NEW YORK: Apple has started offering iOS 9 operating system to iPhone- and iPad-owning consumers in a beta release. As anyone who’s downloaded any beta software in the past knows, betas are often buggy. Unless you’re willing to risk genuine usability problems like poor battery life and crashing apps, you’re going to want to hold off until the final version of iOS 9 is released this fall. (And even then, you’re going to want to wait at least a day before you do it.)
Apple itself offers plenty of warning it its beta software program agreement, one worth reading carefully before downloading any software. In the agreement, Apple says, “Once you load such prerelease software onto your computer and/or device, you may be unable to revert back to the pre-loaded commercial release of the Apple software you were using prior to” the beta. Apple continues to say that apps and services you rely on may not work, data may be lost and test devices “may not be capable of being restored to their original condition.” Needless to say, Apple also states it won’t pay for any damage incurred as a result of participating in the beta.
iOS 9 does bring plenty of cool new features, like a smarter Siri and improved multi-tasking on the iPad. There are also new built-in apps that’ll make their debut in iOS 9, like Apple News, the company’s answer to Flipboard. Along with all that, Apple is also promising engineering refinements that should lead to better battery life and improved security.
Thankfully, iOS 9 is set to introduce smaller software updates. For example, iOS was 4.58GB in size, while iOS 9 should be about 1.3GB. This means you won’t have to clear up as much free space just to update iOS in the future.
Troubled Past for iOS Launches
As we saw with iOS 8 last year, even after software goes through the full gauntlet of developer and consumer betas and make it all the way to its final ready-for-the-world status, it can still end up buggy. When Apple delivered iOS 8 to iPhones and iPads last year, the release was met with a flood of complaints over things like an inability to make phone calls, TouchID fingerprint sensors that didn’t work and other debilitating glitches. Apple pulled one version of iOS 8 from the public hours after its release, and released an updated patch later that day that removed some of the most glaring issues.
Apple had similar problems with 2011′s iOS 5 release, with reports of poor battery life, and 2012′s iOS 6, with complaints over poor connectivity and dropped calls. Apple issued updates to both versions of iOS to fix the issues.
So far, Apple has released three versions of its iOS 9 beta software, the first being released exclusively to app developers in June during the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference.
Apple, of course, isn’t the only company to offer public or consumer beta software to the masses. Microsoft offered Office for Mac for 5 months as a public beta (Microsoft calls them “previews”) before delivering the finished software on Thursday. During that beta, the company updated the productivity app suite seven times. It’s currently in a public beta for Windows 10 which will hit PCs sometime this fall.
While it can be exciting to be the canary in the coal mine, not to mention getting the newest phone features first, your iPhone may well be your primary (or even only) means of communicating with the world. It’s best to be cautious.
If you have a secondary device you’d like to try this on, such as an iPad, an iPod Touch or an old unused iPhone, you can download the iOS9 consumer beta at beta.apple.com.
