Surprise iOS 14.5 Public Beta 4 Release Signals Public Release Coming Soon - Forbes

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iOS 14 Public Beta 4

Anthony Karcz

For the first time in a long time, Apple Beta Program participants have gotten their hands on an iOS beta build on a Monday! iOS 14.5 Public Beta 4 was released earlier today. 

The early-in-the-week build signals to me that Apple is looking to wrap the iOS 14.5 beta very soon, possibly this week, with an eye on public release for next week. The release will likely coincide with next week's March 23 Apple event.

Let's take a look at what everyone will be getting. 

What's New

There's not much that's really new in Public Beta 4 other than further tweaks to the Podcasts interface. They're all quality of life features meant to get you into your followed podcasts faster and let you discover new ones. 

Let’s take a look at the enormous list of features users are getting in iOS 14.5!

• You can now give Siri directions as to what app you'd like to default to for certain media like podcasts and songs. This isn't the "default apps" feature that a lost of us (including me) thought it was, but it's a step in the right direction. 
• The Find My app has an Items tab! What's going there? Any Bluetooth finders you have, plus whatever Apple is revealing next week. 
• Emojis! Lots of emojis. 217 of them to be precise. 
• Unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch (click here to see how).
• You can now swipe to add songs to your queue in Apple Music. 
• The Shortcuts app has a few new tricks to enable and disable orientation lock, change cellular modes, and take screenshots. 
• Now, when you launch an app that collects your activity data or tracks you around your iDevice, you have the option of disallowing that intrusion (as you should). Some companies, like Facebook, who've made their money off selling activity data that consumers unknowingly agreed to share in the legal agreements that no one ever reads are rather peeved. Personally, I fully support it as it gives folks who might not have realized what they were agreeing to a chance to change their minds. 
• The new Software Update splash screen (with the current iOS version as well as notification of when you last checked for a software update) has been tweaked slightly to remove the green check. 
• Testing on an iPad? iPadOS now has a horizontal boot screen when your iPad is connected to a Magic Keyboard. 
• For some carriers like T-Mobile, there's a 5G only switch (but only use it if you absolutely know what you're doing). 
• Worldwide dual SIM support is available with this release. This means that you can get 5G coverage when available even if you have both SIMs activated. 
• You can now add the Apple Music "Made for You" mixes to your library in the Music app. The Music app also now includes the exact release date for albums and tracks. And scrolling metadata for the Now Playing lock screen widget is back! 
• The Podcasts app also gets some love with a Music app-like redesign. That's most evident on the Search page. Also, tapping on a podcast entry will take you to the details page for the podcast rather than start playing immediately (there's now a dedicated smaller button for that). Extremely helpful for when you're trying to find a specific episode for a podcast with a long title (I'm looking at you Glass Cannon Network). Each podcast gets new headers in the library as well to make them really shine. 
• Fan of Apple News? There's now a dedicated search tab in the News app. 
• You can finally sort your reminders due date, creation date, due date, or a manual sort of your choosing in the Reminders app. You can now print reminders as well. 
• Have a PS5 or XBox Series X? Lucky you. Now those controllers will work with your iDevice. 
• Great news for those of you with a smart TV! Apple Fitness+ now has AirPlay 2 support. You won't see your live Apple Watch data like you do if you're connected via an Apple TV, but it's better than no support at all.
• Map app guides get a huge glow-up in iOS 14.5 with spiffed up images and headers and much more polished looking content. 
• Type to Siri no longer pulls you out of your current location when invoked, just like it does when you're not using the type interface. It's a nice bit of consistency. 
• Responding to a message with Siri has the same type of upgrade, maintaining context wherever you are when it's invoked instead of pulling you into a greyed out screen. 

What's Broken/What's Fixed? 

There's not much new in this week's official release notes. The Homepod handoff issue that arose last week has been fixed. With nothing else being tracked, you can bet that Cupertino is readying this release for launch. 

It's not likely that you will, but report any bugs you find (especially with third-party apps) via the Feedback app. 

What's Next?

Apple has a big media event next Tuesday, March 23. What's going to be announced? No one's really certain. But the big rumors point to this finally being the launch of the oft-rumored, sometimes seen in prototype, but never actually announced AirTags. That would make sense given we're seeing the "there again, gone again" Items tag in the Find My app.

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Even if AirTags is only announced and not launched at the event, chances are better than average that Apple will launch iOS 14.5 to the public next week. That'll give folks time at the very least to start getting used to tracking their Bluetooth finders with Apple's app. 

With iOS 14.5 launching, that means we'll be in a bit of a beta dip. The iOS 14.6 beta will launch at the end of March or early April. I don't expect much this late in the iOS 14 development cycle, but iOS 14.5 surprised me with the sheer number of new quality of life features. Let's hope that iOS 14.6 follows suit.

Once the iOS 14.5 Golden Master is available for download next week, I'll be back to let you know!

The Link Lonk


March 16, 2021 at 07:14AM
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Surprise iOS 14.5 Public Beta 4 Release Signals Public Release Coming Soon - Forbes

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