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Apple Seeds iOS and iPadOS 14.6 Release Candidate to Developers

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Apple today seeded release candidate versions of iOS and iPadOS 14.6 to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming one week after Apple seeded the third iOS and iPadOS 14.6 updates.

14.6-on-iPhone-12-feature.jpg

iOS and iPadOS 14.6 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or iPad.

iOS and iPadOS 14.6 add support for Apple Music features, including Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio.

iPhone-Hi-Fi-Apple-Music-Feature.jpg

Spatial Audio will provide an immersive audio experience that makes it sound like music is coming from all around you, while Lossless Audio will provide higher-quality music that sounds exactly as it does when artists create it in the studio. At launch, thousands of tracks will feature Spatial Audio support, and more than 20,000 songs will support Lossless Audio. By the end of the year, 75 million songs will support it.

For AirTags, the beta adds a new feature that allows an email address to be entered as a contact method for Lost Mode instead of a phone number. In iOS 14.5, there is no option to use an email, with Apple only allowing for a phone number.

airtag-lost-mode-email-address.jpg

iOS 14.6 will see the debut of Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, which were first introduced at Apple's April event. With Podcasts subscriptions, Podcasts users can sign up to subscribe to their favorite podcasters, unlocking ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and other perks.

The update also includes new features for marking all Podcasts episodes as played, removing downloads, and recovering episodes, all of which are designed to address complaints that surfaced after the release of the updated Podcasts app in iOS 14.5.

iOS 14.6 lays the groundwork for Apple Card Family, a feature that Apple introduced at its April event. Apple Card Family allows spouses to share a single Apple Card account, with each person serving as a co-owner to build credit.

Apple Card Family also lets parents share an Apple Card with their children for making purchases, with optional spending limits and parental controls to help children learn smart financial habits. All spending by the family is tracked with a single monthly bill, and up to five people over 13 can be added to an Apple Card account for sharing purposes.

Apple's full release notes for the update are below:
Apple Card Family
- Apple Card can be shared with up to five people, including anyone 13 years or older in your Family Sharing group
- Apple Card Family adds support for families to track expenses, manage spending with optional limits and controls, and build credit together

Podcasts
- Subscription support for channels and individual shows

AirTag and Find My
- Lost mode option to add an email address instead of a phone number for AirTag and Find My network accessories
- AirTag will show the partially masked phone number of the owner when tapped with an NFC-capable device

Accessibility
- Voice Control users can unlock their iPhone for the first time after a restart using only their voice

This release also fixes the following issues:
- Unlock with Apple Watch may not work after using Lock iPhone on Apple Watch
- Reminders may appear as blank lines
- Call blocking extensions may not appear in Settings
- Bluetooth devices could sometimes disconnect or send audio to a different device during an active call
- iPhone may experience reduced performance during startup
Click to expand...
iOS 14.6 is expected to see a May release, with the Apple Music features coming in June.

Article Link: Apple Seeds iOS and iPadOS 14.6 Release Candidate to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/17/apple-seeds-ios-14-6-release-candidate/
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anshuvorty said:
This is incorrect. According to the linked page, it was the 2nd iOS/iPadOS 14.6 update, not the 3rd. Please correct it.
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It's the wrong link, but the third beta was in fact released a week ago.
 

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Wish they would fix the email reply bug. Still get empty content half of the time I try replying to emails. Have to force quit and try again.

Glad they are fixing these though:
- Reminders may appear as blank lines
- Bluetooth devices could sometimes disconnect or send audio to a different device during an active call
 
- ‌iPhone‌ may experience reduced performance during startup

REALLY!? Is there anything more apple can do with each of these updates to gimp phones……wonder what 14.6 will do? Maybe it’ll wait to reduce performance 45 min after startup. Apple software QA is GARBAGE the last couple years
 
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jonnyb098 said:
- ‌iPhone‌ may experience reduced performance during startup

REALLY!? Is there anything more apple can do with each of these updates to gimp phones……wonder what 14.6 will do? Maybe it’ll wait to reduce performance 45 min after startup. Apple software QA is GARBAGE the last couple years
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Do you know if its actually fixed or do they just say that? Im on 14.5 and wont upgrade until I know for sure the throttle is fixed as I was experiencing this on 14.5.1
 
VespiYT said:
Do you know if its actually fixed or do they just say that? Im on 14.5 and wont upgrade until I know for sure the throttle is fixed as I was experiencing this on 14.5.1
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Very true, apple said for about 5 point releases that the email bug was fixed last year and it never was. They basically say or “think” it’s fixed without actually testing it.

Gotta love how they brag about speeds and feeds when devices are throttled, lagging and stuttering etc etc. None of it means anything if they still can’t optimize properly
 
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jonnyb098 said:
Very true, apple said for about 5 point releases that the email bug was fixed last year and it never was. They basically say or “think” it’s fixed without actually testing it.

Gotta love how they brag about speeds and feeds when devices are throttled, lagging and stuttering etc etc. None of it means anything if they still can’t optimize properly
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Of course they do testing, but internal testing is limited, especially when its not a bug that always pops-up and can be reproduced.

That's in part why the dev beta program and the public beta program exists, to capture feedback from experiences in the wild.

If you share your feedback ID then people can mention it in their own feedback and engineering can tie together logs related to the same bug.
 
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poseidondev said:
Of course they do testing, but internal testing is limited, especially when its not a bug that always pops-up and can be reproduced.

That's in part why the dev beta program and the public beta program exists, to capture feedback from experiences in the wild.

If you share your feedback ID then people can mention it in their own feedback and engineering can tie together logs related to the same bug.
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Understandable but I’ve followed too many threads of people reporting bugs for months that we never fixed during iOS 14 beta for example last summer. Apple has opened this stuff up to public beta testing and ios stability is unequivocally worse for just about everyone for various reasons. they are constantly fixing one thing and breaking another. The only reason apple is even releasing updates now is to go with new stuff they sell. It’s all about adding support for stuff that makes them money. Which is fine it’s just a very obvious and blatant strategy shift that selling more stuff is clearly more important than fixing issues. And of course fixing problems is never fun in comparison to working on the new shiny thing. But this is Apple, and they have a lot of money, power, etc. I expect more and encourage others to hold them to a higher standard.
 
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jonnyb098 said:
they are constantly fixing one thing and breaking another.
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Welcome to software development. Where there's always a bug and fixing one could cause 20 more to pop up.
jonnyb098 said:
The only reason apple is even releasing updates now is to go with new stuff they sell. It’s all about adding support for stuff that makes them money.
Click to expand...

jonnyb098 said:
selling more stuff is clearly more important than fixing issues
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I can see why that feels that way from a user's perspective, but during the beta process, most beta versions (and subsequently the actual release) include a lot of technical improvements and fixes that are generally not communicated with users presumably because users are not interested to know/wouldn't understand, but they are communicated with developers.
Almost all of those improvements don't serve a commercial purpose, other than making the lives of developers easier.

See attached for a very poor example, poor, because they only list the improvements since the prior beta version and this was for 14.5 RC. The stuff between the beta versions isn't accessible anymore, but those are generally longer.
 

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