Apple announced on Monday the release of the third developer betas for all of its operating systems– iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. And as is the belief, third time’s the charm! The new betas bring in essential stability fixes and many new features.
We already saw and tested the second developer betas of Apple’s software a couple of weeks ago. And surprisingly enough, the Cupertino giant rolled out these previews as public betas for all to test. The previous versions brought in key features to the OS’s but opened up room for other bugs and problems. With the official release of the operating systems scheduled this fall and approaching quickly, the company is speeding updates even further.
People who have opted to test iOS 10 and macOS 10 via public betas should note that they won’t be able to get these new updates today. Instead, Apple is first rolling out the third betas to the developer servers so that only people paying $99 a year for a developer account can test it out. In case the updates do not have any major bugs, Apple will globally release them for the public to evaluate.
And yeah, remember that these are previews and could trash your devices. So make sure you’ve backed up all your data as required. Avoid any beta updates on your primary devices, to be completely safe.
iOS
The latest beta of iOS 10 rolls out with a much more powerful Siri. Your new digital voice assistant will allow you to request a ride, send a message in any messaging app, call someone using a VoIP app, pay back someone using Venmo or start a run in a fitness app. All this is possible because of Siri extensions. The extensions aren’t yet available to test. But it’s good to know we’ve got this.
We also get a new and improved Messages app. Over the years, the Apple Messages app hasn’t seen much improvement. But with iOS 10, Messages has turned into a whole new app. There is a host of new features that you’ll love to use. For instance, when you send a link in Messages, the app will automatically fetch a preview of this link. There’s a new photo picker, which takes over the keyboard and lets you take a photo or pick an existing photo in your camera roll without having to tap on another menu.
You can annotate on photos, too.
Another interesting feature is the ability to send Slack-like feedback to messages.
There are other minor improvements and many stability and bug fixes in the latest preview.
macOS
The previous beta of macOS brought in most of the expected features of the operating system. And while that stands as a fact, the latest preview has a few aces up its sleeve.
With the third beta, Siri is now functioning as she was meant to. This means that for the first time, you will be able to talk to Siri on your Apple computer. Photos will be getting a new upgrade to improve user experience and Safari gets a picture-in-picture mode for videos.
watchOS
Apple’s wearables’ operating system watchOS will also be getting a major upgrade in its 3rd generation. The interface is completely redesigned to make it much simpler to use.
You will now be able to swiftly scroll between multiple apps and watch faces. App launch times have also been drastically reduced.
tvOS
While the other 3 operating systems from the Cupertino tech giant are seeing massive updates, tvOS 10 might disappoint you. The new update brings in tow a dark version, along with picture-in-picture mode for videos.
The only other important feature is that with tvOS 10, your Apple TV can turn into a HomeKit hub now.
