New Apple iOS beta launched – The big changes
Apple has released the beta 4 version of its iOS 14.5 update, bringing a number of new features and bug fixes.
This version of iOS 14.5 is available for developers and public beta users. It includes minor improvements to various native applications and includes optimisations for the general iOS platform.
One of the biggest changes includes the ability to unlock your iPhone using just an Apple Watch, although face or passcode authentication is still necessary for Apple Pay authentication.
The update also introduces changes to Apple Maps and Find My App.
Improvements in Find My App mean that more devices are now supported, including Apple’s AirTag tracker devices.
Apple Maps is also getting some major changes, such as the ability to report traffic incidents, similar to the functionality offered by Waze.
This allows Apple Maps users to report speed cameras, driving hazards, accidents, and other incidents which are confirmed by and then made visible to other users.
The full list of bug fixes and other changes in the latest iOS beta update is available on the Apple Developer website.
MacOS app updates
In addition to continuing development on its mobile operating systems, Apple is also accelerating the migration of macOS applications to run natively on its new M1 chipsets.
These chips have a new architecture that requires developers to overhaul their applications to remain compatible, although this transition has been relatively smooth due to Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulator.
Migration to native processing has been quick, however, with Adobe recently announcing that its PhotoShop software now runs natively on M1 silicon.
A number of features remain unavailable in this configuration for now, meaning that if users want to use the Invite to Edit or Synced Preset features in PhotoShop they will need to revert to the emulated version.
Performance on the M1-native version of Photoshop is reportedly 50% faster than on previous devices.
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