Apple releases second developer betas for iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, tvOS 14, macOS Big...

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in iOS
Apple has moved on to its second round of developer betas for its milestone operating system releases, with new builds of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7 now out for download.

iOS 14 developer beta 2


This is the first set of revisions Apple is making to the operating systems since the first beta releases were issued on June 22, shortly after they were revealed during the WWDC keynote.

The latest betas and configuration profiles can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center, with subsequent changes available as over-the-air updates on enrolled devices.






Both iOS and iPadOS 14 make major changes to the Home screen and app interface, as well as refreshed elements of Messages and Safari, an overhaul of Siri's interface, additions to Maps, Sound Recognition alerts, and the introduction of CarKey, among other changes.

The move to macOS Big Sur, also known as macOS 11, is the start in a shift to first-party silicon for Apple, but it has other changes that affect Intel Macs as well, including new elements for the interface and Safari upgrades.

The Apple Watch operating system watchOS 7 brings with it Sleep Tracking, new watch faces, watch face sharing, as well as new workout options.

The Apple TV's tvOS 14 adds the Home app, along with incremental changes to HomeKit Secure Video and Apple Arcade.

Both AppleInsider and Apple strongly suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. Instead, the recommendation is to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data before making any major changes.

Find any changes in the new betas? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at [email protected].

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    Battery life is definitely better under this release... also Safari seems a lot more responsive
    jmac6783caladanianpujones1
  • Reply 2 of 11
    jmac6783jmac6783 Posts: 2member
    Before downloading I noticed the update says "MacOS BigSur 10.16 Beta 2" ... is apple reversing their decision to jump to MacOS 11.X?
  • Reply 3 of 11
    jmac6783jmac6783 Posts: 2member
    ...Answered my own question... read the release notes on the developer download page: 
    • The system ProductVersion is reported as 11.0 only on the Developer Transition Kit at this time. Existing Mac systems will temporarily report the value as 10.16.

    caladanianRayz2016llama
  • Reply 4 of 11
    kkqd1337kkqd1337 Posts: 423member
    Can you change the default email app yet?
  • Reply 5 of 11
    ericesqueericesque Posts: 28member
    kkqd1337 said:
    Can you change the default email app yet?
    This doesn’t have to do with the beta supporting the feature. Developers have to update their apps to tell iOS they want to be included as an option for the default email app. 
    kkqd1337caladanianpujones1Rayz2016
  • Reply 6 of 11
    kkqd1337kkqd1337 Posts: 423member
    ericesque said:
    kkqd1337 said:
    Can you change the default email app yet?
    This doesn’t have to do with the beta supporting the feature. Developers have to update their apps to tell iOS they want to be included as an option for the default email app. 
    FML 

    Hopefully soon.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,189member
    Has anybody obtained this update on a DTK? Mine has perpetually reported "Checking for updates..." and then several seconds later "Unable to check for updates"
    edited July 2020
  • Reply 8 of 11
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,312member
    Beta 1 of iPadOS was a little too crash happy while scrolling in News and Safari. Let's hope this one is a bit more stable. The first few times I tried to open the Music app on Beta 2 the app crashed, but it eventually succeeded.

    From a functionality standpoint, I'm still kind of lost about how to make good use of the screen widgets on iPadOS. I have yet to discover an intuitive way to initiate editing mode on the screen layout. Once in edit mode, arranging the widgets the way that I want them to be arranged does not seem entirely possible. The value of control stacks is lost on me because there are already too many "slide to unhide" type interactions in iOS/iPadOS. The historical icon grid layout is too sparse and needs a refresh, but having too many gestures to bring up other screens coupled with gestures within control groups is quickly turning iPadOS into a 3D chess game with opaque boundaries between ever deepening control layers. Call it feature bloat or complexity injection, but the inherent simplicity of the iPad UI is seriously at risk, in my opinion of course. Nothing a 21" to 32" screen, keyboard, and mouse can't fix, I suppose.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    kpmercerkpmercer Posts: 7member
    cpsro said:
    Has anybody obtained this update on a DTK? Mine has perpetually reported "Checking for updates..." and then several seconds later "Unable to check for updates"
    I am continually getting this message also along with "no available updates found. please try again later" while still running the initial version 11.0 beta (20A4299v).
  • Reply 10 of 11
    Bidoum79Bidoum79 Posts: 1member
    I have problem to install beta 2 of Big Sur. The same message :  I am continually getting this message also along with "no available updates found. please try again later" while still running the initial version 11.0 beta (20A4299v)
  • Reply 11 of 11
    kpmercerkpmercer Posts: 7member
    Bidoum79 said:
    I have problem to install beta 2 of Big Sur. The same message :  I am continually getting this message also along with "no available updates found. please try again later" while still running the initial version 11.0 beta (20A4299v)
    I resolved the error by reinstalling the beta access utility. After doing this and checking for updates again, it finally sees beta 2.

    macOS Customer Beta Access Utility


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