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Apple Seeds Second iOS and iPadOS 14.6 Release Candidate to Developers

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Apple today seeded second release candidate versions of iOS and iPadOS 14.6 to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming five days after Apple seeded the first release candidates.

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 be released in the near future, and Apple has already seeded iOS 14.7 to developers.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Second iOS and iPadOS 14.6 Release Candidate to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/21/apple-seeds-ios-14-6-release-candidate-2-to-developers/
appleguy123 said:
Why does the 2nd "release candidate" still have known bugs?
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Has there ever been a release that didn’t have known bugs though honestly?

I actually don’t even mean that in a negative way, and Ive been lucky enough to not really see many bugs in any iOS release, but really there are always bugs out there and I don’t believe Apple or any developer flat out doesn’t know they exist.

I forget now since it’s been a few years and no reverting now, but I remember one iOS update and being like “wow they’ve really made all of this better” lol. I don’t really feel that way now, but I do get use out of at least 1-2 new features with each new release.
 
dillacom said:
I had the fun Apple Music crash for car play on RC1. one of the reasons I am sure they released RC2 to make sure 14.6 didn't come out with the bug
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I had some really strange Car Play problems with Spotify also on RC1. Obliviously they seriously want to get
something fixed before a public release this late in game. I have the public beta and I picked us the RC2 just now- about 160mb iwth new build # 18F72.
 
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Carlson-online said:
Because if you worked in large scale software engineering, you’d realise most products have large backlogs of (100s/1000s) issues/bugs.

these get triaged and prioritised, and a select of them get sorted each release, depending on how urgent they are.
Click to expand...
And more likely not address until development for a feature either modifies or wipes out the trouble code.
 
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appleguy123 said:
Why does the 2nd "release candidate" still have known bugs?
Click to expand...
I think you misread. The release notes include a list of fixed bugs, not known ones.

Of course there will be plenty of "known bugs", just no more release blockers, which are the ones they usually call out in their release notes.
 
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Hopefully one of those fixed bugs is stopping the podcasts app randomly deciding that played episodes from 2+ years ago need to be at the top of my play next list.... Started with 14.5 and still getting it happening on the first 14.6 RC for some podcasts.
 
Voice control to unlock iphone would have been great to set up all of last year.
 
I'm still not seeing any item to turn on the Spatial Audio function (I have a pair of Bose Sound Sport earbuds). From everything I've read, this will be available in the Settings --> Music section, correct? So far, there's no spatial audio setting in that preference. Maybe Apple is waiting until the final release to turn that function on?
 
verniesgarden said:
And more likely not address until development for a feature either modifies or wipes out the trouble code.
Click to expand...
100%!

we have so much of our code base to refactor to fix things, but getting product to allow the time for tech debt is difficult, as you can’t just stop feature work for 3 months to do it.
So instead things get improved when we touch them
 
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