Originally published at: Apple Opens Public Betas for macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 - TidBITS
Apple has opened public betas of its next-generation operating systems, but remember that these aren’t for everyday use. Only install on devices that you can dedicate to testing!
Thanks! I’m downloading Monterey right now.
With iPadOS no bugs so far, but some complaints. Changing icon size isn’t in same place as before or is not available at all. Safari is a mess.
Apparently, I’m not alone in my thoughts on Safari, although it has got better as I used it more. There will be changes in a future beta.
They redesigned it again in beta 3 and people still aren’t happy. I’m currently drafting the iOS 15 book and I’ve decided to save any more work on the Safari chapter until the last minute because they’ll doubtlessly change it again.
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I only have the betas on an iPad, so haven’t seen it yet. I’m amazed that Apple still gets into a mess with interface design, given that it is what makes them successful.
The alternative view is that Apple is experimenting with new ideas and iterating based on feedback. I don’t like the Safari interface that was presented at WWDC and appeared in beta 1. But if Apple is going to evolve their designs through the beta process based on feedback, I see that as a good thing.
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It is not a good thing. Beta is beta. All the user design should be done in the early stages of development. Apple has lots of employees with NDAs and they would be letting selected ones have access to the software to get feedback. They also probably use focus groups. They may even have run it under iOS 14. That way everything is tied down by preferably the alpha stage. The problem with introducing major changes at the beta stage is that bugs may remain. The point of beta is to find those bugs. I expect the problem is that it has been awful since early in the development cycle, and they have been making changes but it hasn’t improved enough.
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