AR headsets to become mainstream in consumption as early as late 2024 or early 2025.


So it's coming but the AR marketplace with headsets is at a point where the content is very limited. In a way it reminds me of the 8K TV debacle (lack of content).
 
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