Apple Seeds Seventh Beta of iOS 9.3 to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday March 14, 2016 2:48 pm PDT by Juli Clover

ios93 Apple today seeded the seventh beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the sixth iOS 9.3 beta and more than three months after the public release of iOS 9.2, the last major update to iOS 9. iOS 9.3 has been in testing since January 11.

The seventh iOS 9.3 beta is available as an over-the-air update and through the iOS section of the Apple Developer Center (developers only).

As a major update to the iOS 9 operating system, iOS 9.3 introduces several new features. There's a Night Shift mode to reduce the amount of blue light iOS users are exposed to in the evening by shifting the iPad or iPhone display to a warmer (yellower) color spectrum, and there are several features designed to improve the iPad for Education program, such as multi-user login. Multi-user login, while an appealing feature, is limited to MDM customers and is not available to the general public.

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Multiple apps and features are also seeing updates in iOS 9.3. Apple News includes more personalized recommendations, faster updates, a landscape view on the iPhone, and support for in-line video, while Health includes an Apple Watch-style "Activity" view, Notes has an option to password protect individual entries, and third-party apps can add songs to Apple Music.

Apple Music for CarPlay offers "New" and "For You" sections for better music discovery in iOS 9.3, and a Nearby Feature in CarPlay Maps offers more information about points of interest that are close by. Paired with watchOS 2.2, an iPhone running iOS 9.3 is able to support multiple Apple Watches, and for iPhone 6s users, there are new Quick Actions for Weather, Settings, Compass, Health, App Store, and iTunes Store.

This is likely to be one of the last betas of iOS 9.3 we'll see before it is released to the public. Apple is planning to launch iOS 9.3 in the spring, perhaps following an event that is scheduled to take place on March 21.

Tag: iOS 9.3

Related Forum: iOS 9

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Top Rated Comments

Tycho24

127 months ago

Holy crap!
Is it my imagination or is this a lot of betas??

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

bushido

127 months ago

please dont fix the animation bug.

edit: still works :)

Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Shunnabunich

127 months ago

One Year Later…

Tim Cook Sends Company-wide Email in Honor of Hundredth iOS 9.3 Beta

In an email sent to employees today, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered his congratulations to the iOS development team on the release of the one-hundredth Public Beta release of iOS 9.3. The memo comes on the heels of recent public criticism ('http://you.didntexpe.ct/anactual/link/here.didyou') regarding the company's continued work on the update despite iOS 10's debut nearly six months prior, as well as Apple's announcement of the upcoming iOS 11 at a media event ('http://sorry.thisone.is/notalink.either') last week. The full email has been posted by 9to5Mac ('http://what.areyoustill.ch/ecking/these.links?i=guess-im-kinda-flattered&or=something').

Team,

Today, we released the one-hundredth beta of iOS 9.3 to our incredibly dedicated community of developers and public beta testers. It has been a long and arduous journey, but I can truthfully say that 9.3 is closer to release than it has ever been.

The iOS team continues to set an example of Apple's unwavering dedication to quality for the rest of the industry. Over the last year, we've released iOS 10, which has brought a wealth of innovations to more people around the world than ever before; we've made great strides toward the release of iOS 11; and, as I promised our customers last April, we've never lost sight of our goal to bring a truly rock-solid iOS 9.3 to those still using older devices.

I am deeply proud of the efforts you and your coworkers have made to deliver amazing and magical products which enrich the lives of countless millions of people, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for the ingenious and tireless work that you do.

Tim

As a major update to the iOS 9 operating system, iOS 9.3 introduces several long-awaited features ('https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/11/whats-new-in-ios-9-3/'). Night Shift mode ('https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/11/apple-ios-9-3-night-shift/'), introduced with iOS 10.0 last fall, reduces the amount of blue light users are exposed to in the evening by shifting the display of an iOS device to a warmer, more yellowish color spectrum. Improvements to CarPlay and Apple News are also included, as well as additional Quick Actions for included apps and support for multiple Apple Watches.

Apple is planning to launch iOS 9.3 this summer.

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Bentron

127 months ago

Seems like iOS 9.3 has been around for ages now and it still hasn't even been released to the public!

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

OldSchoolMacGuy

127 months ago

This many beta of a .xx release is pretty unheard of right?

The number has been increasing. It's not uncommon for betas to have far more iterations, especially when working with new features. While it may be more than we've seen in other betas I don't think it's anything special or to be alarmed about. The hope is more that they're getting all the issues out of the way with additional rounds of fixes followed by testing.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)