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iOS 18 Speculation Thread

gwhizkids said:
I’d say there’s a very good chance we see beta 3 today. Tomorrow at the latest.

55% chance today
45% chance tomorrow.

Tomorrow may factor in if they want to go 7 days since the last beta and they don’t plan on releasing the RC next Monday due to MLK Day.
Click to expand...
iOS 17.3 came out January 22 (a Wednesday)

There were two betasof iOS 17.3, but Apple technically never released a second public beta:

  • iOS 17.3 Beta 2
    Apple pulled this update after it was released because it was causing devices to get stuck in a boot loop.

  • iOS 17.3 Beta 3
    This update was a re-release of Beta 2 with bug fixes and a new modem update.
 
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john991 said:
iOS 17.3 came out January 22 (a Wednesday)

There were two betasof iOS 17.3, but Apple technically never released a second public beta:

  • iOS 17.3 Beta 2
    Apple pulled this update after it was released because it was causing devices to get stuck in a boot loop.

  • iOS 17.3 Beta 3
    This update was a re-release of Beta 2 with bug fixes and a new modem update.
Click to expand...

Let’s work back from an 18.4 release. Here are the data points (as I see them) on that:

- We’re told it will be released in April (likely coinciding with new iPads).
- School spring breaks (and a lot of vacation time) will be for many the first week in April.
- This is going to be a huge update, possibly on the same scale as a major release, so it will need a full 8 betas.

So, I’m guessing that Apple will hold some kind of event early the week of April 14 (as Easter falls the next Sunday). The release candidate will come out the day of that event (like the iPhone announcement day) I’m thinking it will be an event (the modern video kind) because of the new iPads but most importantly because of the new capabilities coming in 18.4. They’ll need to do a refresher video to show people how they’ll be able to use the new Siri capabilities.

So, with that in mind, let’s work backward to a possible release cadence:

18.4 public release: ~April 22
18.4 release candidate: ~April 14
18.4 b8: April 8 (1 week)
18.4 b7 : March 31/April 1 (1 week)
18.4 b6 : March 24/25 (1 week)
18.4 b5 : March 17/18 (1 week)
18.4 b4 : March 10/11 (2 weeks)
18.4 b3 : February 24/25 (2 weeks)
18.4 b2 : February 10/11 (2 weeks)
18.4 b1: January 27

So based on that:

18.3 public release: 1/21 or 1/22
 
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gwhizkids said:
Let’s work back from an 18.4 release. Here are the data points (as I see them) on that:

- We’re told it will be released in April (likely coinciding with new iPads).
- School spring breaks (and a lot of vacation time) will be for many the first week in April.
- This is going to be a huge update, possibly on the same scale as a major release, so it will need a full 8 betas.

So, I’m guessing that Apple will hold some kind of event early the week of April 14 (as Easter falls the next Sunday). The release candidate will come out the day of that event (like the iPhone announcement day) I’m thinking it will be an event (the modern video kind) because of the new iPads but most importantly because of the new capabilities coming in 18.4. They’ll need to do a refresher video to show people how they’ll be able to use the new Siri capabilities.

So, with that in mind, let’s work backward to a possible release cadence:

18.4 public release: ~April 22
18.4 release candidate: ~April 14
18.4 b8: April 8 (1 week)
18.4 b7 : March 31/April 1 (1 week)
18.4 b6 : March 24/25 (1 week)
18.4 b5 : March 17/18 (1 week)
18.4 b4 : March 10/11 (2 weeks)
18.4 b3 : February 24/25 (2 weeks)
18.4 b2 : February 10/11 (2 weeks)
18.4 b1: January 27

So based on that:

18.3 public release: 1/21 or 1/22
Click to expand...
I agree, I think 18.3 will drop sometime this month, and beta testing for 18.4 will start this month. Though, it is possible that an 18.4 beta will drop before the public release of 18.3, considering they did this with 18.1 and 18.2. 👍🏻
 
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Kal Madda said:
I agree, I think 18.3 will drop sometime this month, and beta testing for 18.4 will start this month. Though, it is possible that an 18.4 beta will drop before the public release of 18.3, considering they did this with 18.1 and 18.2.
Click to expand...

That might happen if the planned April release of 18.4 is earlier in April than I projected above.
 
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gwhizkids said:
I’d say there’s a very good chance we see beta 3 today. Tomorrow at the latest.

55% chance today
45% chance tomorrow.

Tomorrow may factor in if they want to go 7 days since the last beta and they don’t plan on releasing the RC next Monday due to MLK Day.
Click to expand...
Darwin versions of beta 2 and beta MacOS 15.3
  • Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Tue Dec 17 23:23:46 PST 2024; root:xnu-11215.80.28.501.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64
  • Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Mon Dec 9 19:48:47 PST 2024; root:xnu-11215.80.25.501.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64
You can see everything is so last year, and like others seems like beta 3 when it drops should be last before RC.
 
Kal Madda said:
Yeah, and also, do you think it’s possible they’d do more than 8 betas for 18.4 since it’s rumored to be such a large update? It might make sense to have more time to address any bugs introduced.
Click to expand...

No. They typically do 8 for the major releases. As big as this may be, I don’t see them exceeding that.
 
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(Couldn’t resist)
IMG_0098.jpeg
 
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