Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com February 20 news, starting with iOS 16.4 beta, iPhone has a new "Beta Update" menu under regular → software updates in the setup application. This menu will allow members of the Apple developer program to enable iOS developer beta directly on iPhone without having to install a description file from the Apple developer website.

This menu appears only if the user's iPhone logs in to the same Apple ID they used to sign up for the Apple developer program. Apple said that in future versions of iOS, this menu will be the only way to enable developer beta, because the configuration profile will no longer grant access.

This change will make it impossible for iPhone users who do not join Apple's developer program at a price of $99 a year to install it for free when the iOS 17 developer beta is released on WWDC in June. At present, anyone can easily install iOS developer beta for free by downloading description files from websites such as BetaProfiles.dev.

CTOnews.com learned that Apple cracked down on websites that shared developer beta description files last year. BetaProfiles.com was shut down in August to avoid "legal battles with Apple," and Apple's lawyers also provided Twitter with a notice of DMCA deletion, including more than a dozen tweets containing links to IPSW.dev. BetaProfiles.dev is still running and appears to be a copy of BetaProfiles.com, but it is not clear whether the site has the same ownership.

IPhone users who don't want to pay $99 a year for Apple's developer program will have to wait for a public beta of iOS 17, which is likely to be released in July, and users can sign up for Apple's public beta program for free.

Users may still be able to install iOS 17 developer beta for free using IPSW (system firmware) files, but it remains to be seen whether this is the case. Many years ago, Apple only allowed beta IPSW files to be installed on devices with Apple developer accounts, and Apple may reintroduce this former policy.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.