Andrew O'Hara
Following another 14-day testing window, Apple has introduced the fifth developer beta of iOS 14. Just as with the previous betas, we break down all the notable changes and features found in the latest update. Read on to see what's new.
Beta five doesn't appear to have any massive changes overall, but in our limited time testing, it does feel much more stable than the notoriously buggy beta four.
Widgets received minor updates, including granular control over location access as you are now prompted when viewing a widget that uses your location to grant access. The News widget also has a much larger size available, though it can only be added to the Today View and not the Home screens.
Exposure Notifications, which were added to iOS 14 in the last beta, can now be turned on in Settings. However, you still need an app that takes advantage of this API to use it.
Change include:
- Users are now asked to grant location access to widgets
- Account view in App Store and iTunes Store shows available credit
- Account view in App Store and iTunes Store shows Game Center ID
- Clock wheel has returned when editing times in the Clock app
- Can enable Exposure Notifications in Settings with new onboarding screens
- New extra-large News widget
- Widgets are blocked for apps that are blocked via Screen Time
- Hidden photo album can be hidden from Photos app with new Settings toggle
- Calendar widget has a lighter background in Dark Mode and text is larger
- Shortcuts has new onboarding screen
- Developer Settings option for testing App Clips
- AirPods Pro phone call bug is fixed
- Photos can be removed from the "Featured Photo" designation in Photos app
As always, this is a non-exhaustive list of the changes we've spotted so far. See any others not on our list? Let us know on Twitter @Andrew_OSU and we'll add them.
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9 Comments
Saw that there is a Magnifier app added to my Homescreen.
Argh. Despite being featured by Apple when introducing iOS 14, adaptive lighting - that automatically adjusts white bulb color temperature is STILL missing from the Betas.
It is STILL not possible to ask Siri to change the color temperature of a Hue White Ambiance bulb. It can be done in the Home app but has no direct support in Siri. It does work with Hue color bulbs, ie “Hey Siri set lights to soft white”. The same phrase used with Hue White Ambiance builds results in a reply of “no lights support this function”v... despite the fact that the function IS supported in the home app. Argh.
Scenes can be used as a workaround, but doing so has limitations and is a PITA.
Most eye-opening thing from the video: Andrew had 6 Stand hours but ZERO Exercise minutes! How is that possible? I usually get a minute or two of Exercise in the first 15 minutes I’m awake just from going up and down stairs or taking the garbage out to the street. ;)