Last year and the year before, the 2nd PB was released the day after the corresponding DP.
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iOS 17 Speculation Thread
- Thread starter Kylo83
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Last year and the year before, the 2nd PB was released the day after the corresponding DP.
What would be the actual point of holding a perfectly useable beta from the public for another week? So far the feedback on PB2 sounds better than that of PB1. Besides, the more beta testers they get on board, the more issues could be flagged out, so it is a win-win. The only possible reason to hold it off from the general public I can think of would be allowing 3rd party app developers to update their apps, if needed? But then again, can they even push these updates out at the App Store before the official iOS 17 is out?
No 17 apps before the public release.
And while 17b4 might’ve turned out to be a stable release there’d been instances in the past where they weren’t so great and a week would give them time to resolve any severe bugs that might come up in the devs. Majority of users eager to test out a PB aren’t equipped for troubleshooting in case something goes wrong and would panic which is the reason behind waiting until b3 to go public in the first place.
I remember at least one instance where they had to release a diff build for PB compared to a dev. So it’s safer for b5 or later for the next day release.
Guess I haven’t been paying attention. Always remember them as weeklies for the first two PBs.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
Suspended
Tomorrow is Thursday. Public Beta could come tomorrow as well.
Apple releases these betas on a schedule. Not based on “feedback”.
And no, third party developers cannot update their apps (for external distribution) until the RC.
Then I still do not understand the purpose of a longer gap between developer and public beta releases.
I get it that developers have a priority, but does it really matter for Apple if they release the same PB build as the DB a few hours, a day or a week later? I just can’t see the logic behind this delay. 🤷🏻♂️
In the context of PB seeds there is no schedule. If DB4 is not good, then they can skip its PB seed. In the past they have skipped PB seeds on occasion.
Then I still do not understand the purpose of a longer gap between developer and public beta releases.
I get it that developers have a priority, but does it really matter for Apple if they release the same PB build as the DB a few hours, a day or a week later?
It’s speculation for any of us, but it’s likely what someone posted above: Apple wants to allow sufficient time after seeding the developer beta to determine if there are any serious problems with the software. That would explain why, as the beta process gets later in the game, the public betas are released sooner after the release of the developer preview: less chance of a serious problem affecting the greater number of public beta testers who are presumably using their own everyday devices.
I would have to say that’s likely incorrect. Even if they “skipped” as you say, they still had it on a calendar for release.
To my knowledge, they have never “skipped” a PB, however.
Generally, the Developer Betas get installed on a much smaller set of devices overall than the Public Betas do. There's been times in the past where there's been "show stopper" type of bugs that delayed the PB release..
*Consider the Dev Beta Seed to be the guinea pigs for the Public Beta Seed ;-)
Anyone involved with PB releases since they restarted, will remember at times there was no PB release on occasion associated with a dev release. It's like they skipped that time, and it showed up with the next dev seed. I wouldn't say it occurred that often, sometimes.
I guess could be slightly delayed because of macOS.
Understood, yet I thought that the general feedback from DB4 was better than DB3?
First of all there is no indication that Apple bases the date of any release - developer or public - on publicly available (i.e. social media, tech journalists, pundits) information. As I said earlier today, all you see in these forums is the “bad”. And the “bad” might impact 1/100 of 1% of users. Apple can’t take what is posted here and make any meaningful decisions.
Apple relies on hard data. Data it gets via Feedback submissions and data it gets via the logging and diagnostics that devices running the betas are sending to Apple all the time.
And even that data doesn’t appear to affect the schedule of releases.
The one thing that does appear to affect the schedule of releases is the discovery of so-called “zero day” exploits: malware that can lead to significant problems without any need for further exploitation. Those get Apple’s (and Google’s and Microsoft’s) immediate attention and have appeared to impact release schedules in the last few months.
Apple has a schedule to keep: the OS must be ready in time to install on new iPhones as they start coming off the line in late August or early September. Nothing can impact that production run. If it does, heads roll. And the stock price craters.
That’s not going to happen.
Guessing more skin shades and genders of emojis
More bloat ware to get you to get a new phone
More creepy photo scanning type stuff
More space used by the OS, again to get you to buy a new phone
Maybe now move the address bar in safari to the side 😂
Who do they get to test these things out? Is it just freaks from SFO and Portland, or do they want working blue collar types opinions too, end of the day there are more of us.
I remember one of my buddies was over, his phone said he needed to “upgrade” looks at it, laughs and shows me, was like to get more dumb emojis and some other pointless stuff, we both laughed
I’d rather have zero emojis and have the software not creep in my personal photos, as would most of the country
I’d rather not have the address bar on the bottom, but have a extra Gb of space on my phone
Rather not have a translucent Lock Screen thing , but have my device run faster or get better battery life
More bloat ware to get you to get a new phone
More creepy photo scanning type stuff
More space used by the OS, again to get you to buy a new phone
Maybe now move the address bar in safari to the side 😂
Who do they get to test these things out? Is it just freaks from SFO and Portland, or do they want working blue collar types opinions too, end of the day there are more of us.
I remember one of my buddies was over, his phone said he needed to “upgrade” looks at it, laughs and shows me, was like to get more dumb emojis and some other pointless stuff, we both laughed
I’d rather have zero emojis and have the software not creep in my personal photos, as would most of the country
I’d rather not have the address bar on the bottom, but have a extra Gb of space on my phone
Rather not have a translucent Lock Screen thing , but have my device run faster or get better battery life
Guessing more skin shades and genders of emojis
More bloat ware to get you to get a new phone
More creepy photo scanning type stuff
More space used by the OS, again to get you to buy a new phone
Maybe now move the address bar in safari to the side
Who do they get to test these things out? Is it just freaks from SFO and Portland, or do they want working blue collar types opinions too, end of the day there are more of us.
I remember one of my buddies was over, his phone said he needed to “upgrade” looks at it, laughs and shows me, was like to get more dumb emojis and some other pointless stuff, we both laughed
I’d rather have zero emojis and have the software not creep in my personal photos, as would most of the country
I’d rather not have the address bar on the bottom, but have a extra Gb of space on my phone
Rather not have a translucent Lock Screen thing , but have my device run faster or get better battery life
Well how about trying an Android?
Well how about trying an Android?
That too is made by people in Silicon Valley, and I’d rather be surrounded by “freaks” than whatever he thinks is normal.
On another note I’m hoping to see beta 5 next Tuesday!
Last edited:
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
Suspended
I still believe Public Beta is coming tomorrow. Today was Samsung Day. So, Apple took a break today.
Not really surprised, usually for Bi-weekly betas, PB comes after a week. For weekly betas, PB comes a few hours/a day afterwards.
Not saying Apple can't release an updated PB this week, but not surprised if not as it happened before.
I understand that Apple do not base their beta release schedule on these forums and the dangers of “zero day” exploits.
So if we take all this into consideration, that Apple may want to “overprotect” the general public more than devs, even though not many regulars will go into betas, then the question remains - why does this DB-PB release gap varies from 1 week early in the beta cycle and then drops to just 1 day and 1 hour apart closer to the final release.
Do Apple just get more confident with less probability of “zero day” exploits at that point?
Less changes the later they get in the beta period so less chance of changes that could/would brick devices.
I'm sure Apple would want to avoid say a watchOS public beta release that bricks watches on install, that would require them to fix all those watches.