AppleInsider Staff
After an apparently successful public beta program for OS X Yosemite, Apple is rumored to be considering an expansion of that initiative that would see forthcoming versions of its mobile operating system — beginning with iOS 9 — subjected to the same assessment.
Adding iOS to the public beta program would represent another step in the recent trend toward openness for Apple, which has seen the company slowly bring its software projects out of the darkness. During the second reign of late cofounder Steve Jobs, Apple applied much the same level of secrecy to software that it did to hardware, with the notable exception of the Mac OS X public beta in 2000.
That changed with the public beta of OS X Yosemite, and iOS 9 could receive the same treatment, according to 9to5Mac. Apple allowed just one million members of the public to sign up for a chance to test Yosemite, and might follow the same approach with iOS 9.
Similar changes may also be afoot for iOS 8.3, preview versions of which have already been released to developers. That update is though to be headed for the existing AppleSeed program, under which Apple customers are selected to test pre-release software based on the needs of the engineering teams.
While iOS 9 is unlikely to see the light of day until Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference this summer, development is well underway. Traffic to AppleInsider servers from devices running early builds of the new operating system has steadily risen throughout December and January, indicating the ramp-up of internal testing processes.
Update: A follow-up report from Re/code claims sources have confirmed the rumor, saying the upcoming iOS public beta will hit AppleSeed sometime in mid-March.
Charles Martin
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57 Comments
Good! I'll be willing to put up with some bugs to get a better experience in the end. iOS 8, to me, is probably the worst version of iOS ever from a reliability standpoint. So many stupid little bugs.
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/184882/rumor-apple-may-open-ios-pre-releases-to-average-consumers-in-expanded-public-beta-program#post_2679079"]Good! I'll be willing to put up with some bugs to get a better experience in the end. iOS 8, to me, is probably the worst version of iOS ever. So many stupid little bugs.[/quote] Makes one wonder what the hell happened. Many of the bugs I encounter seemingly have nothing to do with the new features added in IOS 8. Like copy/paste in Safari.
Hope this only happens with an ironclad legal protection for Apple in place to protect against class-action lawsuits for whatever ills befall clueless beta testers.
[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/184882/rumor-apple-may-open-ios-pre-releases-to-average-consumers-in-expanded-public-beta-program#post_2679085"] Makes one wonder what the hell happened. Many of the bugs I encounter seemingly have nothing to do with the new features added in IOS 8. Like copy/paste in Safari.[/quote] I agree. Even the phone app crashed a few times. Never happened before.
If they follow the Mac OS X public betas from last year, they will only get the iOS public betas once they are deemed fairly stable by Apple, so I suspect these will be popular. I hope they let people know that they won't be able to downgrade at some future point, the way they can with Mac OS X. [quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/184882/rumor-apple-may-open-ios-pre-releases-to-average-consumers-in-expanded-public-beta-program#post_2679079"]Good! I'll be willing to put up with some bugs to get a better experience in the end. iOS 8, to me, is probably the worst version of iOS ever from a reliability standpoint. So many stupid little bugs.[/quote] [quote name="WonkoTheSane" url="/t/184882/rumor-apple-may-open-ios-pre-releases-to-average-consumers-in-expanded-public-beta-program#post_2679088"] I agree. Even the phone app crashed a few times. Never happened before.[/quote] Then you either have never used iOS 2.0-2.2 or have forgotten about the major bugs that plagued that system. [quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/184882/rumor-apple-may-open-ios-pre-releases-to-average-consumers-in-expanded-public-beta-program#post_2679085"] Makes one wonder what the hell happened. Many of the bugs I encounter seemingly have nothing to do with the new features added in IOS 8. Like copy/paste in Safari.[/quote] What copy/paste issues in Safari? The only issues I have are with AI's mobile site, and that predated iOS 8.