Technologies

Don’t Install the iOS 17 Developer Beta on Your iPhone. Here’s Why

Unless you’re an app developer, you’ll probably want to wait for the iOS 17 public beta in July.

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At WWDC 2023 on June 5, Apple announced iOS 17, its latest mobile operating system. The general public release for the new iPhone software update isn’t slated until later this year, but an early version of iOS 17 is already available to install — the first iOS 17 developer beta.

Downloading the developer beta release will give you an early look at some of the new features Apple revealed during its keynote, including live stickers in your text messages, an improved autocorrect that finally lets you curse and customized contact posters.

But because iOS 17 is still in an early state right now, downloading the developer beta isn’t going to be worthwhile for most iPhone users.

If you’re an app developer, downloading this version of iOS lets you prepare your software for the next operating system. But most people should wait until the first stable release of iOS 17 later this year — when the presumed iPhone 15 launches in the fall. And any general iPhone users who want to see the new iOS as soon as possible should consider at least waiting until the public beta in July.

However, if you are still tempted, we want to outline two big reasons why you probably should wait before downloading the developer beta of iOS 17. While you’re here, learn which iPhone is right for you and check out our guidance for the best laptops.

Watch this: WWDC 2023: Here Are All the Major iOS 17 Features

06:31

With the iOS 17 developer beta, your iPhone won’t work normally

Let’s say you sign up for the Apple Developer Program (which is now free) and download the first developer beta of iOS 17. Now you’re installing it on your main iPhone, which you use every day to send text messages, check emails and browse the internet.

Unfortunately, you may soon start facing issues, as these early iterations of iOS 17 will have bugs that can make the software difficult to use. Even if the first developer beta doesn’t have many bugs, the next version could.

For example, I’m running the first iOS 17 developer beta on an iPhone 14 Pro and I’ve already had problems with several features and settings:

Certain applications don’t work properly. Messages, eBay and a few banking apps have a few bugs.
Shorter battery life. That’s typical for developer betas.
Notifications are glitchy. Sometimes they don’t even appear.
I can’t connect my iPhone to my computer. My Mac says a software update is required to connect with my iPhone, but the update doesn’t install.

Note: You can learn about issues other iOS 17 beta users are experiencing in this Reddit thread.

That’s not a critique of the software itself, because all developer betas will have issues such as these, which is normal. Most of the bugs, if not all, should be ironed out by the time of the general public release. This list of problems is simply to show what you can expect from early pre-releases. Unless you’re ready to take on such issues, you should not install iOS 17 on your iPhone yet, especially if it’s your daily device.

You may not be able to revert to iOS 16 without losing personal data

Let’s say you’ve upgraded to the iOS 17 developer beta and suddenly you’re having issues. You’re not happy with this early version of Apple’s software, and so you want to go back to iOS 16. Well, unless you’ve archived a backup from iOS 16, your only way to downgrade is to restore your iPhone as a brand new device. While restoring your iPhone will install Apple’s latest mobile update (currently iOS 16.5), it may also permanently delete important data and settings from your phone.

Before you download and install iOS 17, make sure to create a backup while still running iOS 16. You can do this via iCloud on your device, but Apple only holds a single backup at a time (for each device), so an iOS 16 backup isn’t guaranteed to be available if a future update takes its place, especially since most iCloud backups are done automatically while you sleep.

iOS 15 temporary iCloud storage transfer to iPhone 13 — Successfully downgrading from iOS 17 to iOS 16 with all of your previous settings depends on whether you have a backup from iOS 16.

Patrick Holland/CNET

As an added precaution, you can also use your computer to create an iOS 16 backup using iTunes on Windows or Finder on Mac. That backup will be saved as a file on your computer. You can then use that file to restore your device to iOS 16 and keep most of your personal data and settings intact.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 24, #713

Hints and answers for Connections for May 24, #713.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle has a fun variety of categories. The purple one appeals to my English major heart. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Goo-goo.

Green group hint: Not shirts.

Blue group hint: City that never sleeps.

Purple group hint: Acclaimed writers.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Baby gear.

Green group: Kinds of pants minus «s.»

Blue group: New York sports team members.

Purple group: Black women authors.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is baby gear. The four answers are bib, bottle, monitor and stroller.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of pants minus «s.» The four answers are capri, jean, jogger and slack.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is New York sports team members. The four answers are Jet, Met, Net and Ranger.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is black women authors. The four answers are Butler, Gay, Hooks and Walker.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, May 20

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 20.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword is a fun one, and now I’m singing the song from 1-Across in my head. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Pink ___ Club» (Chappell Roan hit)
Answer: PONY

5A clue: Instrument that might be made with a comb and wax paper
Answer: KAZOO

6A clue: How bedtime stories are often read
Answer: ALOUD

7A clue: On edge
Answer: TENSE

8A clue: Short Instagram video
Answer: REEL

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Less colorful
Answer: PALER

2D clue: Layer of the upper atmosphere
Answer: OZONE

3D clue: Totally pointless
Answer: NOUSE

4D clue: Hit a high note in a high place, perhaps
Answer: YODEL

5D clue: Kit ___ bar
Answer: KAT

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Want to Speak to Dolphins? Researchers Won $100,000 AI Prize Studying Their Whistling

The scientists studied a bottlenose dolphin community in Sarasota, Florida, uncovering evidence of language-like communications.

If any dolphins are reading this: hello!

A team of scientists studying a community of Florida dolphins has been awarded the first $100,000 Coller Dolittle Challenge prize, set up to award research in interspecies communication algorithms.

The US-based team, led by Laela Sayigh of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, found that a type of whistle that dolphins employ is used as an alarm. Another whistle they studied is used by dolphins to respond to unexpected or unfamiliar situations. The team used non-invasive hydrophones to perform the research, which provides evidence that dolphins may be using whistles like words, shared with multiple members of their communities.

Capturing the sounds is just the beginning. Researchers will use AI to continue deciphering the whistles to try to find more patterns.

«The main thing stopping us cracking the code of animal communication is a lack of data. Think of the 1 trillion words needed to train a large language model like ChatGPT. We don’t have anything like this for other animals,» said Jonathan Birch, a professor at the London School of Economics and Politics and one of the judges for the prize.

«That’s why we need programs like the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which has built up an extraordinary library of dolphin whistles over 40 years. The cumulative result of all that work is that Laela Sayigh and her team can now use deep learning to analyse the whistles and perhaps, one day, crack the code,» he said.

The award was part of a ceremony honoring the work of four teams from across the world. In addition to the dolphin project, researchers studied ways in which nightingales, marmoset monkeys and cuttlefish communicate.

The challenge is a collaboration between the Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University. Submissions for next year open up in August.

Dolphins are just the beginning

Researching animals and trying to learn the secrets of their communication is nothing new; but AI is speeding up the creation of larger and lager datasets.

«Breakthroughs are inevitable,» says Kate Zacarian, CEO and co-founder of Earth Species Project, a California-based nonprofit that also works in breaking down language barriers with the animal world.

«Just as AI has revolutionized the fields of medicine and material science, we see a similar opportunity to bring those advances to the study of animal communication and empower researchers in this space with entirely new capabilities,» Zacarian said.

Zacarian applauded Sayigh’s team and their win and said it will help bring broader recognition to the study of non-human animal communication. It could also bring more attention to ways that AI can change the nature of this type of research.
«The AI systems aren’t just faster — they allow for entirely new types of inquiry,» she said. «We’re moving from decoding isolated signals to exploring communication as a rich, dynamic, and structure phenomenon — whish is a task that’s simply too big for our human brains, but possible for large-scale AI models.»

Earth Species recently released an open-source large audio language model for analyzing animal sounds called NatureLM-audio. The organization is currently working with biologists and ethologists to study species including carrion crows, orcas, jumping spiders and others and plans to release some of their findings later this year, Zacarian said.