Developer betas are now available to everyone, free of charge and easy to install. But think twice before you proceed.
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
Until recently, you had to be a developer (or willing to pay to be considered a developer) in order to access the earliest version of iOS. However, things have changed: you can now download the latest developer beta releases for free — at your own risk, naturally. Here’s how to install the beta software on your iPhone or iPad once it’s available for your device.
Before we get started, a word of warning: beta software is inherently unfinished and may contain bugs. Apple’s public betas (which are usually released around July) are generally more stable, but its developer betas are less so, and you should think carefully before installing them on any device you depend on. They also may not include all the features that will be in the final release. Your experience may differ from others, depending on the apps you use. And finally, if you do decide to install, we suggest backing up your device’s data in case things go badly.
What new features come with iOS 17?
The new iOS is, according to the announcements made at WWDC 2023, coming with a wide range of cool new features. These include an interesting built-in journaling app, new safety features, a new nightstand mode, better contact cards, improved auto-correct and voice transcription, and live voicemail. Not to mention updates to stickers and AirDrop, keyboard updates, and the ability to be able to just say “Siri” without the extra “Hey!”
What devices support iOS 17?
iOS 17 beta (both the developer and eventually the public versions) works on the following devices:
iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max
iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR
iPhone SE (second generation or later)
It will not be available for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus.
How to install the iOS 17 Developer Beta
Apple has made it easier than ever to install the developer beta release of iOS. Here’s what you do (this was done on an iPhone 11 running iOS 16):
First, make sure that your device is running iOS 16.4 or later (by running Settings > General > About). If not, update your software by going to Settings > General > Software Update and downloading the latest version of iOS 16.
Once that’s done:
Head to Apple’s beta software portal on your device’s Safari browser and sign up with the primary Apple ID you use on the device. If you’ve previously signed up, you can sign in and select Get started.
If you’re signing in for the first time, you need to enroll your Apple ID into Apple’s Beta Software Program. This involves agreeing to a lengthy set of terms and conditions. Did we mention this was at your own risk?
Once you’ve agreed, you’re now done with enrollment — your Apple ID essentially becomes your public beta pass, and you don’t need to download profiles like with previous versions.
Optional: if you’d like more info about the beta program, you can scroll down to review Apple’s information about providing feedback. Under Get Started, you can select Enroll your iOS device and be greeted with a reminder on how to create a backup of your device’s content onto a Mac in case you need to revert to a previous state.
Make sure the correct download is checked.
The Developer Beta should now be available on the software download page.
Now go back to Settings > General > Software Update. You should now see a new Beta Updates option right under Automatic Updates. Select Beta Updates, and check to make sure the correct Apple ID is at the bottom of the screen. If not, tap on the ID and select Use a different Apple ID.
Select iOS 17 Developer Beta under Beta Updates.
Once all that is done, go back one screen to Settings > General > Software Update. You should see the iOS 17 Developer Beta update there; select Download and Install,and follow the instructions from there.
With iOS 17, Apple sneakily Sherlocked old analog tech at WWDC 2023
Apple’s latest Sherlock targets your grandparents’ tech
Apple’s latest Sherlock targets your grandparents’ tech
/
Some iOS 17 features announced at WWDC 2023 are inspired by answering machines, alarm clocks, and business cards.
By
Wes Davis
, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.
|
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.See our ethics statement.
An iPhone in StandBy mode.
Image: Apple
For a lot of developers, watching WWDC is a trepidatious affair where they wait to find out whether they’ve been “Sherlocked” — that is, their apps have been outmoded by Apple building their features into its operating systems. We saw it this year when Apple announced Journal, which many have compared to the third-party app Day One. Last year, it was Continuity Cam, which is a lot like smartphone-as-a-webcam-app Camo, and before that, there was Screen Time, which gobbled up traits from Moment.
We’re used to seeing Apple’s new features come from some currently popular app. But it’s less common for Apple to reach back and find inspiration in old, once-ubiquitous tech that predates the iPhone and even the company itself — and this year, that’s exactly what it did, starting with answering machines.
Before visual voicemail, caller ID, and text messaging, the world had chunky machines with cassette tapes in them. You would record a message to the tape, and when someone called, they’d hear your greeting, then leave an audio message after the beep. Where it differed from voicemail in the smartphone age was interactivity: you could hear the message, piped live, through the speaker, and you could still answer the phone if you wanted.
In iOS 17’s coming Live Voicemail feature, the company is doing an interpretation of that. When someone calls and you don’t answer, you’ll see a live transcript on your screen as a voicemail is being recorded, and you can choose to answer it before the caller hangs up.
It goes to show answering machines were just a good idea. Only with Apple’s take on them, you don’t have to listen to someone yell, “I know you’re home, pick up, pick up, pick up,” until you give in or the tape runs out.
We also saw Apple take another stab at a bedside staple: alarm clocks. They still exist, in part because they’re such simple devices but also because you can do fun, sometimes terrible things with them (remember Clocky?). Apple’s answer to them is iOS 17’s StandBy feature. When a locked iPhone with iOS 17 is placed upright in landscape mode, say on a MagSafe stand, it’ll show a new, customizable interface with widgets, the time, or even a screen-spanning clock face.
One of those faces looks very much like some of the analog alarm clocks of old, especially at night when the clock face’s digits or analog clock indices and hands switch to a dim red. Apple even showed a small complication on one clock face that lets you know your next alarm is active (old digital alarm clocks usually did this with a little red light labeled “alarm”).
It’s a nice acknowledgment that information context is important, and sometimes you just need a clock and a little reassurance that your alarm will go off. Unfortunately, you’ll need at least an iPhone 14 Pro for StandBy to be always on.
Lastly, Apple seems to be coming for the humble business card. One of the features the company touted for iOS 17 is called NameDrop, and it works by bringing your iPhone close to another iPhone, which prompts you to share your contact information — your phone numbers and email addresses — with them. It’s essentially streamlining something you can already do by sharing your contact card via AirDrop.
Of course, Apple still took what I’ll generously call cues from others throughout iOS 17. You could argue that NameDrop is a Sherlock of the old Bump app, though that one is long gone after Google acquired it. Apple also turned that feature that lets you lift objects out of Apple Photos into a sticker-making tool this year — an idea that enjoyed a short life realized as an app called Sticker Drop, and its new mood-logging feature has analogs throughout the app store. TechCrunch has a great write-up with these and other examples.
But over the great arc of history, it’s not at all weird to see companies like Apple trying to pull from the past. The old adage about reinventing the wheel exists for a reason — great ideas are destined to be repeated if there’s new context to put them in. Google Pixel phones have already done something akin to the answering machine trick for years, for instance, and even the computer keyboard was just a sensible evolution of the typewriter. Who knows? Maybe cordless phones are next.
Epic’s latest tool can animate hyperrealistic MetaHumans with an iPhone
Epic’s latest tool can animate hyperrealistic MetaHumans with an iPhone
Epic’s latest tool can animate hyperrealistic MetaHumans with an iPhone
/
MetaHuman Animator lets Unreal Engine users quickly capture a performance and apply the resulting animation to a MetaHuman character. Epic claims the process can be completed in ‘minutes.’
By
Jon Porter
, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.
|
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.See our ethics statement.
Today, Epic is releasing a new tool designed to capture an actor’s facial performance using a device as simple as an iPhone and apply it to a hyperrealistic “MetaHuman” in the Unreal Engine in “minutes.” The feature, dubbed MetaHuman Animator, was detailed at the Game Developers Conference in March but is now available for developers to try out for themselves. Epic has also released a new video today produced by one of its internal teams to show what the tool is capable of.
While Epic’s short film shows off some impressively subtle facial animation, the big benefit the company is emphasizing is the speed with which MetaHuman Animator produces results. “The animation is produced locally using GPU hardware, with the final animation available in minutes,” the company’s press release reads. That has the potential to not just save a studio money by making performance capture more efficient but also, Epic argues, it could allow them to experiment and be more creative.
The performance data being captured from a camera.
Image: Epic Games
“Need an actor to give you more, dig into a different emotion, or simply explore a new direction?” Epic’s press release asks. “Have them do another take. You’ll be able to review the results in about the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.” Facial animation can be applied to a MetaHuman character “in just a few clicks,” Epic says, and the system is even smart enough to animate a character’s tongue based on the performance’s audio.
Performance capture using iPhones has been possible in the Unreal Engine since at least 2020 with the launch of Epic’s Live Link Face iOS app, but now, it’s combined with the high level of detail promised by Epic’s MetaHuman technology. As well as working on the iPhone 12 and up (which is capable of capturing both video and depth data), Epic says MetaHuman Animator can also be used with “existing vertical stereo head-mounted camera [systems] to achieve even greater fidelity.”
Epic says the Blue Dot short film released today should give some idea of what its animation tool is capable of. It was produced by Epic Games’ 3Lateral team and stars actor Radivoje BukviÄ delivering a monologue based on a poem by Mika AntiÄ. Although Epic says it’s possible to tweak animation post-capture, it claims “minimal interventions” were made on top of the MetaHuman Animator’s performance capture to achieve these results.
If you want to learn more, Epic has released an instructional video on how to use the tool. Documentation is also available via the MetaHuman hub on the Epic Developer Community.
Best Buy Upgrade Plus lets you pay for a new Apple Watch Ultra over three years
Best Buy Upgrade Plus lets you pay for a new Apple Watch Ultra over three years
Best Buy Upgrade Plus lets you pay for a new Apple Watch Ultra over three years
/
After three years, Best Buy offers a discount to return the device or upgrade to something new, or you can pay it off yourself and keep the device you have.
By
Sheena Vasani
, a writer covering commerce, e-readers, and tech news. She previously wrote about everything from web development to AI at Inside.
|
The Upgrade Plus offer applies to both the latest 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Best Buy is expanding its monthly financing program, Upgrade Plus, to include more Apple devices, the company announced. Starting today, the program will finance the latest 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pros or Apple Watch Ultra to approved customers via Citizens Bank.
Much like how Apple lets users “lease” iPhones through its iPhone upgrade program, customers can pay off their iPad Pro or Apple Watch Ultra over an extended period of time. Apple gives iPhone customers 24 months, though, while Upgrade Plus stretches things an additional year.
After the three-year period is over, customers have the option of staying in the program and upgrading to a newer model or returning the device and leaving Upgrade Plus. Alternatively, customers who want to own the device could make the final payment in the 37th month.
When you do the math, it means paying $17.32 every month for three years for the $799 Apple Watch Ultra or the base 11-inch iPad Pro model. If you want to pay off the device, you’d fork out $175.78 for the final payment due in the 37th month. If you choose to upgrade it, though, Best Buy will cover the last payment for you. Best Buy will also pay off the remaining balance of the purchase if you return the device and leave the program, which means you could potentially be saving $175.78.
However, there’s a catch: that number assumes you qualify for a zero percent APR offer. If you don’t, you could be paying a max interest of 29.99 percent, depending on your creditworthiness. Also, the program will only cover the Wi-Fi-enabled version of the iPad Pro.
Meanwhile, you’ll be able to get up to 24 months of AppleCare Plus free if you’re a paying Best Buy Totaltech member who purchases the tablet or rugged smartwatch through Upgrade Plus. You’ll have to remain an active Totaltech member during that time period, however. Non-Totaltech members won’t get AppleCare Plus for free, but they can finance the plan along with other Apple accessories through Upgrade Plus.
Launched in collaboration with Apple last October, Upgrade Plus initially only financed Macs for its first few months. It’ll continue to provide financing for the latest models of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and the Mac Mini.
The Mac Studio remains the top choice for professionals who need a powerful but compact desktop computer.
By
Monica Chin
, a senior reviewer covering laptops and other gadgets. Monica was a writer for Tom's Guide and Business Insider before joining The Verge in 2020.
Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales
|
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.See our ethics statement.
We meet again, Mac Studio.
We meet again, Mac Studio.
There is a new Mac Studio. It looks almost exactly like last year’s Mac Studio — so similar, in fact, that I have had to put Post-it notes on the two units we have in our office in order to tell them apart.
It remains a remarkably compact, very Apple-looking pro-level workstation. It also remains effectively not upgradable at all, which means you need to be very careful about what you select at purchase. It has basically the same ports that the last one had: a pair of USB-C ports (Thunderbolt 4 on the Ultra) and an SDXC reader in the front, and four Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A, one HDMI, a 10GB Ethernet, a 3.5mm audio jack, and the big Mickey Mousey power cable thing in the back.
There are a couple other tweaks. This year’s Studio supports Bluetooth 5.3 while last year’s was 5.0; the M1 Ultra could accommodate up to four 6K displays and one 4K display, while the M2 Ultra can take eight 4K, six 6K, or three 8K thanks to an upgraded HDMI port. The biggest difference, though, is the processor inside.
Last year’s Studio was configurable with the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra, which is essentially two M1 Maxes stapled together. This year’s Studio has been upgraded to the M2 Max and the M2 Ultra, which is two M2 Maxes stapled together. You can probably tell that these are different because the number in their name has increased by one. I’ve been testing an M2 Ultra unit of the 2023 Mac Studio with a 24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, 128GB of memory, and 4TB of storage. And test I did.
The M2 Ultra units start at $3,999, and our specific system would cost — wait for it — $6,799, so this is already a machine only accessible to a fairly specific group of customers. (Apple will give you “up to $1,500” for your now-obsolete M1 Ultra Studio in trade-in credit, should you decide the upgrade is necessary. Thanks, Apple!) This is not outrageous pricing compared to the Mac Pro (or, say, a Threadripper PC), but it is still, objectively, a lot of money.
Nevertheless, this is my first look at Apple’s new M2 Ultra chip, and it’s in a chassis poised to show it off to its absolute fullest potential. So I ran a bunch of benchmarks to see how well it performs. Spoiler: the M2 Ultra is faster than its predecessor, and I’m honestly not sure how much that matters.
First off: what exactly has changed? Both the M1 Ultra and the M2 Ultra are 5nm chips; there were rumors that this chip would see an architectural shrink, but that didn’t pan out for this generation.
Still, Apple has made some design changes. The M2 Ultra features 20 billion more transistors than the M1 Ultra did and can be specced higher, supporting 192GB of unified memory where the M1 went up to 128GB. The M2 Ultra can also be configured with a 24-core GPU and 76-Core GPU, whereas the M1 was limited to a 20-core CPU and a 64-core GPU. That’s more relevant to this review since I received the absolute top-specced M2 Ultra chip that one can get; we’re essentially seeing, all else being equal, how much additional performance those extra cores really deliver.
Four Thunderbolt 4, one 10Gb Ethernet, one Mickey Mouse (sorry), two USB-A, one HDMI, one headphone jack.
The biggest increase is in graphic performance; those extra cores are putting in the work. The differences in Geekbench’s GPU benchmarks, using both Metal and Open CL, were between 20 and 50 percent higher across trials than they were on the M1 Ultra. While this isn’t a system you’d want to buy primarily to game (it’s not matching what we’d expect from an RTX 4090, for example), frame rates on Shadow of the Tomb Raider were also 10 to 30 percent higher across resolutions, run at the game’s highest settings. The M2 Ultra even broke the 60fps barrier at 4K resolution, which is fun and neat.
The M2 Ultra also showed an 18ish percent increase over the M1 Ultra on the Xcode Benchmark, which measures compilation time. That kind of saved time could certainly add up for busy developers.
In fact, PugetBench for Premiere Pro was the only result here where the M2 Ultra got a lower score. I have run this test many times on both of our units, and I cannot figure out what the issue is; I have tweaked every setting I can think of to no avail. The score I’m getting does seem to be in line with other M2 Ultra scores I’m seeing in Puget’s database, so there might just be something weird going on. Regardless, the M2 machine blew the M1 out of the water on actual exports in Premiere Pro, so my inclination is that PugetBench and the M2 Ultra just aren’t getting along for whatever reason (not unheard of for brand-new chips).
The M2 Ultra showed a correspondingly smaller but not-nothing increase in CPU performance in both single-core and (obviously, as it has more cores) multicore performance. It’s worth noting that both machines’ Cinebench scores went down between the 10-minute and the 30-minute loop, but the delta between the scores remained fairly constant. That means the Studio’s cooling system isn’t having more trouble keeping the M2 Ultra’s temps in check than it was with the M1 Ultra.
The Studio’s cooling system isn’t having trouble keeping the M2 Ultra’s temps in check
Speaking of cooling: I didn’t notice any major differences in fan noise or heat between these two units. The M1 Ultra Studio has always been shockingly quiet for me, even with my ear to the case, and I didn’t hear anything substantial from the M2 Ultra version, either. I know complaints about the M1 generation Studio’s noise can be found on the internet, so I guess it depends on the... ear? Or environment?
M2 Max models have two USB-C ports (up to 10Gb/s) on the front. M2 Ultra models get two Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s). Both also get an SDXC card slot (UHS-II).
Regardless. Benchmarks (and quiet performance) are all well and good, but what ultimately matters is how well the device performs in day-to-day work. Alex Parkin, The Verge’s art director for video, is much more qualified to speak to this than I am since he generally uses an M1 Ultra Mac Studio as his daily work machine. He kindly used the M2 Ultra machine for a morning of work after I plonked it on his desk in our office, completing tasks in After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
I asked Alex whether the M2 Ultra felt faster than the M1 Ultra, and he kind of shrugged. “Like, yeah,” he said eventually, after some thought.
He was able to complete a Premiere export in 10 minutes that he estimated would’ve taken him 20 on his regular machine (which is not too far off the results I saw from my own export testing). Nevertheless, he didn’t view the increase as particularly life-changing. His evaluation of the M2 Ultra Studio this year was several degrees more subdued than the awestruck reactions I got from our creators who tried the M1 Ultra Studio last year (who were used to Intel Macs or Windows PCs); he’s perfectly happy with the computer he has. That’s not terribly surprising — the big leap from Intel to Apple’s M1 platform isn’t likely to be replicated here.
The sense I get from speaking to Alex and from other professionals who use Apple’s desktop hardware is that the M1 Ultra is so fast that speed is no longer a hang-up in their workflow. The biggest bottlenecks in Alex’s current workday tend to be glitches in Premiere and other software he has to use, which is something I hear from folks in video and graphic design all the time — in the age of the Ultra, raw power is just not a limitation for him. Those are problems that Apple ultimately can’t fix.
(Alex also did not hear any bothersome fan noise from the M2 Ultra model and doesn’t generally hear it from the M1 Ultra, either.)
Agree to Continue: Apple Mac Studio (2023)
In order to get past the setup and use the Mac Studio, you are required to agree to:
The macOS software license agreement, which includes Apple’s warranty agreement and the Game Center terms and conditions
There are also several optional agreements, including:
Location services
Using an iCloud account adds iCloud terms and conditions and Find My location services
Sending crash and usage data to Apple to help app developers
Allowing Apple to use your Siri transcripts to improve voice recognition
Apple Pay terms and conditions
That’s three mandatory agreements and six optional ones.
Don’t get me wrong: more speed is good. This is an impressive technological achievement. It improves upon the M1 Ultra. And on face, this is a great, if expensive, computer. The increased graphical power, in particular, is nothing to sneeze at. It also largely seems like it will serve its target audience in the same way last year’s Studio did, providing a similar, but slightly faster, experience and a similar physical presence, without necessarily fixing major hang-ups that might currently exist in their workflows.
I love machines that make it easier for people to do their jobs. Upgrading to this machine could give busy professionals a good chunk of their day back (those halved export times will add up if you’re exporting all day, every day) and could potentially make business sense. Still, it’s quite a cost, and I ultimately see this machine less as a temptation for M1 Ultra owners (outside of the most deep-pocketed companies) and more for those who are still hanging on to old Mac Pro configurations. Those were a large investment, but every ounce of extra performance the Studio can provide may bring that crowd closer to jumping on Apple’s silicon train.
As I noted in my review of the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max, we’ve reached the point with Apple’s chips where we’re not expecting annual earth-shattering leaps in performance; Mac computers, as is also the case with other sorts of computers, are just getting decently faster each cycle. We expect that the vast majority of Mac users will (correctly) wait a few years before upgrading. And this Mac Studio, as much as it is a purchase consideration for power-hungry professionals, is a public showcase for Apple’s engineering.
Soalan rumusan dan jawapan, contoh soalan rumusan dan jawapan, latihan rumusan dan jawapan spm, contoh rumusan dan jawapan, soalan rumusan dan jawapan, perbezaan rumusan dan kesimpulan, rumusan dan batasan masalah, rumusan dan ringkasan, rumusan dan pemahaman spm, rumusan dan cadangan, rumusan dan sistematika pancasila, rumusan dan tata urutan pancasila, latihan rumusan dan jawapan spm, rumusan dan kesimpulan,
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24008212/HT015_S_Haddad_ios_iphone_14_02.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24008212/HT015_S_Haddad_ios_iphone_14_02.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24703753/wwdc_2023_249.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24703753/wwdc_2023_249.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24729769/MetaHuman_Animator_BTS___1.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24143274/226374_iPad_Pro_12.9_M2_2022_DSeifert_0001.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24143274/226374_iPad_Pro_12.9_M2_2022_DSeifert_0001.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24732441/236707_Mac_Studio_AKrales_0064.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24732441/236707_Mac_Studio_AKrales_0064.jpg)
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24732441/236707_Mac_Studio_AKrales_0064.jpg)
