Andrew O'Hara
Following the launch of iOS 13.2 a week ago, Apple has once more started up the beta cycle with the first release of iOS 13.3 to developers. Here's an overview of what's new, and what Apple has changed this time around.
Changes and features
Apple Watch app icon in iOS 13.2 versus iOS 13.3The first notable change in iOS 13.3 beta 1 is that the Apple Watch app icon was updated slightly. Now instead of a black center to the Digital Crown, there is a grey one instead.
Users also have the option to disable Memoji on the keyboard within Settings. Screen Time now has a communications category that allows users to decide who they can talk to during screen time and their downtime.
Communication Screen Time option in iOS 13.3Performance
The biggest thing to talk about is performance. With iOS 13.2, a major bug was introduced that killed the multitasking capabilities of iPhones and iPads. Whenever an app would be left, it was killed in the background, losing any progress or work that was done.
In the first beta of iOS 13.3, it is inconclusive if this is fixed. We were able to switch between a bunch of open apps without any of them being killed by the OS. That was an improvement. But when we lock our phone for a few moments and go back, then we did have apps being killed and reloaded.
That amounts to some improvements, but not a complete fix. Hopefully it is further addressed in the beta cycle, and we'll be testing this more going forward.
Any other changes?
If you've spotted anything else reach out on Twitter to @Andrew_OSU and we'll update the article with any further changes.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
Mike Wuerthele
22 Comments
It’s been a wild ride.
Guys, it's only beta 1! Go and report the bugs and wait for Apple to fix it.
The only thing I've noticed so far is with the installation. On my 256 GB iPad Pro I got a dialog during installation asking me whether it was okay to remove some applications during the install to free space ... and that they would all be restored post-installation. This seems more than a bit odd seeing how the iPad in question has more than 70 GB of free storage and the install download is in the 3.5 GB range. Even uncompressed I can't figure out why the installation would need to remove and reinstall apps during the update when I have such an enormous amount of free space available. Perhaps there's a fragmentation issue or, more likely, some really bad logic in the installation script. Hey, it's a Beta 1, so there's no limit on the amount of embarrassing sloppiness that can be put forth. I guess this is the new norm.
They need to fix the web app / PWA mess they created in iOS 13 with the forced toolbar on top and still crippling web apps without access to the camera or any advanced features that safari allows.
The last public release killed the LTE on my iPad. Reset all networking etc. nothing worked until I ejected my sim...
Apple better testing please... (also make ejecting the sim less of a pain in the @#$)
I’d never be a beta tester unless I got paid for it.
Don’t do it people. Don’t chase the shinies...