iOS 9 Beta 3

[Anonymous]

So, I installed iOS 9 Beta 3 last night. Here are a few first impressions for anyone who is interested.


Installation was slightly problematic. Once I had downloaded the .ipsw file from Apple, I restored the phone through iTunes as normal. Once it had been installed, the phone took me to the home screen but none of the apps worked. I was able to press the icons, but nothing opened up (not even settings). As a result of this I performed a hard reset and the phone went back through the setup process, and worked fine. It initially set the phone up as a new handset, so I had to restore it again via settings in order for me to be able to restore from my iCloud backup.

Once I had selected to restore the phone from an iCloud backup, I was hit with a further issue where the phone took absolutely ages to restore. I was stuck on the "estimating time remaining" screen for around 40 minutes before the progress bar kicked into life. From there it was business as usual and the phone took a couple of minutes to restore all of my apps and settings.


So, once I'd got my phone up and running I noticed that it seems quite a bit faster than Beta 1 and Beta 2. I don't know whether it actually is, but it certainly felt sharper opening, closing and using apps.

Battery life continues to be AMAZING on my 6 Plus, and Apple's claims about iOS 9 improving the battery life certainly appear to be ringing true. I still haven't used the power saver mode as, quite frankly, I've never needed to. I charge the phone each evening out of habit (and because I used to have a HTC One X which was a proper battery muncher) and it never gets down below 75% during the day, even with fairly constant usage (ie. when I'm bored in work!).

I think I will let the battery run down over the course of the next few days, just so that I can use the battery saver and see how much difference it makes when I'm down to my last 20% or so.

As you will already know, iOS 9 Beta 3 now comes with Apple Music. Honestly, I don't think that this is something which I would use all that often, but I'd be quite interested in signing up to the 3 month trial just to see what it's like. One thing I did notice is that Apple has now removed the option to turn off the "Connect" feature in Apple Music. This feature was reportedly accounting for a LOT of battery drain in iOS 8.4, and there was previously an option to turn it off in the settings menu (under 'restrictions'). I've checked and, unless I'm going blind, I can't find it any more. Hopefully this means that Apple has fixed the battery issue, so there is no need to toggle it on/off.. Fingers crossed!

I haven't come across any other issues yet, but like I said I only installed the Beta last night so haven't had a lot of chance to use the phone.

One thing I will say though - I still really dislike the new font which has been used. It might look ok on the Apple Watch, but personally I much prefer the original font.

That's it for now

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.  

Let us know if you decide to sign up for the 3 months Apple Music trial and if you like it or not. I'm actually thinking on trying it...

[Mark_1980]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.  

Let us know if you decide to sign up for the 3 months Apple Music trial and if you like it or not. I'm actually thinking on trying it...

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I will do..

By the way, sorry to cause confusion - I've just created a new forum account which is actually tied to my O2 account! The one I've been using was tied to an old account..

[jonsie]

I prefer this user name @Mark_1980 

Thanks for sharing this, it will help the iPhone customers to know what to expect.

[Mark_1980]

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@jonsie wrote:

I prefer this user name @Mark_1980 

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So do I

I've been meaning to set up a new forum account for months, but have never got around to it!

[PhoneChanger]

Great update, thanks for the news, I updated to 9 beta 1 when it first arrived, but quickly reverted back to 8.3 as the battery drain was huge, my iPhone 6 wouldn't last the day without being plugged in.

Tempted to go back, but I too didn't like the new font. I have an Apple Watch and yes the font works on that display, but not as good on the iPhone.

Although I use my iPhone 6 as a dev device I'm not keen on the issue that updating to iOS 9 beta will also allow the watch to update to Watch OS2, the downgrading for watches is notoriously difficult.

[jonsie]

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@Mark_1980 wrote:

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@jonsie wrote:

I prefer this user name @Mark_1980 

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So do I

I've been meaning to set up a new forum account for months, but have never got around to it!

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Only 3 years but better late than never 555

[Mark_1980]

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@PhoneChanger wrote:
Great update, thanks for the news, I updated to 9 beta 1 when it first arrived, but quickly reverted back to 8.3 as the battery drain was huge, my iPhone 6 wouldn't last the day without being plugged in.

Tempted to go back, but I too didn't like the new font. I have an Apple Watch and yes the font works on that display, but not as good on the iPhone.

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Battery drain on iOS 9 Beta 1 was one of the main issues. I reverted back to the 8.4 Beta almost immediately because the rate at which the battery was being used was almost comical. Safe to say that it's MUCH better with Beta 3 as I mentioned in my original post.

I just wish they hadn't changed the font. It looks rubbish 😞

[Toby]

Nice job Mark, great update

[Mark_1980]

One thing I have noticed, and which is VERY annoying. I think I mentioned that you can no longer turn off "connect" within Apple Music.. I've just checked my battery usage and, although I haven't even opened the Music app since I downloaded beta 3, it still accounts for 39% of my battery usage...!