Apple has opened the gates of its next iOS iPhone software update to the public.
iOS 12 Beta 2 has been chosen by Apple as being ‘safe’ for those wishing to check out Apple’s latest iOS update, which is set to release at the end of this year alongside their next generation of iPhone hardware. But should you upgrade?
Having ran the iOS 12 Beta since the day it released on June 4th, I can say iOS 12 is great for iPhone X users. It has some most welcome improvements that enhanced the daily use of my iPhone and it runs noticeably faster than iOS 11.4. But since the release of beta 2, my enjoyment has done a full 180, and my enjoyment has been replaced with just cursed frustration, namely with Apple CarPlay.
Beta 2 carries a nasty bug that amazes me why this wasn’t caught before its release. Sure this is a beta, and Apple is (hopefully) working on CarPlay improvements, but to publicly release this version was a little risky by Apple.
The bug occurs if your CarPlay system displays vehicle-based system services, such as climate control or reverse parking display. Whenever these show up whilst CarPlay is running, CarPlay will disconnect, pausing or stopping any playing audio briefly or dropping out completely. Audio sometimes continues to play on your phone briefly, until the CarPlay reconnects and returns to your vehicles display and speakers. It’s a frustrating experience that I hope Apple address in the next beta update.
In the end I decided to roll back to iOS 11.4. On my return I soon instantly missed the faster closing of apps on the iPhone X, Screen Time, and the compressed notifications, but at least the CarPlay experience is back to being stable again. I can live without Memojis and the small improvements to animations and maps in CarPlay.
iOS 12 will also allow the ability for navigation apps on CarPlay, but with Google being totally silent on their status of a compatible app update, and Waze is openly mentioning that their CarPlay compatible update is a few ‘months’ away, I doubt you’ll be experiencing either of these apps any time soon.
If you’re curious about iOS 12 however, and you’re chomping at the bit for Waze or Google Maps on Apple CarPlay, I would wait until around August to take that plunge, or at least until one of the two maps apps become available for beta testers.
[Photo: www.pricepony.com]
