14 DAY TRIAL // A new Beta has arrived for iOS and macOS users who are brave enough to register their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices, or Mac computers, for Apple's Beta Testing program.
Apple has seeded the fourth Beta release of its upcoming iOS 10.2.1 operating system, a first bugfix update to iOS 10.2 that should patch various security flaws discovered by researchers lately, as well as add performance improvements. The Cupertino company also released today the Beta 4 version of macOS 10.12.3 Sierra.
These are currently tagged as build 14D27 for iOS 10.2.1 Beta 4 and build 16D30a for macOS 10.12.3 Beta 4, but the release notes are empty. If the third iOS 10.2.1 Beta made it possible to restore the new TV app introduced in iOS 10.2 after it's deleted, this time Apple left no information about what was changed since Beta 3, which launched on Monday.
We're using the latest iOS 10.2.1 Beta release, and we couldn't help but notice a decrease in the overall performance of our iPhone 6 device when running various applications, after installing the Beta 3 build earlier this week. Today, after installing the new Beta 4 release, things are a little bit better for our smartphone, but Apple still needs to make some improvements.
Public Beta 4 builds are out now
The new Beta versions of iOS 10.2.1 and macOS Sierra 10.12.3 are also available for public beta testers, which means anyone who wants to test drive these development builds. If you're already using a previous Beta of these unstable operating systems, we recommend updating as soon as possible to Beta 4, or Public Beta 4. After all, it's a small and painless patch.
Apple also offers Beta versions of its watchOS and tvOS operating systems for Apple Watch and Apple TV devices, respectively, but today's update did not include new versions, and they remain at watchOS 3.1.3 Beta 2 and tvOS 10.1.1 Beta 2. When testing Beta software, please try to keep in mind that the user experience might become unstable at some point, so it's a good practice to stay on the stable channel if you're not a developer.