MacRumors

Apple today released iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6 to the public. The iOS 14.6 update isn't quite as significant as the iOS 14.5 update that preceded it, but it still introduces a number of notable new features. We've highlighted everything that's new in iOS and iPadOS 14.6 below.

Apple Music Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio Support

Apple in May introduced two new Apple Music features, which ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers are getting for no additional cost. ‌Apple Music‌ Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos will offer up an immersive, multi-dimensional audio experience that lets artists mix music in a way that makes it sound like the notes are coming from all around you.

Apple is also upgrading its entire music catalog to Lossless Audio, which preserves the details in the original audio file so ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers can hear songs exactly as artists recorded them in the studio.

Neither of these two features are launching with iOS 14.6 and Apple plans to enable them in June through a server-side update, but iOS 14.6 does lay the groundwork.

More about these new features can be found in our Apple Music guide and our dedicated Apple Music Lossless guide.

Apple Card Family

Announced in April, Apple Card Family is designed to allow an Apple card to be shared among family members. Two adults in a family can share a single ‌Apple Card‌ account, with each person serving as a co-owner to build credit.

‌Apple Card‌ Family also lets parents share an ‌Apple Card‌ with their children for making purchases, with optional spending limits and parental controls to help children learn smart financial habits. All spending by the family is tracked with a single monthly bill.

Up to five people can be added to an ‌Apple Card‌ account for sharing purposes, with sharing handled through the Wallet app. All users must be part of the same Family Sharing Group, and be 13 years of age or older.

Co-owners must be 18 years or older, and will have a combined spending limit and the ability to see each other's spending. Existing ‌Apple Card‌ customers will be able to merge their ‌Apple Card‌ accounts if they have two cards, resulting in a higher shared credit limit with the lower APR of the two accounts, but this feature won't be available until July. Adding new family members or adding a co-owner to an ‌Apple Card‌ can be done through the Wallet app, and Apple has provided tutorials.

Apple Podcasts Subscription Support

iOS 14.6 introduces support for subscriptions in the Apple Podcasts app, allowing podcast creators to collect subscription fees from their listeners.

Subscriptions can unlock additional content, with NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Sony Music Entertainment, Wondery, and more planning to introduce premium content. Podcast subscriptions are available in more than 170 countries.

AirTag and Find My

In the Find My app, if you put an AirTag or a ‌Find My‌ accessory into Lost Mode, you can now add an email address for contact purposes. Prior to iOS 14.6, the only option was to enter a phone number.

AirTags will also now show a partially masked phone number of an owner when tapped with an NFC-compatible device.

Voice Control

iPhone users with the Voice Control accessibility option enabled can unlock their iPhones for the first time after a restart using only their voice after installing iOS 14.6.

Bug Fixes

There are a number of bug fixes that are included in iOS 14.6, with Apple fixing issues that include the Apple Watch not working to unlock the ‌iPhone‌, disconnecting Bluetooth devices, and performance issues during startup. A full list of bug fixes is below:

• Unlock with Apple Watch may not work after using Lock ‌‌iPhone‌‌ on Apple Watch
• Reminders may appear as blank lines
• Call blocking extensions may not appear in Settings
• Bluetooth devices could sometimes disconnect or send audio to a different device during an active call
• ‌‌iPhone‌‌ may experience reduced performance during startup

Guide Feedback

Know of a feature that we left out? Send us an email here.

Apple alongside the second-generation Apple TV 4K debuted a redesigned version of the Siri Remote, which is now available to customers with new ‌Apple TV‌ orders and as a $60 standalone replacement for the original ‌Siri‌ Remote.

We picked up the updated ‌Siri‌ Remote to see if it's worth picking up if you have an original ‌Apple TV‌ 4K or HD and are tired of the first iteration of the remote, which has several shortcomings.

Apple entirely overhauled the ‌Siri‌ Remote's design. It has an all-aluminum body that does away with the touchpad interface, instead adopting a touch-based clickpad and several additional buttons for control purposes.

The new remote is thicker than the prior version, and Apple has used that thickness change as an explanation for why the ‌Siri‌ Remote 2 doesn't need Find My. It's bigger, thicker, and shouldn't get as easily lost in couch cushions, though whether that's true remains to be seen and will vary from household to household.

Along with no ‌Find My‌, the new remote does not feature a gyroscope or an accelerometer, so you can't play games with it. Apple now recommends gaming controllers for playing games rather than the standard remote.

The clickpad that Apple added can be used like a standard directional button, and you can also swipe around if you want, but you don't have to. It's much more versatile than the prior touch interface, and it's useful to be able to scroll/scrub through content using a circular swipe gesture.

The buttons are tactile and satisfying to press, and Apple has added dedicated mute and power buttons along with the standard buttons for play/pause, volume control, and more. ‌Siri‌ can be activated through a side button.

Like the prior ‌Siri‌ Remote, you can charge this one using Lightning, and other than the physical changes, it operates the same as the original remote so it should be intuitive for most ‌Apple TV‌ users. If you're fed up with the original ‌Siri‌ Remote, the updated version has the potential to be a good alternative if you don't mind the selling price. Get a new ‌Siri‌ Remote? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Following its announcement last month, Apple today officially flipped the switch to allow parents to share their Apple Card with their teenagers or friends and the ability for spouses to co-own a single ‌Apple Card‌ account. However, one notable feature that didn't get released today is the ability for two separate ‌Apple Card‌ accounts to be merged into one.

Apple announced the feature last month but didn't specifically pin a release date. Now, in a new support document, Apple says that starting later on in July, users will be able to merge two existing ‌Apple Card‌ accounts into one, and in doing so, be able to combine their credit limits.

Coming July 2021: You will be able to invite another Apple Card owner to combine credit limits and form one co-owned account.1

The ability to share an ‌Apple Card‌ with iCloud Family members above 13 years old and the ability to co-own an ‌Apple Card‌ were released today as part of the iOS 14.6 update.

Apple today released iOS 14.6, with it bringing support for Apple Podcasts subscriptions and new support for Apple Card Family. Announced last month, ‌Apple Card‌ Family allows families to share a single ‌Apple Card‌ with users above 13 years old with the ability to set a spending limit.

Following its release, Apple has shared two how-to videos on how exactly to share an Apple Card with your teenager or friend and how to co-own a single Apple Card with your significant other. The process for sharing an ‌Apple Card‌ with a friend or teenager is enabled within the Wallet app on iOS 14.6 or later and requires that you be in an iCloud Family with the person you wish to share the card with.

Last month, Apple also announced the ability for couples to co-own a single ‌Apple Card‌, allowing them to build their credit score together. The process is similar to sharing an ‌Apple Card‌ with your teenager or friend but requires you to share your spouse's annual income.

‌Apple Card‌ Family is available today with the iOS 14.6 update.

Apple today released iOS and iPadOS 14.6, marking the sixth major updates to the iOS and iPadOS operating systems that initially came out in September 2020. iOS 14.6 comes one month after the launch of iOS 14.5, an update that added Apple Watch iPhone unlocking, Apple Maps accident crowdsourcing, and tons more.

The iOS and iPadOS 14.5 updates can be downloaded for free and the software is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the new software, go to Settings > General > Software Update.

iOS 14.6 introduces support for several previously announced features. It lays the groundwork for the Apple Music Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio functionality, but these new ‌Apple Music‌ capabilities aren't expected to launch until June.

The update also adds support for Apple Card Family for sharing Apple Cards, it introduces new Podcast subscription options, and it adds new AirTags capabilities, in addition to addressing several bugs.

Apple's full release notes for the update are below:

Apple Card Family
- Apple Card can be shared with up to five people, including anyone 13 years or older in your Family Sharing group
- Apple Card Family adds support for families to track expenses, manage spending with optional limits and controls, and build credit together

Podcasts
- Subscription support for channels and individual shows

AirTag and Find My
- Lost mode option to add an email address instead of a phone number for AirTag and Find My network accessories
- AirTag will show the partially masked phone number of the owner when tapped with an NFC-capable device

Accessibility
- Voice Control users can unlock their iPhone for the first time after a restart using only their voice

This release also fixes the following issues:
- Unlock with Apple Watch may not work after using Lock iPhone on Apple Watch
- Reminders may appear as blank lines
- Call blocking extensions may not appear in Settings
- Bluetooth devices could sometimes disconnect or send audio to a different device during an active call
- iPhone may experience reduced performance during startup

Major development on iOS 14 will be coming to an end in the near future as Apple prepares to transition to iOS 15, an update that will be unveiled on June 7.

Apple today released macOS Big Sur 11.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Big Sur operating system that launched in November 2020. macOS Big Sur comes one month after the release of macOS Big Sur 11.3, an update that added M1 optimizations, AirTag integration, and more.

The new ‌‌‌‌macOS Big Sur‌‌‌ 11.4 update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Preferences.

macOS Big Sur 11.4 lays the groundwork for two upcoming Apple Music features: Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio, both of which will be available on the Mac.

It also adds support for Apple Podcasts subscriptions, and fixes a number of bugs, as outlined in Apple's release notes.

macOS Big Sur 11.4 adds Apple Podcasts subscriptions and channels and includes important bug fixes.

Podcasts
- Apple Podcasts subscriptions are available for purchase via monthly and annual subscriptions
- Channels group together collections of shows from podcast creators

This release also fixes the following issues:
- Bookmarks in Safari may get reordered or moved into a folder that can appear hidden
- Certain websites may not display correctly after your Mac wakes from sleep
- Keywords may not be included when exporting a photo from the Photos app
- Preview may become unresponsive when searching PDF documents
- 16-inch MacBook may become unresponsive when playing Civilization VI

For more detailed information about this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211896
For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Apple's attention will soon be focused on the next-generation version of macOS, macOS 12, which is expected to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off on June 7.

Apple today released watchOS 7.5, the fifth major update to the watchOS 7 operating system that was released in September 2020. watchOS 7.5 comes one month after the release of watchOS 7.4, an update that added Apple Watch iPhone unlocking and other features.

‌‌The watchOS 7.5 update‌‌ can be downloaded for free through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the ‌iPhone‌ by going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it needs to be placed on a charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌.

watchOS 7.5 introduces support for Apple Card Family and subscription content in the Podcasts app. In Malaysia and Peru, it enables the ECG app and irregular heart rate rhythm notifications.

The update also includes support for the new Pride faces that are designed to accompany the 2021 Pride bands that Apple released today. There are two new "Pride Woven" faces to choose from in an animated rectangle or circle design.

Apple today released tvOS 14.6, the sixth update to the tvOS 14 operating system that was released in September 2020. tvOS 14.6 comes a month after the release of tvOS 14.5, an update that added a new Color Balance feature and support for the latest gaming controllers.

tvOS 14.6, which is a free update, can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the Apple TV by going to System > Software Update. ‌‌Apple TV‌‌ owners who have automatic software updates enabled will be upgraded to tvOS 14.5 automatically.

tvOS updates are often minor in scale, focusing primarily on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than outward-facing changes. tvOS 14.6 lays the groundwork for the new Apple Music Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio features.

Spatial Audio offers an immersive audio experience that makes it sound like music is coming from all around you, while Lossless Audio will provide higher-quality songs that sound exactly like they do when artists record them in the studio.

At launch in June, thousands of tracks will feature Spatial Audio support, and more than 20,000 songs will support Lossless Audio. By the end of the year, 75 million songs will support it.

This past November, the Apple TV app made its debut on Xbox gaming consoles, now, the Apple TV app is gaining support for Dolby Vision on Xbox, offering viewers improved high dynamic range paired with Dolby Atmos for a truly cinematic experience.

Xbox says that to enable Dolby Vision for ‌Apple TV‌ on Xbox, users must first have a compatible TV that supports high dynamic range. With compatible TVs, users will find a new toggle under "TV & display options" in their Xbox settings tab to enable Dolby Vision. Additionally, not all ‌Apple TV‌ content will initially support Dolby Vision.

To start experiencing it with a Dolby Vision compatible TV, you need to have “Allow Dolby Vision” enabled and checked in Settings > General > TV & display options > Video Modes on your console. You can also confirm if content is available in Dolby Vision by looking for the Dolby Vision logo at the bottom of the Movie / Show’s description page in the Apple TV app or during playback by pressing the B button on your controller.

The ‌Apple TV‌ app, which previously only lived on Apple devices, has gradually been making its way to other devices such as the PS4, and select smart TVs. This is part of Apple's recent strategy to expand its services business to more customers.

Apple today officially announced the lineup for its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which will kick off with the traditional keynote at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, June 7.

The keynote will be streamed directly from Apple Park. Developers and Apple users will be able to watch on Apple.com, the Apple Developer app, the Apple Developer website, the Apple TV app, and YouTube. The remainder of WWDC will include the usual Platforms State of the Union following the keynote, as well as the Apple Design Awards on June 10 and an array of other sessions throughout the week.

WWDC will feature over 200 sessions and labs, with over 1,000 Apple experts on hand for consultation with developers.

Apple is also launching a new Pavilions features for WWDC 2021, which will make it easy for developers to plan and organize their conference experience around topics like SwiftUI, Developer Tools, Accessibility & Inclusion, and more.

Anker today is introducing a new set of gallium nitride (GaN) USB-C chargers that offer fast charging speeds for mobile devices in a design that's smaller than ever. The new Nano II line is available in 30W, 45W, and 65W versions, and Anker says it has improved the chips and internal layout of its chargers to deliver greater efficiency while generating less heat.

The 30-watt charger measures in at just 31.5 mm by 30.4 mm and about 38 mm deep. (The UK versions of all three chargers are about 1.5 mm deeper due to their prong design.) It can fast-charge an iPhone or iPad, and even fully support the latest MacBook Air.

The 45-watt version offers a bit more power to be able to charge a wider variety of notebooks and other gadgets, and it measures 37.7 mm by 35 mm by about 41 mm. It also features foldable prongs to make it less likely to be damaged or to damage other items when tossed in together.

The 65-watt version can fully power devices all the way up to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it too features foldable prongs. The charger measures 41.7 mm by 36 mm by about 44 mm.

All three chargers are available for preorder on Amazon and Anker.com for US customers, priced at $29.99, $35.99, and $39.99 respectively. Versions for UK and EU customers will be available at a later date.

Some users are noticing more blooming on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's Liquid Retina XDR mini-LED display than expected, despite Apple's claims that the effect is minimized.

According to recently published Apple Support documents, the ‌iPad Pro‌'s Liquid Retina XDR display is designed to improve on "the trade-offs of typical local dimming systems, where the extreme brightness of LEDs might cause a slight blooming effect," suggesting that the effect should be minimized.

The Liquid Retina XDR display improves upon the trade-offs of typical local dimming systems, where the extreme brightness of LEDs might cause a slight blooming effect because the LED zones are larger than the LCD pixel size. This display is designed to deliver crisp front-of-screen performance with its incredibly small custom mini-LED design, industry leading mini-LED density, large number of individually controlled local dimming zones, and custom optical films that shape the light while maintaining image fidelity and extreme brightness and contrast.

In spite of this, some ‌iPad Pro‌ owners are noticing more blooming than expected and highlighting their experience on social media.

Thanks to the adoption of mini-LED display technology, the ‌iPad Pro‌ features 2,500 local dimming zones. Local dimming allows some areas of an LED screen to dim almost off for darker, truer blacks, while preserving the bright parts of the screen. The technology can increase the contrast ratio of images significantly and enable the intense highlights of HDR content.

On a display with local dimming, if a zone is lit up and an adjacent zone is not, there may be an artifact toward the part of the screen that becomes brighter than its neighboring zone called "blooming."

OLED displays, such as those used on the iPhone 12 lineup, do not need local dimming since they are able to turn off individual pixels to achieve true blacks, all with no blooming effect. Local dimming can be a way to get near-OLED levels of picture quality, but it struggles to achieve the same level of contrast.

Blooming on the new 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌ is therefore to be expected to some extent, but users seem to be divided about how bad the effect actually is.

Some MacRumors Editors experienced blooming with the 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌'s XDR display, but others found that blooming was not noticeable at all.

Where blooming is visible, especially on HDR content with isolated bright shapes on a black background, it is most prominent on the ‌iPad Pro‌ when viewing the display from an off-axis angle and in a darkened environment. That being said, MacRumors Editors believe that the effect of blooming on the ‌iPad Pro‌ looks less severe in person than it does in images, likely due to exposure and image processing.

Although mini-LED display technology is expected to come to new MacBook Pro models later this year, other rumors suggest that the company is looking to use OLED displays for iPad and MacBook devices from 2022.

Apple has filed the unreleased "Beats Studio Buds" in the FCC or Federal Communications Commission database under model numbers A2512 and A2513. The new filings come after the reveal of the new earbuds last week within the release candidates for iOS and tvOS 14.6.

The new earbuds feature a smaller design with no stem, much in line with what we're expecting to be a similar design language for the second-generation AirPods Pro. In addition, according to code found within the latest iOS release candidate, the new Beats Studio Buds will feature Active Noise Cancellation, currently a feature exclusive to Apple's AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.

Today's new FCC filings reveal nothing new about the design or the feature set of the upcoming earbuds; however, its filing indicates that a release should be imminent.

Apple's second-generation redesigned Siri Remote features a touch-sensitive clickpad that can be used to navigate menus as well as fast-forward and rewind video.

When you first start using the ‌Siri‌ Remote, touch surface tracking is on by default, but if you can't get on with the sensitivity or you're just not comfortable using touch controls on a remote, you can always customize it or turn it off.

Change Siri Remote Clickpad Functionality

1. Launch the Settings app on your Apple TV.
2. Select Remotes and Devices.
3. Select ClickPad.
4. Select Click and Touch to allow both clicking and touch surface tracking, or Click Only to turn off touch surface tracking.

Change Siri Remote Tracking Sensitivity

1. Launch the Settings app on your ‌Apple TV‌.
2. Select Remotes and Devices.
3. Select Touch Surface Tracking.
4. Select Fast to make smaller thumb movements move farther on the ‌Apple TV‌ screen, or Slow to reduce tracking sensitivity.

If you're having trouble scrubbing through video when playback is paused, check our mini guide to make sure you're using the correct clickpad gesture.

Apple is intensely researching all aspects of car engineering and manufacturing, but there are growing questions around what form Apple's vehicle project may take, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Peter Fintl, the director of technology and innovation for Capgemini Engineering Germany, explained that Apple's movement in vehicle supply chains is noticeable.

We have seen enough echoes in the supply chain that we know Apple is really looking into every detail of car engineering and car manufacturing. But nobody knows if what Apple creates will be a car or a tech platform or a mobility service.

The report suggests that Apple's car project may not actually culminate in a consumer-purchasable complete vehicle. Instead, Apple may be looking to leverage its software and chip design expertise to create a kind of next-generation vehicle platform for other manufacturers to use.

That being said, this option conflicts with Apple's general desire to vertically integrate the full stack "whenever possible" and "control every aspect of the user experience." Even so, according to the ‌Wall Street Journal‌, there is "no clear indication" that Apple intends to use its philosophy of vertical integration for its vehicle project.

If Tesla is the model here, it's unclear why Apple's executives would want to endure the tortuous process of building the manufacturing, testing and service capacities this path would require.

If making a vehicle platform is unlikely to fit in with the company's ethos or objectives, and making an entire car is impractical and likely to be subject to fierce competition, the other option that the report suggests is an Apple mobility company, such as a self-driving taxi service.

Johannes Deichmann, a partner at management consulting firm McKinsey whose expertise is software and electronics in automobiles, suggested:

Apple and others could design and commission vehicles that bear their branding, and operate as part of a service they provide, with no trace of the actual manufacturer on them.

Such a service would allow Apple to capture market share while the robot-taxi service industry is still in its infancy, and compete with the likes of GM's Cruise and Amazon's Zoox.

While it is highly speculative, the report indicates that Apple's vehicle project has not yet penetrated the supply chain deeply enough to reveal the nature of the car itself, and concludes with the comment that "it's quite possible that Apple will end up spending billions on attempts to develop an electric car without ever releasing a product."

Verizon today announced that customers with unlimited, "Play More," or "Get More" plans will receive up to a year of Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass for free.

Starting May 25, new and existing Verizon customers will be eligible to get six months of ‌Apple Arcade‌ or Google Play Pass for free with any unlimited plan, or 12 months of ‌Apple Arcade‌ or Google Play Pass with "Play More" or "Get More" plans. The new perk comes with Verizon's Mix and Match Unlimited, which already includes services such as Apple Music.

‌Apple Arcade‌ is Apple's premium subscription gaming service that lets users download and play included games ad-free and with no added costs. There are now over 180 games in ‌Apple Arcade‌'s library, and a subscription works across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, with many titles working with popular Bluetooth controllers, such as the Xbox Series X controller and the PS5 DualSense controller.

As reported by 9to5Mac, AirTag Hermès is currently unavailable for purchase from Apple or directly from the Hermès website. The reasoning behind the unavailability remains unknown.

Apple's AirTags Hermès line features three separate styles, an ‌AirTag‌ with a Hermès keyring, bag charm, and luggage tag. All styles feature the standard ‌AirTag‌ with a removable backplate but engraved with "Hermès Apple ‌AirTag‌." Each style of ‌AirTag‌ holder is made with high-quality leather and starts at $299 and goes up to $449 for the luggage tag.