If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last decade, it’s that I am the go-to guy for friends, family, and coworkers when something goes wrong with their Apple devices. The biggest influx of these requests tend to come the week of a major iOS software update, when Apple tends to roll out the biggest changes to their line of operating systems.
As such, I try to be as knowledgeable as I can, as close to launch as I can. Even during the several year period where I was using Android phones instead of iPhones, I still made sure to keep up on all the latest changes. It also helped during this period that I still used a Mac and an iPad, so keeping up on iPhone and Apple Watch changes wasn’t too big of a stretch.
But how do I do it? I don’t have an Apple developer account or a spare device to run potentially buggy software on so I get the software update the same time as everyone else…right?
Kind of. Here’s the thing, Apple has a public beta program for most of (if not all of) their software lines at this point. That means that I can leverage this beta track to get my hands on the software a few days before everyone else. The secret is in waiting until they release and RC or GM build (I’m not positive which vernacular they will be using this year). That software is more or less release software (as long as no major, world ending bugs pop up at the last possible moment).
So what I do is I wait for the final build of the public beta version of iOS and make a decision then if I want to update or not. All throughout the summer I’m keeping an eye on various blogs, forums, and YouTube channels so I have an idea of the overall stability of the OS at that point and can make a pretty informed decision on whether or not I should install the software. If the beta period has been rough, I’ll give it a few extra days to make sure everything is good with the build before pushing forward.
Once the public release happens, I just take the beta profile off my device and update to the first non-beta double dot update to release, pushing me right back off the beta track. I know I’m not the kind of user Apple had in mind when they came up with a beta track like that, but it has been helpful time and time again when people around me have updated without reading the release notes and I am already well-versed in the various areas I am most likely to receive questions.
That’s the one thing I hated about the iOS 14 beta release. My plan had been to install the RC build immediately following the keynote, when Apple decided to throw a wrench in that plan by announcing iOS 14 would release a mere 24 hours later. If there’s one thing I can ask Apple for this year, it’s to not spring an iOS release on us like that again — that doesn’t help anyone. Developers were under pressure to get their apps finalized in time, people like me had no time to fully understand the software before our surrounding circles would bombard us with questions about widgets and why they aren’t like the ones on Android, and in general, having that software floating around for an extra week would have been a great time to catch last minute bugs that will need addressing.
Here’s hoping Apple gives everyone the time they need when they decide when to release iOS 15.
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Dan Stransky 