Surprise iOS 14.5 Public Beta 4 Signals Public release coming soon

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For the first time in a short time, Apple Beta Program participants got their hands on the iOS beta build on Monday! IOS 14.5 Public Beta 4 was released earlier today.

The build early in the week reveals to me that Apple is looking to roll out the iOS 14.5 beta very soon, probably this week, with a view to a public release for next week. The release is likely to coincide with Apple’s March 23 event next week.

Let’s take a look at what everyone is getting.

What’s new

There is not much that is very new in Public Beta 4 except more tweaks to the Podcasts interface. They are all quality of life features meaning you can access your following podcasts faster and let you discover new ones.

Let’s take a look at these very large list of features that users are getting in iOS 14.5!

  • You can now instruct Siri as to which app you would like to use for specific media such as podcasts and songs. This isn’t the “default apps” feature that we (including myself) missed, but it is a step in the right direction.
  • The Objects tab on the Find My! What’s up? Any Bluetooth trackers you have, as well as anything Apple reveals next week.
  • Emojis! Lots of emojis. 217 of them to be exact.
  • 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 navigation lock, change cell modes, and take screenshots.
  • Now, when you launch an app that collects your activity data or finds you around your iDevice, you have the option to disable that harassment (as you should). Some companies, like Facebook, that have made money on selling activity data that users have unknowingly agreed to share in the legal agreements no one reads never a bit tired. Personally, I fully support it because it allows people who would not have understood what they were agreeing to change their mind.
  • The new Software Update shower screen (with the standard iOS version plus notification of when you last checked for a software update) has been tweaked a bit to remove the green check.
  • Testing on an iPad? IPadOS now has a flat boot screen when your iPad is connected to a Magic Keyboard.
  • For some carriers like T-Mobile, there is only a 5G version (but only use it if you know what you are doing).
  • Dual SIM support is available worldwide with this news. This means you get 5G coverage when it becomes available even if you have both SIMs activated.
  • You can now add the Apple Made “Made for You” mixes to your library in the Music app. The Music app now includes the 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 similar redesign to the Music app. That can be seen on the Search page. Also, clicking on the podcast entry will take you to the podcast details page instead of starting to play right away (there is a smaller dedicated button for that now). Extremely helpful for when trying to find a specific program for a podcast with a long title (I’m looking at you Glass Cannon Network). Each podcast also gets new headers in the library to keep them shining.
  • Fan of Apple News? The News app now has a dedicated search tab.
  • You can finally set a reminder date, creation date, named date, or manual type of your choice in the Reminder app. You can now print memos as well.
  • Do you have a PS5 or XBox Series X? Good luck to you. Now these controllers will work with your iDevice.
  • Good news for you with smart TV! Apple Fitness + now has AirPlay 2 support. You won’t see your Apple Watch live data as you do if you’re connected via Apple TV, but it’s better than no support at all.
  • Map app guides get a great shine in iOS 14.5 with spiffed up images and headers and content that looks much more polished.
  • Type to Siri will no longer pull you out of your current location when called, just as it will when you are not using the type interface. It’s a little bit of consistency.
  • Replying to a message with Siri is the same kind of update, maintaining context wherever you are when called instead of dragging you into a greyed out screen.

What is broken / what is repaired?

There is little new in this week ‘s official press releases. The Homepod handset issue that arose last week has been resolved. By keeping an eye on anything else, you can bet that Cupertino is preparing this news for its launch.

You’re not likely to do that, but report any bugs you find (especially with third-party apps) through the Feedback app.

What now?

Apple will have a major media event next Tuesday, March 23. What will be announced? No one is sure. But the big rumors say that this is the last launch of the rumors, which are sometimes seen in prototype, but they never announced AirTags. That would make sense since we see the “there again, gone again” tag in the Find My app.

Even if AirTags have only been announced and will not be launched at the event, chances are better than average that Apple will launch iOS 14.5 to the public next week. That will give people time to at least start getting used to monitoring their Bluetooth trackers with the Apple app.

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

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

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