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Want to try out new phone features before anyone else? Sign up for beta testing

Once you’re aware of the obvious risks with such an approach, it’s useful in trying out features in advance.

EVERYONE WANTS THE latest features to arrive now, but while many are announced in advance, you can end up waiting a while before they finally arrive.

But if you wanted to skip the waiting or just get a taste of new or potential features, you can sign up for beta testing. For Android devices, you can try out the beta version of apps pretty easily but if you wanted to go a step further, you can even try out the beta versions for the software that runs your smartphone and PC.

Developers release them this way so they can identify and get rid of any bugs or flaws. While the purpose is for users to provide feedback, you can still just install it and use it for your own purposes.

Upcoming apps
Risk:
Low as they’re brand new apps.

If you own an Android device, you can look out for apps that are currently in beta testing mode. When you visit the Google Play store, you can find the Early Access section on the home page (scroll the bubble menu right to left).

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Popular apps
Risk:
Low/medium. You will likely come across bugs but reverting to the normal version is pretty straightforward.

For the more popular apps like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google, and Facebook Messenger, it’s easy to sign up now.

If you visit their page on Google Play, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see an opt-in option. Tapping it will ensure the next update will be the beta version.

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Browser
Risk:
Low as you can have both official and beta version installed separately.

All of the major browsers have beta versions you can download alongside the official (stable) version. You can download the beta version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera directly from their sites. The exception is Microsoft Edge which is only available via the Windows Insider programme.

Operating systems
Risk:
High as you’re replacing stable software. The chances of you encountering annoying or disruptive bugs is high, especially if you have an older device.

If you wanted to go a little further, you can sign up to beta programmes for major software offerings like iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10 and Chrome OS.

While signing up to them mean you get to test out features in advance of their release, the drawback to this is there will be bugs (hence the beta tag) so if things go wrong, your device can become unstable.

It’s strongly recommend you back up important files first before you proceed with this. And in certain cases like iOS and Android, the official release of iOS 10 and Nougat will arrive in September so you don’t have long to wait anyway.

iOS and macOS: To start, you need to sign up to Apple’s beta software programme which requires your Apple ID and password. Once that’s done, you need to follow the instructions and download the necessary files on the relevant device.

On Mac, you can install it directly, but on iPhone, you need to go into Settings > General > Software Update to install it.

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Windows 10: You can sign up through the Windows Insider programme which requires you to sign in with your Microsoft account. Once you download the media creation tool for it and follow the instructions.

Chrome OS: Go into Settings > About > More Info… > Change Channel and you will see three options: Stable, Beta and Developer – unstable.

Android: To do this, you need to sign up for the Android Beta website and sign in with your Google account. Only a small number of devices are eligible for it but it will tell you anyway.

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Read: The iPhone gets one last ‘important security update’ before iOS 10 launch >

Read: Your phone’s battery life is being used to track you online >

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Murphy
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    May 27th 2023, 10:56 AM

    Having worked in an IoT for 14 years I never understood how they were allowed to treat hourly paid staff in such a horrible way. The hard working hourly paid staff are absolutely abused and taken advantage of and the tenured staff and unions do nothing.
    New hires (full-time) are expected to start on ~€38k even if they were earning over double this in the private sector. Attracting talented lecturers is clearly not a goal for management. In the next few years this will come back to bite them, hard!
    Unions should be ashamed of themselves. Hourly paid staff need to strike en masse.
    Management and HR need to be held accountable.

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    Mute Tom D
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    May 27th 2023, 11:16 AM

    @Chris Murphy: To quote a teacher union rep in the US “when schoolchidlren start paying uinion dues, i’ll start representing the interests of school children”

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    Mute John ward
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    May 27th 2023, 9:37 AM

    Irish colleges have been slipping down the rankings internationally. You can’t attract or keep top people if you don’t value them.

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    May 27th 2023, 10:11 AM

    ‘The Institution will never love you back’

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    Mute Dan Dare
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    May 27th 2023, 4:52 PM

    Administrators, facilities staff, yes pay them more but lecturers, professors, etc why would they be paid more? They are paid the market rate. It’s a competitive industry.

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    Mute Pat Redmond
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    May 28th 2023, 8:29 AM

    @Dan Dare: it takes approximately eight years to get to PhD level with a lot of sacrifice and determination. If we want to retain this talent and not lose them to more attractive offers abroad we need to get real.

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    Mute valerieh
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    May 28th 2023, 8:57 AM

    @Dan Dare: It is not about salary per se. It is about discriminatory practices that make obtaining a secure contract and later promotion to a sustainable income unimaginably damaging to someone’s physical and mental health.

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    Mute Dan Dare
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    May 29th 2023, 7:47 PM

    @valerieh: As far as I know pretty much all new staff are taken on as contractors / temp staff in the 3rd level ed sector. This is something the majority asked for to temper the salary boom in the public sector about 15 years ago when the whole place went sideways. To my recall the sector took huge pay cuts that they haven’t pulled back yet. To be honest if lecturers want to be paid more they should deserve it because there are a lot of other people waiting in line for the money they sacrificed.

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    Mute Dan Dare
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    May 29th 2023, 7:50 PM

    @Pat Redmond: Yes PhD has always been the definition of the poor student and we definitely aren’t friendly to this demographic here. I agree their accomodation etc should be paid for and so on so that they can pay it back when they qualify and do all that fancy research that drives the economy, however if they are good they will still be poached, prob for the betterment of humanity admittedly but it is a hard sell to ask stretched people to pay more for this. Hungry mouths to feed and all.

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    May 29th 2023, 10:04 PM

    Sinn Féin used to stand up for tradesmen, labourers, factory workers, small farmers and the all the lower paid working class. Now all they care about is lecturers, solicitors and the like.
    They really have sold out on every single thing.

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    Mute honey badger
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    May 27th 2023, 7:48 AM

    *do

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