It’s a test-a-palooza-thon over in Cupertino for iDevice owners
The guys over at Apple have been really busy. In the past four to five days, they’ve released two different beta releases of iOS 10.2. Beta 5 was released to both public beta testers and to their development community on 2016-12-02. I’d say we’re getting close to a final release if the beta cadence is this quick. It’s only been four days since the previous release.
Getting the software is easy. If you’re a developer, you can get the beta bits from the Apple Developer’s Portal. If you’re a public beta tester, you can get the software through Software Update. However, your device must be registered for the beta program in order for the download to actually start.
Specific changes over Beta 4 haven’t been identified as of this writing. However, iOS 10.2 is known to include redrawn emoji and 72 new emoji characters confirming with requirements from Unicode 9.0. Both iOS 10.2 and the latest beta release of tvOS, version 10.1, released on Wednesday 2016-11-30, include Apple’s new, dedicated TV app. iPhone 7 users will also get new wallpapers. Apple’s Videos app is also rumored to include a new widget; and Messages is supposed to add a new “celebration” effect for text messages.
Both iOS 10.2 and tvOS 10.1 are also supposed to include single sign-on (SSO) for streaming TV. SSO will allow users to enter in their cable or satellite website’s user name and password into their device only ONCE and allow those credentials to be shared throughout the operating system. This will allow apps like HBO Go, Max Go or ShowTime Anytime to all share and use the same login information, only entered once on your device, to authorize the playing of content. Previously, you had to enter in your credentials in every app. Now, with Single Sign-On, once is finally enough. However, each app must support SSO in order for this to work.
I would expect iOS 10.2 to be released during the month of December. With beta releases reaching five, and with the release cadence being as short as a few days, it seems that iOS 10.2 will be with us sooner rather than later.
