News: Apple Releases iOS 13.3 Beta 4 for iPhone with Minor Under-the-Hood Improvements

Since the release of iOS 13.3 beta 3 on Nov. 20, Apple has remained silent on new beta updates. That's likely because there was a holiday the following week, and then all of the major shopping events after that. But now, it's back in the game, and on Thursday, Dec. 5, Apple pushed out iOS 13.3 developer beta 4 and public beta 4.

Apple seeded the new beta to iPhone users at 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST). The time is a departure for Apple, who typically releases developer betas at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST), reserving 4 p.m. for the public beta. Perhaps the extended delay in beta updates is to blame for Apple's unpredictable timetable.

At this time, it appears beta 4 offers little more than minor bug fixes and stability patches. That's not a surprise, as the last two beta updates for 13.3 were minimal as well. The biggest change in beta 3 involved the return of "Save Video as New Clip," which Apple removed in iOS 13 for some unknown reason.

• Update: Apple's iOS 13.3 Stable Update Available for iPhone

Hopefully, with the lack of any noticeable items in these betas, that the public will see iOS 13.3 stable released very soon. Until then, check out the release notes for beta 4 below, which are identical to beta 3's release notes:

iOS & iPadOS 13.3 Beta 4 Release Notes

Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes.

Overview

The iOS & iPadOS 13.3 SDK provides support for developing apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 13.3. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 11.2 available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 11.2, see Xcode 11.2 Release Notes.

Networking - New Features

• Certain top-level domains (TLDs) such as .dev and .app are now in the Foundation URLSession and NSURLConnection HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) preload list. An app which uses URLSession to visit a matching URL will always navigate to the URL as https://, and never as cleartext http://. See the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) Specification for more information about HSTS. (56247242)

Safari - New Features

• Now supports NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari, SFSafariViewController, and ASWebAuthenticationSession using the WebAuthn standard, on devices with the necessary hardware capabilities.

To update your iPhone to iOS 13.3 dev beta 4, you will need to be a registered developer. You can use the restore image for your iPhone available in the Developer portal (install with iTunes or Finder) or install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile installed on your iPhone, head over to Settings –> General –> Software Update to start installing the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.

To download and install iOS 13.3 public beta 4, sign up through Apple's beta site, download and install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update to begin the installation of the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.