The First iOS 12 Public Beta: But Will You Need Those New Features?
June 27th, 2018Since I’ve been largely in cheapskate mode in recent years, I seek ways to save money. I no longer pay $99 to join the Apple Developer Program. At most I miss one or two early previews after the annual WWDC. Otherwise, a public beta release is usually released no more than a day after the developer version, unless there’s something really bad that has to be fixed first.
With the release of the iOS 12 public beta, I went ahead and downloaded it for installation on a late model iPhone. It is possible to restore your device if something goes wrong by downloading a previous version (not to worry, it’s searchable). So I took the plunge.
The first step requires installing Apple’s device profile on your iOS device, so it will be able to alert you, download and install the new releases.
Since this week’s release is the first for regular folk, don’t expect miracles. The final or near-final version won’t be out for two months. That said, my initial experience, after about a day, hasn’t been so bad. The symptoms are largely about flakiness. So sometimes, when I try to delete an email, the Trash icon isn’t there, and backing up through the menus and returning brings it back.
A handful of web pages stay white and never render or refresh, but it’s not consistent. So far, at least, there have been no crashes.
One of the tentpole features of iOS 12 is not something you can see. It’s the promise of faster app launches, faster keyboard display, and speedier swiping to the camera, ranging from “up to” 50-100%. The highest boost is promised for an iPhone 6.
I read an early review of the first iOS 12 release for developers, in which the promised performance leaps were tested. It was a mixed bag, with some of the touted functions coming close to matching Apple’s claims, and some not-so-different. To be fair, early betas aren’t optimized for performance. Better to test this with a final or near-final release.
So I didn’t bother to actually check speeds. My subjective impressions were positive. It seems to boot faster, and most things appear to be snappier. Both Lyft and Uber, which used to take maybe six seconds to load, took roughly three seconds to launch with the iOS 12 public beta. The zooming effect appears faster and smoother, with no overt evidence of stuttering. Most interesting is the fact that, even though I’m at a motel with three megabit Wi-Fi connection, my iPhone didn’t didn’t feel that slow at online access.
Assuming faster performance is all or mostly across the board, it means that the same hardware that worked with iOS 12 will of a sudden run faster. This is very much against the grain, where the oldest supported hardware usually becomes unbearably sluggish with a new iOS release.
Indeed, it’s very likely some people buy new gear not because what they have doesn’t work so well, but because performance has deteriorated so much — and not just because the battery is spent and the CPU is being throttled. Thus, Apple might possibly sell fewer iPhones. But I expect Tim Cook and his team expect people, will be more satisfied that their gear is not exhibiting many overt signs of aging and will be just as inclined to upgrade, or more will stick with iPhones.
I am not considering how well an Android device ages since many of them never receive a new OS release.
I am interested in the FaceTime Group feature as a possible substitute for Skype, at least for audio-only use, but that means that guests for my shows will need to use Apple gear. I’ll keep it in mind.
The added security and privacy features, including a proper password manager and default blocking of social network interactions, are welcome. But they aren’t things people will necessary notice until they began to seriously look around.
I’m also intrigued by yet another promise of a better Siri — last year’s promise wasn’t fully realized — and I’ll give it a chance and see if I can reliably take it beyond simple alarms.
For the most part, you should be able to install an IOS public beta without seeing much in the way of front-facing changes, at least at the start. Although I’ve seen over 200 new or changed features listed, they are largely more subtle than usual. This may be in keeping with the rumor that Apple is focusing more on performance and reliability than adding cool stuff, that some key features are being held off to 2019.
It’s not that Apple plans to say that a new OS release is less than originally planned. But it’s also true that some features may be delayed or omitted because they aren’t perfected. But customers shouldn’t have to wait for months for AirPlay 2 and other promised features either. On the other hand, it may also be possible that this will be the norm, that some things will be rolled out through the year as they are ready. It’s not that Apple has to worry about readying an OS for retail sale.
But even though my initial experiences with iOS 12 are positive, I urge you to be careful about installing a beta OS unless you have a ready backup routine.
I will hold off installing a macOS Mojave beta until it’s closer to release. I no longer have a backup computer, since the next OS won’t run on my 2010 MacBook Pro.
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There are at least two bad design features about the current iOS interface, maybe 3.
1. Until now the same vocabulary of swipes, pinches etc. has worked identically for both the iPhone and the iPad in all their versions. When I bought my iPhone X, this was no longer true. The notorious Notch bothered me for about ten seconds and then I became oblivious to it. But in switching back and forth between these two devices, it continues to drive me nuts that I can’t remember whether an upswipe or a downswipe brings up the Control on which device.
2. Several apps, including Mail, Messages, and Telephone and FaceTime, have a folder for old stuff you are going to want to delete sooner or later. Most of these have a handy Delete All option, Messages does not, and indeed deleting old messages is a strangely difficult operation. Why?? Why can’t we have interface uniformity across all such apps?
3. It would be great if one could perform batch deletes on Camera Roll.
4. On the iPhone X, it’s damn near impossible to use the Home button on the right side without sometimes also hitting a button on the left, therefore taking an unwanted photo that has to be hand-deleted (see nr. 3). It would be great if we were given a Preference option to disable this way of activating the camera.
If Apple would introduce these changes (which would entail encouraging the design teams for their various apps to talk to each other a bit more), these alone would justify putting out a new iOS version.
5. That illuminated white bar that shows up on the bottom of some but not all apps (why?) may be useful for newbies to show them where they are supposed to upswipe. But after a few days it outlives its usefulness and becomes nothing but a nuisance. Keeping it as a permanent feature is about as sensible as welding training wheels on a bicycle. Let it appear for X nr. of days, then l ose it.