First beta of iOS 11.3 now available to public beta program participants

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2018
A day after the release of the developer's beta, Apple has made available the first public beta of iOS 11.3.




Apple pre-announced the update on Wednesday morning, detailing key features that will ship in the public release this spring, such as support for music videos in Apple Music, and tweaks to the News app. The first developer's beta was released later at Apple's customary release time.

ARKit in iOS 11.3 has been upgraded to version 1.5 with updated tools for developers that will identify locations to place virtual objects on vertical surfaces, and improved mapping for irregularly-shaped surfaces. For users, ARKit 1.5 will offer a 50-percent greater resolution when used to view the real world through the device's camera feed.

Apple's Health App has a new Health Records feature intended to help hospitals and clinics to share patient data more easily, one that already has the support of 12 U.S. healthcare providers. Multiple providers will be able to provide data and results to each other, which is kept encrypted and protected with a passcode, with patients also able to see available data from all participating medical providers in one place, including notifications relating to lab results and medications.

Other features in the release include support for Advanced Mobile Location Support for iPhone location for first responders, four new Animoji for iPhone X owners, and a renaming of iBooks into Books before a planned upgrade. A promised Apple Music music video expansion has not arrived as of yet.

AppleInsider, and Apple itself, strongly advise against installing beta releases on mission-critical hardware, due to the potential loss of data that can occur.

The new software should be unchanged from the developer beta test version, except for its availability. People registered with Apple's Beta Software Program can find it through the Updates tab at the Mac App Store.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    ivanhivanh Posts: 597member
    Data loss may occur if you use beta releases on iCloud, not just hardware. So, don’t use your personal Apple ID, use a seperate one for testing.
    dysamoria
  • Reply 2 of 6
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Something I recently noticed, Facebook messenger calls are now integrated into the phone App, appearing in call records and answerable via my cars bluetooth just like a normal phone call.

    I don't use it much, maybe it's been there a while and I don't use other VOIP services so don't know what else is integrated.


    edited January 2018
  • Reply 3 of 6
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    It’s time to do an early backup.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    melgross said:
    It’s time to do an early backup.
    Yeah, wise. The first time I installed it on my test phone, it ate the OS, and I had to restore from iTunes as a new device.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Have any people using this beta checked to see if the Safari web data clearing bug is fixed yet?

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/32920336
  • Reply 6 of 6
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    melgross said:
    It’s time to do an early backup.
    Yeah, wise. The first time I installed it on my test phone, it ate the OS, and I had to restore from iTunes as a new device.
    I had a similar problem. You would think that both Of us should know better by now. So the one time I didn’t back my iPad up, it died from the update. What a hassle getting back together. At least the iCloud service of keeping bookmarks and most passwords, and some other stuff didn’t kill me altogether.

    but I highly recommend everyone to do an encrypted backup first. Now, I backup almost every nite when I plug my iPad into my Mac Pro. I leave it on auto. Never again!
    edited January 2018
Sign In or Register to comment.