Science

iOS 12 Public Beta 2: What's Fixed and What's Still Broken

Better, but by no means bug free.

Unsplash / Youssef Sarhan

Find a wifi network fast because, Apple just dropped the second version of the iOS 12 public beta only ten days after releasing it.

On Thursday, iPhone and iPad users who signed up for the beta version of the coming iOS were seeded the newest version of the update under their Software Update menu in the General app. (So, if you want to make sure you have the latest iOS 12 patches but don’t want to constantly check your settings. simply turn on Automatic Updates. This feature can be turned on directly under the new software update.)

Besides making it easier to stay up to date with the latest iOS release, the second version of the public beta has fixed a few annoying bugs — but isn’t perfect.

Here’s what Apple ironed out and what’s still broken in this second take on the iOS 12 public beta:

Fixed: Apple Maps GPS Back and Running

Inverse, iOS developers, and public beta users noticed some glaring glitches with Apple’s navigation application. On my iPhone 6S, the app had trouble accurately placing the phone’s location was on a map, and what direction it was facing, with or without wifi. This would result in suboptimal directions that would start two or three blocks away from where the phone was actually located. Not ideal.

Unsplash / Dan Chung

The second version of the public beta seems to have fixed this problem, according to one Reddit user and my own test. that Apple is totally scrapping Apple Maps and is rebuilding it from the ground up. But this total overhaul won’t begin hitting iPhones until some time in 2019.

See also: Apple Maps Getting Built Anew Because There Is Some Justice In This World

Fixed: CarPlay Connection Issues

The first iOS 12 announcement touted some game-changing CarPlay improvements, but many users on Reddit experienced connectivity issues with vehicles that are supposed to support CarPlay. Not a great experience, but one that Apple didn’t intend to work perfectly in this early stage:

Flickr / iphonedigital

Hooking these cars up to your iPhone should not work without a hitch on the public beta, say developers on the MacRumors forum.

Broken: Rogue Calendar Events!

The same developer noted that certain events saved on the Calendar app might start to act a little wonky: If you tap on a day you might notice that a scheduled event will appear under an unexpected date.

(I haven’t not experienced this issue with their iOS 12 beta, but it’s worth mentioning that developers have noted this issue. It might be worth keeping a physical planner from the days of yore to make sure you don’t confuse any important appointments.)

Maybe buy one of these if you have iOS 12 beta.

Broken: Screen Time Might Not Work or Sync Properly

Screen Time is an iOS 12 monitoring system that gives you a detailed breakdown of how often and what you use your phone for hour-by-hour. This is a way users can become more conscious about how much time they spend on their devices and hopefully unplug, but the feature is having trouble getting off the ground.

Inverse's Screen Time data was completely wiped after installing the second version of the iOS 12 public beta

When I installed the second version of iOS 12, the week’s worth of phone usage data it had gathered was completely wiped. Developers have also noted that this new feature might not be syncing Screen Time across iOS devices, which means it isn’t combining your iPhone and iPad usage resulting in inaccurate data.

*See also: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Testing iOS 12 Public Beta, According to Reddit

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