I was given the instructions by an Apple Genius when I went to inquire if I needed a new battery. This was 1 day before the $30 battery announcement. The Genius was making this recommendation before people paid $80 for a battery that they might not need.
Since I am working from memory I did a search on the web and I believe this article covers the proper steps:
What’s tremendously frustrating about this whole NDA thing is that essentially no media outlets honor it at all, which just makes those of us who try to color within the lines look like chumps.
Public beta may have NDA terms attached to it as well, eg not published articles or public posts. Until Apple release a public beta the terms will be unknown. If you want to find out how it runs you can always sign up for the develop program at $99 and download it to try.
Oh, I was under the mistaken impression that these betas were actually PBs. MacRumors et al. are full of reports, along with Josh’s here. Not a biggie, PBs will be out soon enough. I can wait that long. And of course if they do release an updated SE by then (after all Apple did already make hell freeze over once) I won’t have to worry about performance of my old 6. ;)
I haven’t honored that particular NDA in years. Apple doesn’t care. None of this stuff is top secret. Back when we did honor the beta NDA, we were the only media outlet to do so, which didn’t do any favors for ourselves or our readers. Honestly, I don’t think it helps Apple either, because the more feedback they get before launch, the better they look.
I’m installing beta 2 on my iPhone 6 now and will share any impressions I can offer. From what I’ve heard, it’s even better than beta 1 and maybe better than iOS 11.4 in terms of speed and stability. Of course, I’m still not going to recommend installing a beta on your primary device…unless iOS 11 has rendered it practically unusable and you’re desperate.
Now, there are times when I interact with Apple (or other companies) and I’m sworn to secrecy or given information strictly on background. I do honor those commitments.
Word is the public beta will be out before the end of June. Betas are a pain in many respects, the endless minor tweaks in frequent updates, the bother far exceeds the new benefits. People are generally better off holding off until the final release.
Whether Apple cares or not is really not material. There is still a legal responsibility to abide by the agreement as has been upheld by every court in the land forever. Probably no more serious than jaywalking, but it is against the law.
Then there is that matter of breaking ones word. I really don’t understand the difference between a beta NDA and any of the other background NDA’s. In my experience, the wording is mostly the same.
And I fully appreciate that and understand why you must bend the rules in order to stay competitive. Apple helped out by allowing anything revealed at WWDC as OK. I’d even go so far as to say that elucidating on new features announced and then observed by the editors aren’t much of a stretch.
What I don’t feel comfortable with is detailed discussions involving bugs observed or features being tried that were not made public. Apple deserves first crack at these without wide public scrutiny, so that they can be fixed or appropriately adjusted before release. Such discussions will inevitably cause unnecessary concern amongst users at release time about issues which no longer exist.
I think you’ve pretty much identified our opinion, Al. It’s difficult not to write about things when they’re so public, but that’s different than saying “This beta feature is buggy in these specific ways.” Of course it is, it’s a beta!
The SE should be faster than the 6, it’s a newer phone with the same Apple “A9” processor as the 6s (vs. the “A8” in the iPhone 6) and has twice the RAM.
I’m not considering replacing my phone this year but even after almost two years with the iPhone 7, I’m interested in a future iPhone with a smaller form factor, like the SE (I had the 5s before the 7).
There are rumors we might see a new one this year. Here’s a potential clue: in the iOS 12 betas you don’t need 3D Touch to use trackpad mode on the iPhone. Instead, you can press and hold the Space bar to move the cursor around.
