Ask HN: Past iOS Versions Beta Experiences

1 points by nayefc ↗ HN
What were your experiences with beta versions of iOS in the past (iOS 4, 5, 6)? Were any really buggy to the extent of becoming unusable? Were most apps compatible?

3 comments

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5 was terribly buggy, 6 had it's moments... 6 I think had less beta releases than 5, but I'm not sure I'm remembering that correctly.

An awful lot of apps I used almost everyday had major bugs with iOS 7 like rdio and some apps would just refuse to open on the beta releases.

It's a risk.

Probably even a bigger risk when the UI is completely different.
Apps mostly worked, but things were broken.

I'd suggest it for testing, but not on a Phone you need to really use. It's a developer beta for a reason- It's great for ensuring your apps are compatible, but if you're downloading/installing just to test it out, expect it to randomly fail.

Specifically - I've seen lots of lockups that need a force-reboot, and apps that don't work or fail in weird ways.

Keep in mind, the POINT of the beta is so App Developers can test it with their apps - That means that nothing is tested yet, and things will break.

Sometimes users will upgrade to a developer-only beta, then write a bad review about an app because it doesn't work right on their developer-beta. These people are jerks.

Overall, I'd suggest a secondary iPod touch or similar, rather than installing on a device you need.