Apple Releases Third iOS 10.3 Public Beta to Public Beta Testers - MacRumors
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Apple Releases Third iOS 10.3 Public Beta to Public Beta Testers

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Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second public beta and one day after providing the third iOS 10.3 beta to developers.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 10.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.

ios-10-3-beta
As a major 10.x update, iOS 10.3 introduces a new "Find My AirPods" option to help users locate a lost AirPod. Located in the "Find My Friends" app, the Find My AirPods feature keeps track of the last known location where AirPods were connected to an iOS device via Bluetooth, and it allows the AirPods to play a sound to make finding them nearby easier.

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Along with a Find My AirPods feature, the update also includes a shift to Apple File System (APFS). First introduced in 2016, APFS is optimized for Flash/SSD storage and includes strong encryption and other important features.

Apple recommends all users make an iCloud backup before installing iOS 10.3, as the update will cause the iPhone's file system to switch over to Apple File System.

iOS 10.3 also introduces a tweaked app animation, a new Apple ID profile in the Settings app, a better breakdown on how iCloud storage is being used, SiriKit improvements, new iCloud analytics options, Verizon Wi-Fi calling on iCloud devices, 32-bit app alerts, and more. The third beta introduces an "App Compatibility" section in the Settings app, letting users see if they have outdated apps that won't work with future versions of iOS.

Related Forum: iOS 10

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Top Rated Comments

JackieTreehorn Avatar
JackieTreehorn
123 months ago
Is the speed improvement real?
Yup. I installed it one four different devices since the pubic beta was released three minutes ago.

Any faster, and it'll time travel
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MikeKlump Avatar
MikeKlump
123 months ago
this update bricked my phone. Had to restore it.
You installed and restored and then posted here all in an hour this has been out?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
C DM
123 months ago
this update bricked my phone. Had to restore it.
So not really bricked.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MathersMahmood Avatar
MathersMahmood
123 months ago
Hopefully the battery life is better. Mine has been dying so fast lately.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tomovo Avatar
tomovo
123 months ago
I'd just like to note that the APFS in-place conversion probably isn't happening on iPhone 5 devices at all. I have one and was curious to see if there was a way to check. One of the features advertised for APFS was higher resolution for file timestamps. So I wrote a little test app and ran it on different devices. It quickly creates a series of files and compares their "modified" timestamps. It seems like the time resolution for iPhone 5 running iOS 10.3 beta is still 1 second, which would suggest it's still using HFS. Link to the app: https://github.com/catnapgames/TestIOSAPFSCheck (if you have Xcode you can build and run it yourself, developer account is no longer required when running on your own device).
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
colorfuel
123 months ago
Thanks for all the reviews. As of now 10.3 seems to be the first update where I will not be part of the beta testing.

Battery life is just too important, if not the most important thing. Dont forget that with shorter battery life also come more charging cycles thus shorter overall battery health.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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