Apple today seeded the eighth beta of an upcoming iOS 12 update to developers for testing purposes, just a few days after seeding the seventh beta and more than two months after introducing the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 12 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air after installing the proper certificate.
iOS 12 beta 8 comes just two days after the release of iOS 12 beta 7, which Apple was ultimately forced to pull a few hours after it was released due to performance issues.
Many people who downloaded the seventh beta reported problems when launching apps, with serious delays between when an app icon was tapped and when the app opened.
Most users said that the delay disappeared after five or 10 minutes of using the iPhone, but it was a serious enough bug that Apple pulled the update until a fix was available, and some users also saw continual delays, crashes, and freezes.
Apple removed the over-the-air update first and then later also pulled the download from the Apple Developer Center. No public beta was released due to the performance issues, but now that an updated beta has launched, a public beta should be available soon.
iOS 12 beta 7 removed the Group FaceTime feature that has been present in iOS 12 since the update was first introduced in June. Apple has decided to delay Group FaceTime for now and reintroduce it in an iOS 12 update set to be released later this fall.
Group FaceTime, one of iOS 12's major new features, is designed to allow users to chat with up to 32 people at once.
Though Group FaceTime will no longer be available when iOS 12 launches, the update will bring Screen Time for monitoring time spent on iOS devices, new Animoji and Memoji, a new Effects camera in Messages and FaceTime, Siri Shortcuts, grouped notifications, and more.
Update: Apple has released a new version of iOS for its public beta testers. iOS 12 Public Beta 6 is identical to the eighth developer beta.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)i think Apple needs to hire more competent developers how can these programmers write code with so many bugs just saying
Well because it’s beta and not supposed to be production quality. Development isn’t perfect.i think Apple needs to hire more competent developers how can these programmers write code with so many bugs just saying
Bless. How's your large scale Enterprise Programming career going?i think Apple needs to hire more competent developers how can these programmers write code with so many bugs just saying
You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of both writing code and developers in general if you think that the *only* reason software would contain so many bugs is due to incompetent developers. A small development team at Apple can only find so many bugs based on the test devices they use. Once the software is released to a massive ‘developer’ base with *different* devices that’s when more bugs show. And then even more show up when the software gets released to the public.You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of both writing code and developers in general if you think that the *only* reason software would contain so many bugs is due to incompetent developers. A small development team at Apple can only find so many bugs based on the test devices they use. Once the software is released to a massive ‘developer’ base with *different* devices that’s when more bugs show. And then even more show up when the software gets released to the public.
Well, that is a poor excuse since a lot of their software problems end up being ridiculously obvious issues hours after a public release and not strange fringe cases found weeks or months later. Also Apple has a beta program set up months in advance that gets into the "public" users hands and yet does not identify many glaring release issues.Apple also controls their own hardware and has a limited range of product variations to target their software on so when Android or Windows can release on a much wider set of hardware and has greater initial quality and performance then many recent Apple OS releases, it just speaks volumes to the actual level of quality of Apple's development processes.
Lastly a trillion dollar valued company should not have a "small" development team incapable of delivering better initial release quality, not for something a prominent as the software required for the hardware that made them a trillion dollar company. I don't think this comes down to incompetent developers, but I think obviously there is a culture of poor executive leadership and overall denial at Apple where they think they are still producing the kind of quality they were known for back when Steve Jobs used to chew the heads off his development team when the color of an icon didn't come out right.
Excusing Apple for the plethora of iOS and Mac OS release bugs is nonsense. The company wants more money for their products and so my expectations of initial quality is, and should be, far higher then the average software company. If Apple wants to sell $300 phones full of bugs then my expectations will match the value of the phone. But sell me a $1300 phone and it is quickly broken or crippled by the next iOS patch or major release is inexcusable.
You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of both writing code and developers in general if you think that the *only* reason software would contain so many bugs is due to incompetent developers. A small development team at Apple can only find so many bugs based on the test devices they use. Once the software is released to a massive ‘developer’ base with *different* devices that’s when more bugs show. And then even more show up when the software gets released to the public.
Plus. If they put out a beta with zero bugs in it. What would we have to complain about?