A beta of every color.
Anthony KarczGood morning fellow testers! If you don't have automatic updates enabled in iOS, you've got a surprise waiting for you under General > Software Update this morning. Apple has released iOS 12.1 Public Beta 4.
While the release itself is surprisingly robust for a .1 beta, we've moved on to the stability testing phase of the cycle. All the new features have been introduced and Apple is sending out updates that have backend tweaks only.
What's Fixed
The charging and connectivity fixes introduced back in Public Beta 2 (and iOS 12.0.1) are doing their thing (assuming you were plagued by either of those problems). Will it make your iPhone XS Plus magically have more battery capacity? No. No it will not. There aren't any additional fixes in this update.
What's New
As I mentioned above, iOS 12.1 is surprisingly robust for a "minor" release. In addition to Group FaceTime being restored, there are 70 new emojis and the ability to manipulate the f-stop on the fly in the Camera app (something that wowed crowds at the iPhone event this past summer). It's been a satisfyingly packed build.
What's Next
As you might have guessed, we're in the home stretch for iOS 12.1. iPhone XR will be out before the end of the month, and it will be running iOS 12.1. For that to happen, the final code needs to be done (checks calendar), well pretty much right now.
My best guess is that the final code will be loaded onto iPhone XR devices this weekend at the factory with beta testers getting the last release of this cycle next Tuesday/Wednesday. The public release of iOS 12.1 should be next Thursday, just before the XR hits the shelves.
But Apple has surprised me before. If any of that changes, I'll let you know!
