Dive Brief:
- Apple’s new operating system is now available to beta testers.
- The system, iOS 10, was released Thursday in public beta and includes more significant changes than the last several releases of iOS, such as a new messaging app, Apple said.
- iOS 10 was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in early June and opened to developers soon after.
Dive Insight:
The new Messages app is the biggest change, though Apple has also improved its Photos app and redesigned its music, maps and news apps.
Apple’s iOS 10 has already been the source of controversy. On June 23, Apple confirmed that the kernel in iOS 10 is unencrypted, Fortune reported. Apple has encrypted the kernels of its previous operating systems, but insists that it left the iOS 10 kernel open on purpose “to optimize the operating system’s performance without compromising security,” an Apple spokesperson told Fortune.
There has been some debate as to whether Apple actual left the kernel unencrypted on purpose or not. Opening up the kernel to the developers that are currently testing the new OS may actually help Apple find and patch potential vulnerabilities before iOS 10 becomes publicly available in the fall.
Mobile operating systems have been the target of a growing number of cyberattacks over the last year.
