Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to developers, marking the third major update to the iOS 10 operating system that was released in September. The first iOS 10.3 beta comes more than a month after the release of iOS 10.2.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 10.3 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.
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As a 10.x update, iOS 10.3 likely brings bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features to iOS 10. While we won't know what's in the update until developers begin discovering changes, it is rumored to include a new "Theatre" mode with a "popcorn-shaped" icon in the Control Center.
What the rumored Theatre mode does is unclear, but should it be included in iOS 10.3, we'll find out its purpose soon enough. We'll update this post with new features that are found in the update.
Update: Apple has shared release details with several sites, outlining features that are included in the update. While the main feature is a new "Find My AirPods" option, there are also several smaller updates.
What's new in iOS 10.3:
- There's a new "Find My AirPods" tool to help users locate lost AirPods.
- SiriKit can be used to pay bills, check on the status of payments, and schedule future rides.
- The weather icon in the Maps app includes 3D Touch to show hourly forecasts.
- CarPlay includes new shortcuts for launching recently used apps.
- CarPlay's Maps now features EV charging station locations.
- HomeKit supports programmable light switches.
- Conversation View in the Mail app features navigation improvements.
- When installing iOS 10.3, it will update the file system to Apple File System (APFS), so it's important to make a backup before updating.
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When you update to iOS 10.3, your iOS device will update its file system to Apple File System (APFS). This conversion preserves existing data on your device. However, as with any software update, it is recommended that you create a backup of your device before updating.
They almost went with ZFS, but it became a big problem when Oracle bought Sun.
Also, anyone complaining about Apple's custom chips needs a good kick in the head. They're the best mobile chips around.
*ahem*
iOS 10.3 may not add much, but the SiriKit improvements look interesting.
1. APFS in terms of I/O (that is - input-output, read and write data) focuses on improving foreground apps and tasks. It is reasonable to think that background tasks can wait a bit longer to read or write data they need.
2. It doesn’t make processor or graphic processor to handle more task or make them faster.
3. Apps are multithreaded - if app is made along Object-C or Swift guidelines - UI - user interface - is main thread and background tasks are secondary thread (i.e. on slow connection the app you are using downloads data, but user interface is still responsive and probably shows some indicator that data are being downloaded, you can easily switch from one tab to another).
4. Open/save file: with APFS it is possible to do atomic updates - which mean: app is saving only changes to a file or load from a file only things that have changed, not the whole file.
With all that considered: performance gain with APFS would be from reading data needed by foreground app first, using less bandwidth (connection between CPU, RAM, and flash memory) while loading and saving data, postponing some disk operations that are requested by background processes.
To sum it up: you should see some improvements in situations like scrolling through conversation in imessage, saving changes to modified picture, opening files.
(Obviously, sorry for my lousy english, it’s not even my third language)
And if you want to get nerdy: ArsTechnica ('http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/') and Apple's official documentation ('https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/Introduction/Introduction.html').
I was thinking they would hold off until iOS 11 to show off APFS, didn't know it was already ready!