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Warning: iOS 17.3 Beta 2 Bricking Some iPhones

Seems like they don’t test in house very well. Just leave it to the general public and developers to do that for them. The quality overall of their software has gone down over the years and it shows. Though I’m sure someone will reply with “it’s hard”, “that’s what beta means” or some other Apple is me hero how dare you comment.
 
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JitteryJimmy said:
Beta testers are serious about software validation and are technically savvy. They can avoid any day-to-day impact by just using their primary device instead.
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Not necessarily. Some of us only have one device. However, we know to make a full backup (saved/archived) from both the latest public release and the latest working beta, so can always restore and get back to where we were before our phones got tofu'd on a dodgy beta.

For me, what's interesting is that this beta was released to the public (that's us, including developers) without it being tested much within Apple. Or, it points to the fact back-tap is not well implemented (it goes off randomly in my case) and so most people have it turned off. Including me, luckily, as restores are boring and time-consuming.
 
svish said:
Definitely not wise to install betas on primary devices.
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Not necessarily. As long as you're tech savvy and know what you're doing its not an issue. luckily my install went smooth yesterday, but if it hadn't I would have been backed up to a previous working version in minutes. "Those who aren't tech savvy should not install betas on primary devices"
 
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Mansu944 said:
Well, that's one reason to stay off the Beta's.
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I think that‘s more like an alpha or internal release issue. There are different stages of software releases, and even a beta should have that cocered because Apple is the last company on Earth not being able to test this on Apple devices.

Beta testing is supposed to be about the changes during operation.

I am not running any beta software from Apple because even the live builds (God have mercy with .0 users updating right away) are more often than not packed with undesireable side-effects, and reporting the bugs usually did not have any effect anyways since they seem to ignore many bug reports and ship it like that anyways.

Only media reporting makes them fix it so there‘s that. :D
 
BellSystem said:
Seems like they don’t test in house very well. Just leave it to the general public and developers to do that for them. The quality overall of their software has gone down over the years and it shows. Though I’m sure someone will reply with “it’s hard”, “that’s what beta means” or some other Apple is me hero how dare you comment.
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You’re 100% right. Tim Cook is the wrong choice for the job and I don’t think his successor will be any better

I kind of want to see if Johnny Ive and his company start to move into the space as I’ve read rumblings about them doing some work with AI and hardware

I’d really love to see a company come along and knock off their perch because they’re too arrogant and think they’re too large to fail

Software development can be challenging, especially when you have made it as complicated as they have, but they also have the choice to simplify it or retain more talented people and I’m sure they’re having a hard time, retaining quality people, and all of their cost-cutting maneuvers that we all know they love and enjoy
 
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hagar said:
No idea why so many people are installing these. And apparently on their main devices. Unless you’re a developer or working in an IT dept I don’t see any reason, unless for it to go south and then complain about Apple losing it.
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Or you just enjoy it, know how to and constantly backup, and are perfectly comfortable reverting to a previous version or restoring using a Mac or PC if needed.

Some people just enjoying seeing what's new in beta build and to see it mature over the beta cycle. I don't do this for the point releases, but will usually jump in for the .0 versions. And if things go South, I can be up and running in less than an hour.
 
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SDK note updated

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autistic-savant said:
Language problem here: Bricked means it’s all over for the device. If you can restore it, it wasn’t bricked. ❤️
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To dive a little deeper into the meaning.

Usually "bricked" means a device is one that lost "all functionality". It never changes operational states. Not something booting over and over, or can at least see it powering on, even if nothing happens.

Usually when a product is bricked it might imply some stuck hardware state that needs to be reset with something directly connected to it internally to reset the hardware back to operational. Alternatively it might require a part replacement internally for it to work again.
 
Realityck said:
Usually "bricked" means a device is one that lost "all functionality". ...
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Well, if you truly want to dive deeper... there is also the concept of a "soft brick" vs a "hard brick" to consider. In short, a hard brick usually means the device is pretty much done for, whereas a soft brick is far more likely to be solvable through various methods, such as (in this case) using DFU Mode.

But from what I've read, it seems like even the strictest interpretations of "bricked" do not necessarily prohibit the article author's usage of the term in this particular scenario, since even a hard brick can sometimes be remediated.

Further reading
 
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kid1230 said:
same old excuse LOL
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How did you think problems were ironed out in the development process? You use a beta to help to spot problems or things not working which you report and also to experience new features you can give feedback on. That's what a beta is for (and alpha before that). I kid you not.

Surely you knew this and was just being facetious?
 
Lizzard899 said:
That might be because theyre trying to pull down the beta so they can bring out a fixed beta. That what Ive read online. All the apple news articles Ive read have said they expect the beta to be pulled today and that they will release a fix
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It's great for Apple to release a fix, but at least in my experience even as it is, it's not a death sentence, there is a way back to a stable OS :)
 
JippaLippa said:
"It just worked"
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The path to "It just works" by necessity must still go through the various phases of "Crap, this is buggy!" -- these things don't just spontaneously become perfect all by themselves.

There's always significant time and effort involved, and it's largely a thankless job performed by mostly faceless people. Roughly, the standard phases of development are likely to look something like this:
  • Phase 1: A developer writes and test the hell out of their code, because contrary to popular sentiments often expressed by arm chair pundits in threads like this one, they absolutely do care -- a whole hell of a lot, as a matter of fact -- but they are just one person, and they only have access to a limited set of configurations and hardware against which they can test; thus, at some point they have to admit that they're much too close to the project to be even remotely objective. No matter how good they might be at their job, nor how hard they try, they simply don't know how other people think and cannot foresee how other people might use their software.
  • Phase 2: So, they eventually pass the product on to a group of "alpha testers" which typically consists of trusted internal folks who already know a good deal about the product and what to expect. Math being a fairly reliable science, it's reasonable to say that the addition of more people with more devices against which they can test will obviously uncover more bugs than the original developer could ever find on their own... however, the alpha testers are arguably still limited in much the same way as that original developer, so eventually they also run out of ideas for "insane and weird things that people might do" to throw at the software.
  • Phase 3: The pool of testers is widened yet again, to "beta testers". The nature of beta testers varies broadly from one company to another, but generally speaking, they're not internal people. By necessity, you have to eventually get the product out in front of "ordinary people," with more varied configurations. As in phase 2, the broadened test group will obviously do more weird crap and find more bugs than did the alpha testers.
  • Phase... however many phases are necessary? Which is to say, rinse and repeat until nearly all users are using the latest iteration of your software, doing what you can to fix newly discovered bugs all along the way and likely cursing a blue streak shortly after each phase shift, as the pool of users widens.
So, pity the poor developers, who probably learn about the most damaging of overlooked bugs in their code from antagonistic threads on social media... just like this one. As I said... a largely thankless job.

(Full disclosure: Yes, I am myself a software developer... but no, I don't work for Apple. I would speculate that Apple developers tend to be as quiet as a church mouse when they come across threads like this one, for obvious reasons.)
 
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