Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 10.3 With 'Find My AirPods' to Developers

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to developers, marking the third major update to the iOS 10 operating system that was released in September. The first iOS 10.3 beta comes more than a month after the release of iOS 10.2.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 10.3 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.

ios-10-3-beta
As a 10.x update, iOS 10.3 likely brings bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features to iOS 10. While we won't know what's in the update until developers begin discovering changes, it is rumored to include a new "Theatre" mode with a "popcorn-shaped" icon in the Control Center.

What the rumored Theatre mode does is unclear, but should it be included in iOS 10.3, we'll find out its purpose soon enough. We'll update this post with new features that are found in the update.

Update: Apple has shared release details with several sites, outlining features that are included in the update. While the main feature is a new "Find My AirPods" option, there are also several smaller updates.

What's new in iOS 10.3:

- There's a new "Find My AirPods" tool to help users locate lost AirPods.
- SiriKit can be used to pay bills, check on the status of payments, and schedule future rides.
- The weather icon in the Maps app includes 3D Touch to show hourly forecasts.
- CarPlay includes new shortcuts for launching recently used apps.
- CarPlay's Maps now features EV charging station locations.
- HomeKit supports programmable light switches.
- Conversation View in the Mail app features navigation improvements.
- When installing iOS 10.3, it will update the file system to Apple File System (APFS), so it's important to make a backup before updating.

Related Forum: iOS 10

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
iOS 18

Top 5 New Features Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday March 21, 2025 3:26 pm PDT by
We're not getting new Siri Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.4 as expected, but the upcoming update does have quite a few new additions that will be worth upgrading for. We've rounded up the five best features to look forward to, and if you're not running the beta, you can expect to get access to these in early April. Priority Notifications If you have an iPhone or iPad that supports...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

iOS 19 Coming in June With These New Features

Thursday March 20, 2025 2:04 pm PDT by
While the first iOS 19 beta is still more than two months away, there are already plenty of rumors about the upcoming software update. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far. visionOS-Like Design In January, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech revealed a redesigned Camera app that is allegedly planned for iOS 19. According to Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser, the Camera app...
Generic iOS 18

Apple Seeds iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 Release Candidate With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music and More

Monday March 24, 2025 10:07 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released the fourth betas. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. With iOS 18.4, Apple is adding the Priority Notifications...
airpods max 2024 colors

Don't Buy Into Apple's Hype About AirPods Max Gaining Lossless Audio

Monday March 24, 2025 4:24 pm PDT by
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4. For context, audio files are typically compressed to keep file sizes smaller. There are lossy compression standards like MP3, and Apple's own Advanced Audio Codec...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Iridescent Search

Foldable iPhone Expected to Launch Next Year, Costing Around $2,000

Monday March 24, 2025 3:43 am PDT by
Apple will launch its long-rumored foldable iPhone next year with a ~$2,000 premium price tag attached, expects well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. Gurman's comments on Apple's launch plans for its first foldable device appeared in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter. Earlier this month, the reporter said Apple's foldable iPhone could be arriving "as early as 2026,"...
iOS 19 Rounded UI Elements Light

iOS 19: What to Expect From Apple's Dramatic Design Overhaul?

Monday March 24, 2025 9:47 am PDT by
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Apple is planning "one of the most dramatic software overhauls in the company's history" – an update that aims to bring iOS, iPadOS, and macOS into closer visual alignment. The redesign is said to be "loosely based" on visionOS, the software behind Apple's Vision Pro headset, and will reportedly update the look of icons, menus, apps, windows, and...

Top Rated Comments

CarlJ Avatar
107 months ago
Wow, eleven comments in and no posts yet explaining how this indicates the imminent downfall of Apple. That's kind of refreshing.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
waterskier2007 Avatar
107 months ago
This seems like a pretty big deal (from the release notes):

When you update to iOS 10.3, your iOS device will update its file system to Apple File System (APFS). This conversion preserves existing data on your device. However, as with any software update, it is recommended that you create a backup of your device before updating.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lunarworks Avatar
107 months ago
Apple File System? What? What? What? Apple made a file system? So A, M, S, W, T chips. San Francisco font. Swift language, and now a file system? When will the Apple gimmick train end? Bigger battery, Cupertino. Are you morons listening? Bigger. Battery. Thicker. Phone. Innovation.
People who actually understand operating systems have been begging for a new file system for more than a decade.

They almost went with ZFS, but it became a big problem when Oracle bought Sun.

Also, anyone complaining about Apple's custom chips needs a good kick in the head. They're the best mobile chips around.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tubamajuba Avatar
107 months ago
theater mode is apparently still missing according to CNET
[doublepost=1485281257][/doublepost]
wow. no theater mode. this indicates the imminent downfall of apple
Who cares about theater mode? I have had *insert obscure problem here* for two years now, and Apple won't make *insert dream computer here*, so Apple is doomed, Tim Cook should be fired, and I'm buying an Android phone. But I'll stick around to remind everybody why I don't like Apple anymore.

*ahem*

iOS 10.3 may not add much, but the SiriKit improvements look interesting.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rodrigo_pereira Avatar
107 months ago
Can anyone theorize if older devices using the A5 chip (iPhone 5, iPad 4) would benefit from APFS?
There are couple of things we need to consider first to answer your question:

1. APFS in terms of I/O (that is - input-output, read and write data) focuses on improving foreground apps and tasks. It is reasonable to think that background tasks can wait a bit longer to read or write data they need.

2. It doesn’t make processor or graphic processor to handle more task or make them faster.

3. Apps are multithreaded - if app is made along Object-C or Swift guidelines - UI - user interface - is main thread and background tasks are secondary thread (i.e. on slow connection the app you are using downloads data, but user interface is still responsive and probably shows some indicator that data are being downloaded, you can easily switch from one tab to another).

4. Open/save file: with APFS it is possible to do atomic updates - which mean: app is saving only changes to a file or load from a file only things that have changed, not the whole file.

With all that considered: performance gain with APFS would be from reading data needed by foreground app first, using less bandwidth (connection between CPU, RAM, and flash memory) while loading and saving data, postponing some disk operations that are requested by background processes.

To sum it up: you should see some improvements in situations like scrolling through conversation in imessage, saving changes to modified picture, opening files.

(Obviously, sorry for my lousy english, it’s not even my third language)
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Watabou Avatar
107 months ago
Can someone tell more about new filesystem? How it's compared to present one in terms of security and performance?
You can read a pretty good overview here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/apfs-apple-file-system/

And if you want to get nerdy: ArsTechnica ('http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/') and Apple's official documentation ('https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/Introduction/Introduction.html').

I was thinking they would hold off until iOS 11 to show off APFS, didn't know it was already ready!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)