What's New in iOS 14 Beta 6: Spatial Audio Settings, Maps Splash Screen and More

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the sixth betas of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 to developers for testing purposes, updating and refining some of the features that are included in the software.

As the beta testing period goes on, changes get much smaller and less notable. The sixth beta has some minor tweaks and feature additions, but there are no real major changes in the update. We've listed all of what's new in the sixth beta of iOS 14 below.

- Time Picker Design - The time picker interface, available in the Clock app when setting an alarm and other places in iOS, has seen a slight design tweak that adds an orange box around the time to make it more obvious that it can be interacted with to change the time.

- Spatial Audio - Spatial Audio, the feature that brings surround sound to the AirPods Pro, isn't implemented as of yet, but Apple appears to be gearing up to add the feature to iOS 14 and the AirPods Pro. In today's beta, there's a new Spatial Audio toggle available in the Accessibility section of the Settings app. Choose AirPods and then at the bottom of the screen, there's a "Follow iPhone" toggle. Follow iPhone makes audio for supported movies and TV shows sound like it's coming from the phone instead of following head movement. There's also new code and internal messaging related to the spatial audio feature. Though this toggle is available, Spatial Audio is not yet functional.

- Maps Splash Screen - There's a new splash screen for the Maps app that lets you know about new features that include cycling directions, curated guides, and support for speed cameras.

Know of any other changes in ‌iOS 14‌ beta 6 that we didn't list here? Let us know in the comments and we'll add them.

Article Link: What's New in iOS 14 Beta 6: Spatial Audio Settings, Maps Splash Screen and More

 

[Apple_Robert]

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing these in person as soon as my install finishes.

Good idea with the orange alarm box.

 

[NoImDirtyDan]

I wonder if they are going to allow us to change our default mail and internet browser apps during the Beta.

Edit: Also I believe that "time picker" design was implemented prior to Beta 6.

 

[macduke]

So what features do you guys think will be cut ahead of release and pushed off to a later iOS 14.X update? Seems to happen every year now. I think Spatial Audio might be delayed.

 

[Apple_Robert]

So what features do you guys think will be cut ahead of release and pushed off to a later iOS 14.X update? Seems to happen every year now. I think Spatial Audio might be delayed.

I had forgotten all about that wonderful Apple feature. I don’t think it will happen this time around.

 

[jrodri7]

So what features do you guys think will be cut ahead of release and pushed off to a later iOS 14.X update? Seems to happen every year now. I think Spatial Audio might be delayed.

I wonder if they are going to allow us to change our default mail and internet browser apps during the Beta.

Edit: Also I believe that "time picker" design was implemented prior to Beta 6.

The orange box around the time picker box is what changed in beta 6. It was not there in beta 5.

 

[cmaier]

I wonder if they are going to allow us to change our default mail and internet browser apps during the Beta.

Edit: Also I believe that "time picker" design was implemented prior to Beta 6.

You need new versions of mail apps and browser apps that have been approved by apple. Won’t work with anything currently on the App Store.

 

[verpeiler]

I wonder if they are going to allow us to change our default mail and internet browser apps during the Beta.

Edit: Also I believe that "time picker" design was implemented prior to Beta 6.

I hope they add maps soon as Craig said they (probably) would. I don’t use google maps or waze, but having the choice is always good.
And this wasn’t about the time picker, but about the orange border around it.

 

[MacDevil7334]

So what features do you guys think will be cut ahead of release and pushed off to a later iOS 14.X update? Seems to happen every year now. I think Spatial Audio might be delayed.

I think features being cut over the past few years was mainly due to the dismal, chaotic state of Apple’s software development and beta testing processes. Several reports point to both being overhauled after the iOS 13.0 disaster last year. You can see the fruits of whatever internal changes Apple made this year with iOS 14, which was more polished at beta 1 than iOS 13 was at release. I doubt they will need to delay a feature this year unless some unforeseen technical issue arises with the feature itself that would require more time to fix. The OS is pretty polished at this point.

 

[AngerDanger]

The time picker interface … has seen a slight design tweak that adds an orange box around the time

Be still my beating heart!

 

[Will Tisdale 🎗]

And they’ve fixed gapless playback. 😍

 

[Feyl]

With this new time picker they added another thing to make iOS less special. Apple operating systems keep changing into a piece of a white or black space filled with interactive boxes and lines of sometimes badly readable text. It just feels so uninspired.

 

[007p]

On spatial audio...
Supported movies and tv shows

Wouldn’t be surprised if that meant iTunes and Apple TV+ only, no third party app support.

 

[larrylaffer]

I bet spatial audio isn't ready in time for release

 

[Krazy_Peanut]

I hate how you have to add time now. I keep fu**ing it up when setting the time within calendar. It really isn’t that user friendly at all.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I think features being cut over the past few years was mainly due to the dismal, chaotic state of Apple’s software development and beta testing processes. Several reports point to both being overhauled after the iOS 13.0 disaster last year. You can see the fruits of whatever internal changes Apple made this year with iOS 14, which was more polished at beta 1 than iOS 13 was at release. I doubt they will need to delay a feature this year unless some unforeseen technical issue arises with the feature itself that would require more time to fix. The OS is pretty polished at this point.

Yes this year the betas feels more stable than the iOS 13 GM.

 

[MrGimper]

With this new time picker they added another thing to make iOS less special. Apple operating systems keep changing into a piece of a white or black space filled with interactive boxes and lines of sometimes badly readable text. It just feels so uninspired.

Well it seems like there's a drive to make things less intrusive, like full-screen call screen, full screen Siri. The spinning wheels on a picker just took up half the screen for no real purpose.

 

[zorinlynx]

Any speculation on what was wrong with the old time picker UI and why they felt the need to change it?

The old one feels more intuitive and easier to use.

 

[zilchfox]

Any speculation on what was wrong with the old time picker UI and why they felt the need to change it?

The old one feels more intuitive and easier to use.

I've become quite accustomed to the new one, to be honest, and I like it.

 

[CarlJ]

On spatial audio...
Supported movies and tv shows

Wouldn’t be surprised if that meant iTunes and Apple TV+ only, no third party app support.

Eh, I’m gonna guess that it’s based on the format of the audio itself. Possibly only works with Dolby Atmos.

 

[cmaier]

Any speculation on what was wrong with the old time picker UI and why they felt the need to change it?

The old one feels more intuitive and easier to use.

Hated the old one. Constantly spinning wheels when it would be much faster to type 1100.

 

[Moonjumper]

- Time Picker Design - The time picker interface, available in the Clock app when setting an alarm and other places in iOS, has seen a slight design tweak that adds an orange box around the time to make it more obvious that it can be interacted with to change the time.

Little things like this are nice improvements. Here is another Clock app change that would be small, but a great improvement: Allow the Bedtime tones to be used in Alarm. The Bedtime tones are much nicer to wake up to (all the Alarm tones are too harsh, good for those who need it, but not for those of us more easily awoken), but it also means an alert tone at bedtime, and only one Bedtime alert can be set. All the audio files are already there, so it shouldn't mean a bigger app.

 

[Anson_431]

Any speculation on what was wrong with the old time picker UI and why they felt the need to change it?

The old one feels more intuitive and easier to use.

Damn, that's exactly how I felt when they changed it in the first beta. I was literally cursing when I intuitively attempted to scroll to the time I want while I was setting up my alarm clock in the early builds of the iOS 14 beta........

Thank goodness they added back the scrolling option in beta 3 though.

But yeah I totally agree with what you said.

 

[Babygotfont]

I'm still missing the App search feature from PULL DOWN then type in the app name ... only Siri, websearch, news, etc. populating ... no Apps being listed to launch ...

the last print screen is the APP LIBRARY search (which works) ...

 

[neoelectronaut]

That spatial audio function sounds really weird. Why would I want the sound to appear like it's coming from my phone instead of playing directly into my skull as usual?