iOS 9 beta 6 - The Waiting

[Looney01]

A flop? Wow. What device are you using? An iPhone 4 or something!!

iOS 9 on my 6 is pretty darn good for a BETA. Just though I'd capitalise the important word there, a BETA.

I installed beta 5 on my iPhone 6. It was buggy, sluggish and not at all fluid. My device heated up like an oven and battery drained considerably. Gave it a few days and just simply couldn't take it anymore and downgrade back to 8.4.1. Perhaps some people have better experience with beta 5, but I expect the experience to be the same for 100% of idevices before it gets launched to the public.

Yes this is a beta but the whole point of a beta is for a) developers to get their apps to function on iOS 9 and b) iron out all bugs and ensure the public release is stable, fast and fluid.

Failure to do b) is a failure for the public release IMHO.

 

[C DM]

Well iOS public was crap, only got better after a bunch of updates. iOS 8, same thing, public release sucked. Took them until 8.4.1 to release a stable bug free iOS. iOS 9 is going to be no different. Still a crappy public release followed by many months of waiting for things to get fixed. I expected Apple to learn from its mistakes of iOS 7 and iOS 8 and seriously nail iOS 9. They talked about performance improvements and battery life in their keynote, such utter rubbish. Show me the improvements? So far all I've seen is a massively buggy sluggish iOS 9 with atrocious battery life.

iOS 8.4.1 isn't bug free, as none of the software as complex as an OS is really bug free ever. And when it comes to iOS 8, realistically speaking 8.3 was really good for most, and even earlier versions were fairly good for many as well. It will never be perfect, but it can certainly be better.

If you notice, even when it comes to iOS 9, the battery issues exist with the latest beta, and really only for some people/devices, not so much for most of them, and they didn't really exist in previous betas. That basically means it's too early to say much about the final version. It will still have issues, but to say it will be a huge failure of some sort is jumping to conclusions really.

 

[C DM]

I installed beta 5 on my iPhone 6. It was buggy, sluggish and not at all fluid. My device heated up like an oven and battery drained considerably. Gave it a few days and just simply couldn't take it anymore and downgrade back to 8.4.1. Perhaps some people have better experience with beta 5, but I expect the experience to be the same for 100% of idevices before it gets launched to the public.

Yes this is a beta but the whole point of a beta is for a) developers to get their apps to function on iOS 9 and b) iron out all bugs and ensure the public release is stable, fast and fluid.

Failure to do b) is a failure for the public release IMHO.

And quite a few people have had pretty much the opposite experience with the latest iOS 9 beta on their iPhone 6 (and various other devices).

 

[east85]

Has iOS9 betas reached what is equivalent to the GM version yet? I kind of want to test it on my iPhone 4S before ruining the phone (in case I do).

 

[C DM]

Has iOS9 betas reached what is equivalent to the GM version yet? I kind of want to test it on my iPhone 4S before ruining the phone (in case I do).

Well, there are a few threads about the latest iOS 9 beta to give you an idea of what it's like. As far as whether or not it will be like the GM, as the discussion in this thread and some others shows it's hard to say, but more than likely the GM should be better overall at least in terms of stability and performance if not various fixes and enhancements (at least that's generally the hope if not the expectation).

 

[east85]

Well, there are a few threads about the latest iOS 9 beta to give you an idea of what it's like. As far as whether or not it will be like the GM, as the discussion in this thread and some others shows it's hard to say, but more than likely the GM should be better overall at least in terms of stability and performance if not various fixes and enhancements (at least that's generally the hope if not the expectation).

Thanks for the heads up. I probably should do more digging but I'm just popping in here while working. I'll probably give the GM a shot with a clean install upon release. Definitely don't want to ruin my old iPhone, it runs well enough on the latest version of 8. Thanks again.

 

[newellj]

A flop? Wow. What device are you using? An iPhone 4 or something!!

iOS 9 on my 6 is pretty darn good for a BETA. Just though I'd capitalise the important word there, a BETA.

You beat me to it. It runs very well here. If you want to run it on an iPad 2, that's possibly another story altogether. The disquieting thing to me is the number of very dissatisfied iPhone 5S users - that should not be happening (assuming that there are more than half a dozen people having serious issues).

 

[newellj]

I installed beta 5 on my iPhone 6. It was buggy, sluggish and not at all fluid. My device heated up like an oven and battery drained considerably. Gave it a few days and just simply couldn't take it anymore and downgrade back to 8.4.1. Perhaps some people have better experience with beta 5, but I expect the experience to be the same for 100% of idevices before it gets launched to the public.

Yes this is a beta but the whole point of a beta is for a) developers to get their apps to function on iOS 9 and b) iron out all bugs and ensure the public release is stable, fast and fluid.

Failure to do b) is a failure for the public release IMHO.

No, there's a failure on (b) only if the GM release is not actually stable, fast and fluid.

If you mean: the level of assurance of achieving (b) would be substantially higher if the final beta were also stable, fast and fluid, I agree with you, but one is not necessarily indicative of the other.

 

[GroningenNL]

No new beta until the GM on the 9th of september, mark my words. Still hoping for a beta 6 with improved battery life, but i don't see it coming.

 

[SMIDG3T]

You beat me to it. It runs very well here. If you want to run it on an iPad 2, that's possibly another story altogether. The disquieting thing to me is the number of very dissatisfied iPhone 5S users - that should not be happening (assuming that there are more than half a dozen people having serious issues).

Yeah. 2015 software should run on 2013 hardware. When people talk about devices that run an A4 chip, that's when my opinion changes however. The A4 chip is four years old. You cannot expect brand new software to run on hardware that's four years old. It just won't work.

 

[newellj]

Yeah. 2015 software should run on 2013 hardware. When people talk about devices that run an A4 chip, that's when my opinion changes however. The A4 chip is four years old. You cannot expect brand new software to run on hardware that's four years old. It just won't work.

This is going to read as if I'm disagreeing with you, which I'm not...anyway...it's not surprising if it doesn't work. What's problematic is if Apple (1) supports the four year old hardware and (2) touts improved performance but then fails to deliver. They need to straighten out their messaging on this and quite a few other areas. :-/

 

[FatPuppy]

Yeah. 2015 software should run on 2013 hardware. When people talk about devices that run an A4 chip, that's when my opinion changes however. The A4 chip is four years old. You cannot expect brand new software to run on hardware that's four years old. It just won't work.

Actually, 2014 software because the 5s was released at the end of 2013 and it s a 2014 iphone, the iphone 6 is a 2015 iphone and the iphone 6s is gonna be a 2016 iphone.

 

[newellj]

Never mind, not worth typing.

 

[PsykX]

No new beta until the GM on the 9th of september, mark my words. Still hoping for a beta 6 with improved battery life, but i don't see it coming.

Your prediction is right. Beta 6 won't exist.

 

[oldmacs]

You beat me to it. It runs very well here. If you want to run it on an iPad 2, that's possibly another story altogether. The disquieting thing to me is the number of very dissatisfied iPhone 5S users - that should not be happening (assuming that there are more than half a dozen people having serious issues).

Its pretty terrible on the iPad Mini 2 also.

Having said that, it should be as fast or faster than iOS 8 on an iPad 2. There is no excuse for it being slower on A5 devices as there are literally no new features that should make animations and app launch times slower.

I really hope common sense prevails and Apple say releases the iPhone 6S with iOS 8.5 or something, so that iOS 9 can have 1 or two more betas and be truly stable. Or release the iPhone 6S with iOS 9 but restrict updating the other devices for a month or so, again to allow more time for beta testing.

 

[mariusignorello]

I'm not too sure it's ready...

 

[cchase8875432]

Battery usage and standby always the same on iPhone 5S. Then it hits a point and they will be different

 

[newellj]

Its pretty terrible on the iPad Mini 2 also.

Having said that, it should be as fast or faster than iOS 8 on an iPad 2. There is no excuse for it being slower on A5 devices as there are literally no new features that should make animations and app launch times slower.

I really hope common sense prevails and Apple say releases the iPhone 6S with iOS 8.5 or something, so that iOS 9 can have 1 or two more betas and be truly stable. Or release the iPhone 6S with iOS 9 but restrict updating the other devices for a month or so, again to allow more time for beta testing.

My Mini2 is still on 8.4 but it runs fine. I don't think it runs any worse on 8 than it did on 7. If people really want to draw lines, I think the most recent major line was between iOS 6 and iOS 7.

I can't imagine Apple not releasing a new version of iOS with the new phones. Apple needs to look at the wisdom and practicability of promising features (including better performance and longer battery life) months before there's even a credible developer beta. If you're going to make promises, you should make promises that you can deliver.

 

[oldmacs]

My Mini2 is still on 8.4 but it runs fine. I don't think it runs any worse on 8 than it did on 7. If people really want to draw lines, I think the most recent major line was between iOS 6 and iOS 7.

I can't imagine Apple not releasing a new version of iOS with the new phones. Apple needs to look at the wisdom and practicability of promising features (including better performance and longer battery life) months before there's even a credible developer beta. If you're going to make promises, you should make promises that you can deliver.

8 is definitely slower on the Air 1 and Mini 2. They both have issues with jerky animations.

I agree. I had expected the first beta of iOS 9 to show performance and battery life improvements - Otherwise why promise them? I have no idea what Apple did between releasing iOS 8 and announcing iOS 9...

 

[newellj]

I'll note that performance on my Air 2 (which is the best possible hardware case for iOS 9) is no better than 8.x, and battery life on PB1 and PB3 is either level or slightly worse compared to 8.x (PB 2 was terrible). This does not square with the promises made last spring...

 

[Abazigal]

Its pretty terrible on the iPad Mini 2 also.

Having said that, it should be as fast or faster than iOS 8 on an iPad 2. There is no excuse for it being slower on A5 devices as there are literally no new features that should make animations and app launch times slower.

I really hope common sense prevails and Apple say releases the iPhone 6S with iOS 8.5 or something, so that iOS 9 can have 1 or two more betas and be truly stable. Or release the iPhone 6S with iOS 9 but restrict updating the other devices for a month or so, again to allow more time for beta testing.

To be fair, iOS 9 is lightning smooth on my iPhone 5s and iPad mini 2. Animations are faster, and scrolling is very smooth and fluid. The only downside is that battery life seems to be draining much faster than normal, and the devices tend to get warm very quickly, especially during 4g usage and in areas with poorer reception (moreso than usual).

 

[oldmacs]

To be fair, iOS 9 is lightning smooth on my iPhone 5s and iPad mini 2. Animations are faster, and scrolling is very smooth and fluid. The only downside is that battery life seems to be draining much faster than normal, and the devices tend to get warm very quickly, especially during 4g usage and in areas with poorer reception (moreso than usual).

But its not for a LOT of people which is quite worrying :/

 

[Islay]

Beta 5 is horrible when it comes to battery life on my 5S.

Battery drains just by looking at the screen.

I have the same problem on My 5s I need to charge it two times a day and I don't even use it daytime.

 

[henhowc]

Yeah. 2015 software should run on 2013 hardware. When people talk about devices that run an A4 chip, that's when my opinion changes however. The A4 chip is four years old. You cannot expect brand new software to run on hardware that's four years old. It just won't work.

most of the issues i see here and on other forums are with the 5s.

 

[newellj]

most of the issues i see here and on other forums are with the 5s.

And that's his point. The 5S was introduced in 2013 and ought to run a 2015 version of iOS. I doubt there's anyone here who doesn't agree.