IOS 8.4 beta

[Arty]

THANK YOU APPLE, hopefully his fixes some shit

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/04/13/apple-releases-ios-8-4-update/

 

There’s a new version of iOS. Yes really. iOS 8.4 comes just five days after the company launched iOS 8.3 (which fixed one big issue but caused another) and the first beta hits developers with something very interesting: a revamped music service…

Unfortunately at this stage it isn’t that music service, but there is still plenty of time for Apple AAPL -0.2% to bake in a Beats Music-based streaming product. In fact such a service is likely to get its own event prior to launch so this is Apple just getting the foundations right.

So what is the Music service in question? It’s an overhaul of the core ‘Music’ app from top to bottom. This begins with a brand new design with new MiniPlayer and ‘Now Playing’ views, plus personalised playlists, high resolution images of artists in the artists’ view and new quick play shortcuts.  In fact this is just the start. There’s a Recently Added section with new albums and playlists filtered to the top, a stripped down iTunes Radio and better support for AirPlay with the option to toggle it on and off now built into the Now Playing section.

 

In addition ‘Up Next ’ does what the name suggests and lets you skip ahead and reorder upcoming tracks while a new ‘Global Search’ option (using the magnifying glass symbol) lets you search from anywhere in the Music app. Search results are also dynamic so content can be started directly from the results – it all looks good.

 Perhaps somewhat surprisingly Apple’s official release notes for the iOS 8.4 beta don’t mention any other features at this stage, but Apple wouldn’t be Apple if it hadn’t slipped in various additional tweaks, fixes and optimisations (and perhaps a new bug or two…).

 

I’ll be keeping my eyes open for these changes and, if you have developer access (the beta won’t be available for plucky consumers to trial just yet), let me know anything you spot in the comments section. Properly fixing WiFried would be a good start…

 

Read more – Apple iOS 8.3 Has A Nasty New Bug

 

How long can we expect iOS 8.4 to remain in beta? Historically Apple has almost always had a minimum of four beta versions for its major releases and they usually roll out over about 60-80 days. With talk of the Beats-inspired streaming service launching late in May the company may be ready to launch earlier, but I suspect it is more likely we may have a longer wait on our hands than was initially expected.

 

Either way, the first iOS 8.4 beta keeps up Apple’s astonishing break neck release rate since the launch of iOS 8 back in September as it fights Google's GOOGL +0.08% Android and looks to keep Microsoft MSFT +0.1% Windows Mobile and Windows 10 in the shade. After all this is update #9. All of which suggests Apple has significant plans ahead for iOS 9, the next milestone release which will no doubt appear alongside the iPhone 6S in September. Leaks around both already look tasty.

 

Of course the flip side is Apple has (fairly) received criticism for rushing updates and it is notable that iOS 8.3 was still providing fixes for bugs users have reported from day one of iOS 8.

 

Still, whatever is fueling it, Apple appears to be on a mission right now and it is making for one hell of a ride…

[spartaman64]

apple needs to get themselves together hopefully there are no big bugs with this 

[PillowSmoke]

didn't they just release 8.3? ._. I just downloaded that.

[Arty]

didn't they just release 8.3? ._. I just downloaded that.

dis dev beta only atm

[Tataffe]

I hope they fix the music player, it's really flawed. Also I liked the iOS 6 music player better ...

[ShadowCaptain]

8.3 is running really nice for me, I always look forward to new features though

[Techteen14]

8.3 made me not loathe using my iPad 3 anymore. It fixed a lot of performance issues I chalked up to hardware that were apparently software.

[NickTheMajin]

I hope they fix the music player, it's really flawed. Also I liked the iOS 6 music player better ...

 

I'm pretty sure the biggest feature of 8.4 is a new music player

[Tonylu1595]

Wish I could try it out before permanently installing.

 

First version of iOS 8 was pretty laggy for my iphone 5.

[jecho]

Honestly people talk about bugs in the software, but I have never seen one. The only problem I have is crashing cause my ipad4/iPhone 5 just doesn't have enough RAM. Again crashing isn't really a software bug IMO. It's a lack of proper hardware.

[Akolyte]

I haven't really had any bugs, except for the youtube app, which that's Google's problem.   

 

But, if this fixes anything.  I'm all for it, because as far as I know.  IOS isn't bug free, its not am I going to run into bugs, its when am I going to run into bugs.  The more they fix, the better.