iOS 14.4 RC is Out! - What's New?

 Hi, everyone. Aaron here for Zollotech and today Apple released iOS 14.4 RC to developers, and soon to public beta testers. At least at the time of recording this video, the public beta is not out, but I would expect it pretty soon. Now this particular update and RC means that it’s the release candidate or GM, which Apple used to call it release candidate is the replacement for that name, expect it to come out very soon to the public, but they release it to developers in public beta testers. First. Now this came in at a very large 4.4, four gigabytes on my iPhone, 12 pro max. And you can expect it to be about that size on any device you’re using. I saw it as low as 3.7 gigabytes all the way up to five gigabytes depending on the device. So anytime you’re going from a beta to a public version, which this probably is, it’s going to be a very large update. So, let’s go ahead and take a look at the build number and then talk about what’s new now, along with iOS 14.4 RC, which I have on my iPhone,12 pro max, the iPhone 6S plus, and the iPhone 11 Apple also released iPad OS 14.4 RC, which I have on the 12.9-inch iPad pro from 2020.Along with that, they released watch OS 7.3 RC and tv OS14.4 RC. So, Apple is getting ready to release all of those to the public very soon. And if you’re a developer they’re available now, now let’s take a look at the build number. So, we’ll go to settings, then we’ll go to general than about, and the build number is 18 D five two. And this particular update does include a couple new features as well as some bug fixes as well. And the first thing they’ve updated is the modem. So, if you’re on iOS 14.4, beta one or beta two, or you’re coming from iOS 14.3, you’ll have a modem update, which hopefully will fix issues with switching between 5g and 4g and maybe just data in general, on your iPhone, 12 pro max or whatever you’re using. So, they have updated the modem. The first feature though, Apple has said that they’ve included has to do with QR codes. Apple says that the camera can now recognize smaller QR codes. So, if we open a QR code, you can scan using your camera and you’ll see it says open apple.com in Safari, we can tap on it. It will open apple.com. So, it will recognize smaller QR codes now, and that’s something they’ve added. Now, the next thing they’ve updated will really make a lot of people happy. I mentioned this in the betas, but basically if you’re having issues with your headphones adjusting volume too often, and you have it where maybe you’re on a phone call or maybe you’re in the car and the volume goes up and down, Apple is added the ability to better understand what device you’re connected to so that it won’t do that. So, if we go under settings and then we go down to sound in haptics, if you have headphones, safety turned on, or maybe depending on your country, you don’t have the option to turn it off. You can now classify the connected devices in Bluetooth. So, if you go back to settings and then Bluetooth, and then maybe I select my car here, we’ll tap on this. We can now classify what it is under device type. So, we can select car stereo, headphone hearing aid, speaker, or other. So, it will better help understand it. You’ll see at the bottom, it says specifying, the type of device can ensure your headphone audio level, level measurements are accurate. So, I’m glad they’ve added this. This should help a lot of people. Now, something they’ve added that they actually called out specifically, which is kind of interesting, has to do with cameras. And it’s specific to the iPhone 12 mini the iPhone 12 iPhone 12 pro and iPhone12 pro max. And that is a notification to let you know when your iPhone is unable to be verified as using a new, genuine Apple camera in those devices. So maybe you had to swap the camera. They had a problem. It will now let you know that it’s not genuine. I’m not sure why they’re doing this. We did have this with the batteries and they’re still replacing batteries under warranty, even if they’re not genuine, or at least they were for some time anyway, but under the camera now we’ll know whether or not the module is accurate. Maybe that has to do with someone putting in different modules in maybe refurbished iPhones, but that’s something they’ve updated. Now, something that’s in this update that Apple did not call out specifically has to do with exposure notifications. So if you have an app installed that uses exposure notifications and you have an enabled, there’s actually a new option. So, if you go into your settings under exposure notifications, you go to whatever app you have installed. Tap on that, then tap on it again. You’ll see it has the option for automatically notifying others. And it says your public health authority can ask you for a one-time access to your random IDs. If you’re diagnosed, or if you’re diagnosed positively, it allows you to notify others that you may have been exposed. So, it’s a new option. That’s in here. You have to have an app installed that enables this and you have to have it enabled itself. So, you can’t just have it work on its own. You won’t have the option. You’ll have to have one of those apps installed that uses it. Now, the other thing Apple’s updated is with the home pods with home pod mini, for example, when you bring it close, you can make the song jump from your phone to the home pod. Now the home pods will have to have iOS 14.4 on them, whether that be the beta or not, you just bring your phone close to it, and then it will jump. 

You can see the light lights up and it seems to work intermittently the home pods are actually updating still they’re taking a long time, but these are on the beta expected to release to the public with 14.4 with iOS. But basically, what it does is it gives Handoff music with visual audible and haptic feedback. And then also you can get personalized listening suggestions on iPhone when it’s next to the home pod mini and then also media controls will automatically appear even if your phone is on the lock screen. So, and close to the home pod mini. So, you’ll see it sort of works intermittently. It works there for a second. It’s probably updating. And if I go to the home app, you’ll see, it says update downloading, but those are new changes. It works really well. You don’t have to tap the home pods anymore. You just get close to it and then you’ll see, let’s try it one more time, bring it close. And it’s fairly sensitive. You bring it away. It goes away. It’s using the U1 chip. So, as I bring it closer, it vibrates more, bring it further away and it goes away. So that’s a new feature updated with new visuals and it’s really great to use. And I can’t wait until everyone gets to try it. As long as you have a, you want equipped iPhone, you’ll have that feature. Now they’ve resolved a bunch of issues in this update as well. And the first one has to do with image artifacts that could appear in HDR photos when you’re using an iPhone 12 pro. Now the interesting thing here is they didn’t mention 12,12 mini or 12 pro maxes, just the 12 pro. So, if I take a photo here and maybe you had some artifacts in there, it didn’t look clear. That should be resolved in HDR photos. I’m the 12 pros only, I suppose, but if you were having that issue, hopefully it’s resolved. Now, the next thing has to do with the fitness widget. If you’re using fitness to track your activity, it was not updating properly for some people with the activity data. So that’s been resolved. It should show the correct data at least fairly often, and it will update like it should. The next thing I think is probably what most people were looking most forward to that they finally acknowledged and resolved, and that has to do with typing being delayed. So maybe you’re typing hello, and it wouldn’t show up properly. It would take a moment whether that be in notes or messages. Also, they fixed it where it shows the suggestions here below as well. So that should be resolved. It should be speedy and fast and I’ll type, how are you today? And you’ll see, it keeps up nicely. There’s no lag there. They also resolved one other issue with the keyboard where it may come up in the incorrect language in messages. So, if you were having that issue, I hadn’t seen that myself and no one had actually mentioned it, but that’s been resolved as well. So, if you’re using the news app in your car and you’re using audio in that, maybe you’re listening to news. Plus, with audio, if you’re using CarPlay, it may not resume properly after being paused. When you’re using Siri or spoken directions, now it will actually work properly. So, they’ve acknowledged that issue in CarPlay, it should fix it. And the final thing they’ve fixed, or at least that they’ve mentioned that they’ve fixed is they’ve fixed it where you would enable switch control under accessibility. So, switch control here. Maybe you’re using that for different accessories, but if you had this enabled, you may be unable to actually answer a call on the lock screen that has since been fixed. So that should be resolved. Now they have not mentioned anything else that is resolved in this particular update. So that made me wonder, have they fixed the green tint issue that people are having on their iPhone 12series phones? And from what I can tell the answer is no. And so again, my friend, jury on Twitter sent this in and you can see the green here in the display he’s showing. So, we go through the message he sent, you can see the green tint. Let me pause it here. You can see the green tint on the display. It hasn’t been resolved. It’s hard to see, but it’s still there. And Apple has acknowledged that they’re actually working on this, but they haven’t said when it’s going to be fixed, it was a problem with the iPhone series phones with the 11 pros in the 11 ProMax. And they fixed it with an update. So, I would expect the same with the 12 series, but sometimes those issues can take a while to resolve now with iPad, OS14.4, it has similar fixes with the QR code or options rather with QR codes and Bluetooth device types. But it only has a couple of fixes and that has to do with the keyboard issues that I mentioned already. So those should be fixed. And here I had some issues with the magic track pad and the magic keyboard or the magic keyboard, rather with the track pad where it just wouldn’t allow me to type sometimes that has been resolved. I think, in this as well, it will take time to know because that sort of shows up randomly, but so far, it seems like it’s good. Now, as far as any other fixes, while there’s security updates, but Apple has not specified yet what they’ve actually updated. So, there should be a bunch of security updates in this as well, which is always welcome. 

Now, as far as battery life battery, life will take a few days to know what it’s like. I’ve been using the beta on my phone full time, but if we go to my battery, you’ll see my battery health is at 100% on my iPhone, 12 pro max. And if we check out the last 10 days, you can see here’s my battery from today or yesterday, yesterday I had two hours and 17 minutes of screen on time at three hours and 20minutes of screen off time and only used about 25% of my battery. This is much better than it was with previous betas or even iOS 14.3for me. So, I’m getting about eight to 10 hours of screen on time. If we multiply this, if you look at different days, it varies greatly, but it seems like it’s getting better for me. However, it will take a few days to know hopefully batteries much better for most people that were having issues with 14.3. So, when this comes out to the public, it should be much better. Now when it comes to performance on the newer phones is generally good overall, but performance on the iPhone six S plus seems to be pretty good in general. So, I went into music, you’ll see there’s a little bit of stuttering, but it feels just as fast as say beta two was compared to this release candidate. So, scrolling is nice and smooth and settings scrolling between different screens is smooth, except for that one little Junky part there you may have just seen. So, it’s not going to be super-fast compared to when the success plus was first released, but it seems to be okay, at least based on performance here, performance on the iPhone 11 that I have here and also the geek bench scores, which we’ll take a look at in just a moment. So, it seems to be nice and smooth in general, especially on the 11. So, in general, it seems to be nice. We’ll open music for the first time on here and you see seems to be plenty fast. Now let’s go ahead and take a look at the geek bench scores. And then we’ll talk about when to expect iOS 14.4 to be released and whether or not you should install it. So, we’ll go into geek bench here and you’ll see the single core scored on my iPhone. 12 pro maxes were 1,594. Multi-core was 4,133. If we take a look at the history last time on January 13th, we had slightly higher single core scores and multi-core scores. Now keep in mind. I ran this right after installing it. The phone was still a little bit warm processing, some background tasks, and generally that close to the previous benchmarks. It should be plenty fast. Normally when there’s a huge variance, that’s where there’s a problem. So, on the left, I have my iPad pro 12.9 from 2020, then the iPhone six S plus the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 pro max. This should give you a general baseline is what to expect with your devices. Now, as far as when to expect iOS 14.4, releasing to the public, it could be as soon as tomorrow, but generally we want to give a few days between that and I would expect it early next week up to maybe Wednesday at the latest based on what Apple has done in the past. So, 14.4 seems ready to go, unless Apple finds a major problem with it, then there’ll be a 14.4 release candidate too, but they haven’t done that very often in the past. Generally, this will be the final version released to the public. And you just have it early. If you’re a developer public beta tester. Now, whether or not you should install this well, I would definitely say if you’re a beta tester, install it, you’re going to need to anyway. And then if you’re coming from 14.3, just wait for the final release to come out, make sure there’s no bugs in between, and there’s not another release candidate. So definitely update the feedback app disappears. And you want to make sure that you’re reporting feedback. If you want to continue to be a beta tester. And if you do want to continue being a beta tester, don’t delete the profile just yet as you’ll probably want the next update. If you don’t want to continue being a beta pro or beta tester, delete the profile and you won’t get any more beta updates, you’ll just get the final version when it comes out. If it’s different, if it is not different than you just have it early, like I said, so that’s it for iOS 14.4 RC or release candidate? Of course, we could see another one like they did with iOS 14.3, but it’s pretty unlikely given Apple’s track record with these sorts of things. So of course, I’ll have an update this weekend about whether or not it’s good and maybe it needs another update, but I would expect it to release to the public this coming week. Like I said before. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next time.

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