For a famously secretive company, Apple has become surprisingly open about its plans for iOS. Beta tests are now not only open to developers, but also the public and at every stage of testing Apple explicitly declares what is in each update. For example iOS 8.2 was released last week, but we have known since December that it would bring support for the Apple Watch.
And yet the mystery surrounding iOS 8.3 continues continues to grow…
Today Apple has released another update for iOS 8.3 (beta 4, build reference ‘12F5061’) to developers and public testers and the expected cherry on top - an Apple version of the Beats streaming music service - refuses to show its head.
I say ‘expected’ because, like the iOS 8.2 inclusion of Apple Watch support, iOS 8.3 has long been touted for the introduction of the much anticipated, Beats-inspired iTunes evolution. Instead the reality is currently a lot more bland.
iOS 8.3 Beta 4 Details
iOS 8.3 Beta 4 ships to developers continuing earlier iOS 8.3 beta support for a wireless version of CarPlay, Google 2-step verification, racially diverse emoji, filters for Messages (known/unknown senders), a UI tweak for the iOS keyboard and new compatibility for Apple Pay on the China UnionPay network.
In addition there are expanded voice commands for Siri, including the ability to initiate calls over speakerphone and the ability to skip password entry when downloading free apps. The specific changelog for beta 4 (primarily fixes) can be found on page 2.
Read more - Apple iOS 8.2: Should You Upgrade?
Bracing For iOS 8.4
Consequently the likes of MacRumors have begun to speculate that Apple has pushed the debut of its streaming music service to iOS 8.4. Remarkably MacRumors servers have already detected devices visiting its site running iOS 8.4, suggesting Apple’s breakneck release schedule since iOS 8 launched in September shows no sign of slowing.
There are mitigating circumstances. Many iOS 8.x releases have so far been bug fixes and most are now squashed (ironically, excluding the biggest). Still with WWDC 2015 expected to be held in June (and typically where Apple announces the next iOS generation) this doesn’t leave a lot of time to push out more major iOS 8 releases.
The Beats Mystery
All of which brings us back to Beats, which Apple bought for $3.2 billion in May 2014. A purchase largely believed to have been fueled by Apple’s desire to cannibalise the company’s music service. The bonus of headphones - with Lightning models growing - didn’t hurt either.
Then again I questioned the purchase at the time and I still do. The Beats streaming music licenses don’t automatically pass to Apple on purchase (they require renegotiation) and there’s nothing of value in its headphones technology (Beats effectively rebadged Monster Inc. products until 18 months before the Apple purchase). Meanwhile there’s little in the brand value, historically Apple has rebadged every company it has ever bought.
Read more - iPhone 6 Vs Galaxy S6 And Galaxy S6 Edge: Samsung Gatecrashes Apple
My personal theory is, having struggled to get a streaming music service to market prior to the Beats purchase, Apple has found it is still more difficult than it imagined afterwards. I’d have bought Spotify (at the time valued at $4BN) and got the same leg up while also killing my biggest competitor.
So what is the reality? It’s clear iOS 8.3 is now out for a streaming music service announcement. It could indeed appear in iOS 8.4 as some hope, though that would seem to a missed marketing opportunity with the hype of WWDC 2015 to follow shortly afterwards.
The upside: it’s good to have some mystery around Apple again…
Next page: official iOS 8.3 beta 4 Apple change log - warning: it's developer focused
The iOS 8.3 Beta 4 change log consists purely of the following bug fixes. It does not list the features iOS 8.3 introduced in earlier beta versions.
Notes and Known Issues
The following issues relate to using iOS SDK 8.3 to develop code.
App Extensions
Notes
App extensions need an arm64 slice to run on 64-bit devices. If you try to run the armv7 slice on a 64-bit device it won’t work.
Apps need to have an arm64 slice if the bundle contains a framework that both the app and the app extension link against.
CarPlay
Known Issue
Outgoing Call Audio and FaceTime Audio may be choppy.
Spotlight
Known Issue
3rd Party keyboards may not be available for selection in Spotlight Search.
Workaround: Reboot the device.
UIKit
Note
When linking against iOS 8.3, any code that relies on layout information (such as the frame) of a UIButton subview when the button is not in the window hierarchy will need to send layoutIfNeeded to the button before retrieving layout information (such as button.titleLabel.frame) to ensure that the layout values are up to date.
For example, if you had something like this:
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeSystem];
// code that sets up the button, but doesn’t yet add it to a window
CGRect titleFrame = button.titleLabel.frame;
// code that relies on the correct value for titleFrame
You now need:
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeSystem];
// code that sets up the button, but doesn’t yet add it to a window
[button layoutIfNeeded]; // This is also safe pre-iOS 8.3
CGRect titleFrame = button.titleLabel.frame;
// code that relies on the correct value for titleFrame
WatchKit
Known Issue
Creating an animated image using the UIImage method animatedImageWithImages:duration: and then playing the animation using startAnimating ignores the duration and plays back as fast as possible.
Workaround: Use startAnimatingWithImagesInRange:duration:repeatCount: instead.
End of Apple change log
