We’ve had an extended hiatus than ordinary between beta releases as a result of holidays, however now that we’re getting again into the swing of issues, Apple has simply pushed out the second betas of all of its main software program releases, together with iOS 17.3, watchOS 10.3, and extra.
Nonetheless, it’s possible you’ll need to maintain off earlier than leaping into the iOS 17.3 beta 2 in your iPhone. Though we’ve had no issues with it, 9to5Mac reviews that it’s been bricking some individuals’s iPhones.
That’s life with developer betas, after all, and it’s additionally why Apple doesn’t launch the general public betas on the similar time. If that is as widespread an issue because it seems, there’s probability we’ll see Apple pull the most recent developer beta and handle the difficulty earlier than the general public beta rolls out.
As of proper now, there doesn’t appear to be any sample to which iPhone fashions are affected. The second beta put in nice on my iPhone 14 Professional Max, however others have reported failures on all the pieces from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 15 Professional.
What’s New in iOS 17.3
Whereas we’re not anticipating any important modifications on this second beta, it continues the event cycle of iOS 17.3, which is able to add a brand new Stolen Gadget Safety function and (hopefully) deliver again Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music.
Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music have been on the roadmap since Apple unveiled iOS 17 at its June Worldwide Builders Convention, and whereas it wasn’t anticipated to reach in iOS 17.0, it briefly confirmed up within the first few iOS 17.2 betas earlier than being pulled simply earlier than the ultimate iOS 17.2 public launch in early December.
As is commonly the case with Apple, the corporate supplied no rationalization for its disappearance, and the function appeared to work fairly properly within the betas. Nonetheless, code present in iOS 17.2 indicated that Apple could have feared the playlists being abused by spammers and wanted extra time to shore issues up.
The Collaborative Playlists returned within the first iOS 17.3 beta with a enjoyable new twist, introducing assist for emoji reactions from the Now Enjoying display screen that may also seem beside the tune titles within the playlist. It’s a enjoyable new function, and the excellent news is that all the pieces in iOS 17.3 beta 2 appears to be working as earlier than, so we’re crossing our fingers that it’ll make it into the ultimate launch due within the subsequent few weeks.
Stolen Gadget Safety, alternatively, was a big new addition that got here out of the blue to foil a selected sort of iPhone thief.
This was undoubtedly prompted by a February 2022 report about how iPhone thieves have been shoulder-surfing and arising with different social engineering ways to get individuals’s passcodes earlier than stealing their iPhones. With the gadget passcode in hand, they may then reset the consumer’s Apple ID password, disabling Discover My and successfully locking the particular person out of their iCloud account.
Apple’s official response final spring was to “sympathize” with these people and say that it was “at all times investigating further protections towards threats like this one.” What we now see coming in iOS 17.3 is clearly a kind of “further protections.”
Whereas it’s nonetheless an non-compulsory function, enabling Stolen Gadget Safety helps to make sure that solely the true you possibly can modify important settings like your Apple ID password — no matter who else is aware of your passcode. That is completed by implementing biometric authentication (Face ID or Contact ID) to entry saved passwords, change your Apple ID data, flip off Misplaced Mode, use your iPhone to arrange a brand new gadget, and extra.
It is going to additionally add a one-hour safety delay when making an attempt to replace key safety settings like altering your Apple ID password or iPhone passcode, turning off Discover My, disabling Face ID or Contact ID, and extra. This delay can be enforced everytime you’re away from a “trusted” location like your property, requiring that you simply authenticate with Face ID, wait an hour, after which authenticate with Face ID once more earlier than you’re permitted to make the change.
It will considerably scale back the chance that anyone might use a social engineering tactic to get you to inadvertently authenticate to one in every of these safety settings, comparable to tricking you into taking a look at your iPhone to unlock Face ID earlier than working away with it after which altering the password.
To this point, there don’t seem like any noteworthy modifications to how both of those options works in iOS 17.3 beta 2, though Apple is undoubtedly tweaking issues underneath the hood. We’ll make sure you report on another small modifications we discover as soon as we’ve had a bit extra time to take beta 2 for a spin.