MacRumors

It's been 10 years since the launch of the Apple Store app, and to celebrate, Apple has a little hidden easter egg that you can find if you search for "10 years" in the ‌Apple Store‌ app.

As noted by Michael Steeber, who found the hidden feature, typing in "10 years" sends two blue balloons soaring up from the bottom of the screen.

The balloons will bounce around for a few moments, and if you tap them, you can pop them. Otherwise, if you leave them alone, they'll simply float away.

You can re-summon the balloons by typing in the phrase again. Make sure to use the ‌Apple Store‌ app, where you make Apple device purchases and view orders, to try the trick.

You can download the ‌Apple Store‌ app from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Users on the iOS 14 beta will find that Apple has listed four new Apple Arcade games as "coming soon" in the App Store, as noted by our sister site TouchArcade.

The new listings are available on the "See All Games" list at the bottom of the ‌Apple Arcade‌ tab in the ‌App Store‌ on iOS 14, but are not currently visible on iOS 13 devices. The four upcoming games include:

• Next Stop Nowhere: A "road trip adventure story set in a colorful, cutthroat vision of outer space," the title will be an ‌Apple Arcade‌ exclusive.

• Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time: A single-player action platformer based on the Adult Swim series, the title is also coming to consoles and PCs. It takes place during the show's season finale and involves an alternate timeline where Jack travels through multiple levels on a new quest to eventually defeat his nemesis Aku.

• The Last Campfire: An adventure story about a lost ember trapped in a puzzling place, the new title from Hello Games, creators of No Man's Sky, is also coming to PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One.

• World's End Club: A 2D side-scroller about a dozen 12-year-old oddball kids headed on a 1,200-kilometer journey after they are involved in a bus accident on a class trip and find that "extraordinary powers begin to awaken within them."

All of the new games will be available to ‌‌Apple Arcade‌‌ subscribers on the ‌App Store‌ for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, as well as in the Mac App Store. ‌‌Apple Arcade‌‌ provides ‌‌iPhone‌‌, ‌‌iPad‌‌, ‌‌Apple TV‌‌, and Mac users with access to over 100 games with no in-app purchases or ads for $4.99 per month after a free one-month trial.

Instagram has today officially launched "Reels," a new short-form video service set to rival TikTok, in over 50 countries, including the U.S., India, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the U.K. Reels is part of the Instagram camera of the existing Instagram app.

Instagram says that Reels are "a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos." The service features the ability to record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with music from the Instagram library, AR effects, and various new creative editing tools. Reels can be shared with followers on "Feed", or for public accounts, made available to all users worldwide via a new space in "Explore." Reels' most significant difference from TikTok is supposedly its tie-ins to the overarching Instagram ecosystem.

Last month, it was reported that Instagram was offering significant cash incentives to TikTok creators to persuade them to move to Reels. Incentive payments for some were claimed to be in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars," with the highest payouts for creators who commit to posting their videos exclusively to Reels. The move was a clear indication that Instagram views Reels as a direct competitor to TikTok. In April, YouTube announced "Shorts," a new service that will also replicate the short video format to compete with TikTok.

"I think TikTok deserves a ton of credit for popularizing formats in this space, and it's just great work,” Instagram's product director, Robby Stein, told The Verge. "But at the end of the day, no two products are exactly alike, and ours are not either."

The company's line on similarity with TikTok is similar to the approach taken with "Stories," launched in 2016 as a competitor to Snapchat. Instagram Stories soon had more active daily users than Snapchat itself.

The launch of Reels comes as TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, faces immense scrutiny in the United States, and Microsoft negotiates a purchase of the service.

Apple today quietly released a new version of its 30W USB-C power adapter with the model number MY1W2AM/A. The outward design of the adapter has not changed, so if any tweaks have been made, they are likely internal. The previous model MR2A2LL/A is no longer available for purchase from Apple.

The power adapter remains compatible with any USB‑C–enabled device, with Apple continuing to recommend that it be paired with the 13-inch MacBook Air with a Retina display. The adapter can also be used to fast charge compatible iPhone and iPad Pro models. The new version remains priced at $49 on Apple's online store and ships within a few days.

Apple made a similar move in June 2018, when it quietly replaced its 29W power adapter with the original 30W version that was sold until this week.

Virginia this week became the first U.S. state to release a COVID-19 exposure notification app using Apple's and Google's jointly developed API, as noted by Kyle Carmitchel on Twitter. The app is available now on the App Store.

The COVIDWISE app allows you to be notified if someone you have been near later tests positive for COVID-19, so long as that other person confirms their positive test in the app. The system relies on the exchange of anonymous Bluetooth tokens between devices, with no location data or personal information collected or shared.

iPhone users must be running iOS 13.5 or later in order for exposure notification apps using the Apple/Google API to function, and the opt-in feature must be enabled first in the Settings app. Users who have upgraded to iOS 14 should note that exposure notification apps are only functional as of the fourth developer beta.

A growing list of countries have released apps based on the Apple/Google API, most recently including Canada's COVID Alert.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Microsoft's upcoming "Project xCloud" game streaming service is set to launch on September 15th, exclusively on Android devices. Despite extensive testing via TestFlight on iOS, xCloud's launch on iOS seems to have been postponed indefinitely.

Project xCloud is Microsoft's "vision for game-streaming technology that will complement our console hardware and give gamers more choices in how and where they play." xCloud will be bundled as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for $14.99 per month, with more than 100 games available.

App Store guidelines ban services that rely on streaming games from the cloud. Cloud gaming services, where users stream games live via an internet connection, are growing in popularity.

Although Microsoft has been trialing xCloud on iOS with a closed public preview of 10,000 testers, the company previously stated that testing was limited due to Apple's ‌App Store‌ policies. Unlike the Android version, the app was limited to streaming games from the cloud only, excluding the ability to stream games from an Xbox console.

"To comply with App Store policies, the preview experience on iOS may look and feel different for those who have been testing on Android," Microsoft warned ahead of launching the preview.

Only one title, "Halo: The Master Chief Collection," was available on the TestFlight app. This is because ‌App Store‌ rules state that "games offered in a game subscription must be owned or exclusively licensed by the developer."

"It's our ambition to scale cloud gaming through Xbox Game Pass available on all devices, but we have nothing further to share at this time regarding iOS," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge.

Apple initially rejected Valve's Steam Link app due to "business conflicts," and it took almost a year to eventually be approved. Steam Link and Sony's PS4 Remote Play was approved only because the ‌App Store‌ allows remote desktop technology, but it is limited to devices on the same network.

Similar game streaming services Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now are still unavailable on iOS. A spokesperson for Nvidia, when asked about the challenge of reaching iOS users with GeForce Now, told Bloomberg, "Ask Apple."

The TestFlight preview of xCloud has ended today and will no longer function. This is due to Apple's automatic expiry date on all TestFlight apps, indicating that it has been 90 days since the preview was updated. The future of xCloud on iOS now seems to be uncertain, and it is unknown whether development will continue.

There are a few Mac notebook sales happening this week at Amazon and B&H Photo. These discounts include $100 off the 2020 MacBook Air, with sale prices starting at $899.00 for the 256GB model. You can also get $300 off the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, starting at $2,099.00 for 512GB.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

MacBook Air

Amazon today is discounting Apple's 2020 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 10th gen processor) to $899.00, down from $999.00. This discount represents a match of the lowest price we've ever tracked for this model of the new 13-inch MacBook Air, and it's available in Space Gray.

B&H Photo today is matching this price in the Space Gray and Gold color options for the MacBook Air. The 256GB MacBook Air has typically seen a $50 sale over the past few weeks, so today's $100 markdown is a good opportunity to get the notebook at its current best price.

Additionally, this week both Amazon and B&H Photo are discounting the 512GB 2020 MacBook Air to $1,199.00, from $1,299.00. Across both retailers you can get this version of the notebook in all three colors, and this again represents the lowest price we've ever tracked.

13-Inch MacBook Pro

The newest 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro is on sale for $1,799.00, down from $1,999.00 on Amazon this week. This is the model with a tenth-generation quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Amazon has it on sale in both Space Gray and Silver.

The same sale can also be found on B&H Photo, and that retailer also has it in both Space Gray and Silver. This model of the MacBook Pro has the new Magic Keyboard, which uses a refined scissor mechanism that is expected to be more reliable than the butterfly keyboard that was prone to failure.

16-Inch MacBook Pro

For the higher-end MacBook Pro models, Amazon has Apple's 512GB 16-inch MacBook Pro (2.6GHz 6-Core, 16GB RAM) for $2,099.00, down from $2,399.00.

This $300 off sale is the current lowest price for this model of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and it's available in Silver and Space Gray. You can also find the same sale at B&H Photo, but only in the Space Gray color option.

Likewise, the 1TB model (2.3GHz 8-Core, 16GB RAM) is on sale on Amazon today. You can get this notebook for $2,499.99, down from $2,799.00. Just like the 512GB version, it's available in both Silver and Space Gray, and the same price can be found on B&H Photo.

You can find even more discounts on other MacBooks by visiting our Best Deals guide for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. In this guide we track the steepest discounts for the newest MacBook models every week, so be sure to bookmark it and check back often if you're shopping for a new Apple notebook.

New images shared on Weibo appear to show a circular array of magnets housed inside an "iPhone 12" chassis. The unverified images depict 36 individual magnets in a circular arrangement, suggesting they could be related to mounting or charging.

EverythingApplePro, who shared the Weibo-originating images on Twitter, also posted an image of an alleged iPhone 12 case with a similar array of magnets built in, which he suggests are "likely for perfect alignment with Apple's wireless chargers."

Apple hasn't released any native wireless chargers for ‌iPhone‌. The company canceled its much-anticipated AirPower charging mat last year due to quality concerns. Rumors persist that it continues to work on an AirPower-like charging mat, although faked images have been shared in support of this.

Back in January, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expected Apple to release a small wireless charging mat in the first half of the year, but no such product materialized in that timeframe.

For months ahead of their unveiling, last year's ‌iPhone‌ 11 series was rumored to feature a Qi-based device-to-device charging feature, allowing for an Apple Watch, AirPods, and other accessories to charge on the back of the iPhones. The feature was expected to be similar to Wireless PowerShare on Samsung's Galaxy S10.

According to one leaker, the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series includes the necessary hardware for a two-way charging feature that was widely rumored for the devices, but Apple disabled the feature on the software end. According to Kuo, the feature was abandoned because the charging efficiency did not meet Apple's requirements.

We're expecting Apple to launch four iPhones in three display sizes this year, and a recent rumor has suggested Apple could release the devices in two stages.

Apple yesterday announced a new 27-inch iMac with faster 10th-generation Intel Core processor options, next-generation AMD graphics, and up to a whopping 128GB of RAM.

To max out the RAM at checkout, Apple charges an additional $2,600, which is like buying another whole ‌iMac‌. Fortunately, the memory in the 27-inch ‌iMac‌ is user-replaceable thanks to the easily-accessible memory backdoor slot, and there are far more affordable options available from third parties.

OWC offers 128GB of DDR4 PC4-21300 RAM that's compatible with the 27-inch ‌iMac‌. The total cost on Amazon is $599.99, or $2,000 less than Apple charges its customers. These are the OWC memory upgrade kits available, compared to the prices that you'd pay when purchasing an ‌iMac‌ from Apple:

• 128GB (4 x 32GB DIMMs) – $599 at Amazon ($2,600 at Apple checkout).
• 64GB (4 x 16GB DIMMs) - $269 at Amazon ($1,000 at Apple checkout).
• 32GB (2 x 16GB DIMMs) - $135 at Amazon ($400 at Apple checkout).

Apple provides instructions for users wanting to install memory in an ‌iMac‌. Note that the RAM in the 21.5-inch ‌iMac‌ models, which were not updated yesterday other than a change to the base storage configuration, is not user-accessible.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Rumors suggest an updated MacBook Air could be launching sooner rather than later, and we've already seen certifications for a possible ‌MacBook Air‌ battery recently filed in China and Denmark. Now the same battery has appeared on Safety Korea Certification, along with an image of the battery that strongly suggests it's for a new ‌MacBook Air‌ model (via 91mobiles).

The current ‌MacBook Air‌ has a 49.9Wh battery, which is matched in this new model type (A2389) featuring a 4380mAh capacity. The model number A1965 has been used in the last few ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ generations.

We're still none the wiser about exactly when a new ‌MacBook Air‌ might launch, because regulatory bodies sometimes approve and test new hardware months before a new product comes out. However, several rumors have suggested that the ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ will be one of the first Macs to get an Apple Silicon chip, and the new Arm-based machine could come before the end of 2020.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ will be one of the first Macs to be updated with an ‌Apple Silicon‌ chip, with an update set to come in the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021. DigiTimes also believes the Arm-based ‌MacBook Air‌ will be released in 2020.

Apple has confirmed that it will be transitioning to its own custom ‌Apple Silicon‌ processors, and said we can expect new Arm-based Macs before the end of the year, but it didn't give away which Mac model would be the first Apple Silicon-powered machine.

Apple already updated the ‌MacBook Air‌ in March 2020 with more internal storage, 10th-generation Intel processors, and a more reliable scissor-switch keyboard, but it's not out of the question that a second update could come this year given the swap to ‌‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips.

In addition to performance benefits, ‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips are expected to be much more power efficient than the current Intel chips used in the ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ lineup. That could see the same 49.9Wh battery improve upon the current ‌MacBook Air‌'s 11 hours of battery life when browsing the web and up to 12 hours when using the Apple TV app for watching movies.

For more on what we're expecting for the next ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌, check out our MacBook Air roundup, and for details on Apple's transition to ‌‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips, read our in-depth guide.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of the upcoming macOS Big Sur update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the third beta and over a month after the new update was unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The macOS Big Sur beta can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center and once the appropriate profile is installed, subsequent betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.

macOS Big Sur introduces a refreshed design to the Mac operating system, overhauling the entire look from the curvature of the window corners to the dock icons to the system sounds. Everything feels fresh but familiar, with a lighter and more modern appearance. There's a new customizable Control Center that mirrors the Control Center on iOS devices, putting key system controls right at your fingertips.

The Notification Center has been redesigned with iOS-style widgets that are available in multiple sizes, plus there are more interactive notifications that are now grouped by app to make it easier to see what's going on.

Safari is faster and more battery efficient, plus there's a new start page that can be customized with wallpapers and sections that include Reading List and iCloud Tabs, which makes Safari more tailored to your individual usage needs.

Tabs have been redesigned, there's a built-in language translation feature, and Chrome and Firefox Extensions can be ported to Safari. There's also an option to choose which sites an extension works with for greater privacy. Speaking of privacy, a new Privacy Report feature lets users know the trackers Safari is blocking when you visit websites.

Messages is more similar to the Messages app on iOS with support for pinned conversations, mentions, inline replies, and Memoji creation, plus the built-in search feature has been overhauled to make it easier to find links, photos, and conversations in the app.

Apple redesigned the Maps app to add support for Look Around, indoor maps, and Guides, which are lists of notable attractions, restaurants, and more created by trusted sources. Maps can also be used to generate directions for cycling routes and electric vehicle trips that can be sent to iPhone, and shared ETA updates are now viewable on the Mac.

Photos includes a better Retouch tool, Apple Music's For You section has been replaced with a Listen Now section, HomeKit Secure Video cameras support Face Recognition and Activity zones, and Siri can answer a wider range of questions than before.

As of macOS Big Sur beta 2, Apple Pay support is available for Mac Catalyst apps. Developers will now be able to easily get ‌Apple Pay‌ up and running in Mac Catalyst apps. From the iOS 14 release notes: "‌Apple Pay‌ support is now available to Mac Catalyst apps. Two methods have been added to existing delegate protocols. No changes are required for iPad apps, but one or both of these methods must be implemented when building for Catalyst."

In the future, the macOS Big Sur App Store will help users better understand privacy practices with clear info on the information that an app collects, and after installing macOS Big Sur, you'll see faster updates that begin in the background and then finish more quickly to make it easier to keep your Mac up to date.

Apple in the third beta of macOS Big Sur changed the battery icon for the Battery section in System Preferences, refining the design to make it look more clean and streamlined. There update also brought a new design for the Music app icon (it's red), and some color changes to the buttons and icons inside the music app.

Today's beta adds 4K support for YouTube videos in Safari. For more on everything that's new in macOS Big Sur, make sure to check out our roundup.

Disney's streaming television and movie service Disney+ boasts 57.5 million paid subscribers worldwide as of June 27, up three million from the 54.5 million subscribers it had in May 2020.

By early 2020, Disney+ had already hit 50 million subscribers, marking impressive growth since it launched in November. When Disney+ launched, Disney estimated that it would see 60 to 90 million subscribers worldwide by the end of 2024, but the company is already well on its way to hitting the lower end of that target in 2020.

Disney+ launched right around the same time that Apple introduced Apple TV+, but because Apple does not provide subscriber numbers for the service, there's no direct comparison to make.

Apple has been offering a free year of ‌Apple TV‌+ service to those who purchase a new Apple device and has been doing so since late 2019, so it will still be some time before those free accounts convert into paid subscriptions.

Disney+ has an edge over ‌Apple TV‌+ because Disney has an established catalog of content along with popular Star Wars and Marvel content. ‌Apple TV‌+ has been working to build up new content offerings and has added many TV shows and movies, but it still trails Disney in terms of sheer content.

Most recently, Apple picked up Tom Hanks WWII movie "Greyhound," which reportedly saw large numbers of people watching. The movie allegedly had the largest opening weekend release ever on ‌Apple TV‌+, with a viewing audience commensurate with a summer box office hit.

Across all of its services, including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, Disney said that it has more than 100 million paying subscribers worldwide. Disney today also said that it plans to bring Mulan to Disney+ on September 4, but it will cost an additional $29.99.

Look Around, an Apple Maps feature introduced in iOS 13, has today rolled out in some cities in Japan, allowing for a close-up street-level view of various locations and landmarks. Look Around is available in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya.

The new feature was noticed by Ata Distance, who also says some areas like Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine now feature the ‌Apple Maps‌ 2.0 data with more information.

Apple introduced Look Around with iOS 13, but it has been limited to a handful of cities like Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and more.

Apple is slowly introducing Look Around in more cities, with a list of where Look Around can be found available on Apple's website. Note that Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Osaka have not yet been added to the list.

Update: Justin O'Beirne, who often shares details on updates made in ‌Apple Maps‌, took a look at the new map updates in Japan, which show new detail added to ‌Apple Maps‌ across the country.

The blog post features before and after shots that give a clear picture of how ‌Apple Maps‌ changed, better highlighting parks, trees, landmarks, waterways, walking paths, and more. It's well worth checking out if you want to see the difference.

Apple is teaming up with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to launch a three-year study to understand how sleep, physical activity, heart rate, and daily routine can impact anxiety and depression (via CNBC).

Kicking off this week, the study was co-designed by researchers at UCLA and Apple, and it will utilize the iPhone, Apple Watch, and Beddit sleep tracker that Apple owns and sells. UCLA and Apple hope the study will "revolutionize detection and treatment of depression."

Connecting quantifiable data like heart rate, sleep, and physical activity to anxiety and depression symptoms has the potential to allow health care providers to note warning signs and prevent the onset of depressive episodes, track treatments, and find depression causes. From UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Nelson Freimer, who is the study's principal investigator:

"This collaboration, which harnesses UCLA's deep research expertise and Apple's innovative technology, has the potential to transform behavioral health research and clinical care. Current approaches to treating depression rely almost entirely on the subjective recollections of depression sufferers. This is an important step for obtaining objective and precise measurements that guide both diagnosis and treatment."

"UCLA and Apple have designed this study so that all aspects of participation can be accomplished remotely. The pandemic has heightened anxiety and depression globally, and has increased awareness of the importance of behavioral health to overall wellbeing. At the same time, physical distancing requirements have limited in-person mental health assessment and treatment, leading to expanded use and acceptance of telehealth. These changes highlight the importance of incorporating technologies like those to be tested in this study into clinical research and eventually into practice."

The pilot phase of the study begins this week and will involve 150 participants recruited from UCLA Health patients. The main phases of the study will take place from 2021 through 2023 and will involve 3,000 participants drawn from UCLA Health patients and the UCLA student body, so this is not a study that can be undertaken using Apple's Health app.

Study participants will download a UCLA research app on their iPhones and will receive an Apple Watch and Beddit sleep monitor as part of the study.

Data from study participants will be kept safe with access limited to members of the UCLA research team. Data will be analyzed by Apple and UCLA after being coded and stripped of names and other contact information.

Apple today released the fourth developer betas of iOS and iPadOS 14 for testing purposes, tweaking and refining some of the features and design changes included in the update.

Changes get smaller and less notable as the beta testing period goes on, but there are still some noteworthy new features in the fourth beta, which we've highlighted below.

- Apple TV widget - There's a new Apple TV widget available in the fourth beta.

- Search improvements - When searching for in-app content or questions, top hits are now displayed underneath web suggestions, as noted by Federico Vittici. The app displays apps, Siri Knowledge, ‌Siri‌ suggestions, News, and more up top, with an option to get more results. Search in App remains available at the bottom of the interface.

- 3D Touch - 3D Touch, which was unavailable in the last beta, is again working on compatible devices.

- Exposure Notification API - The Exposure Notification API has been added to this beta, so iOS 14 users can download apps that use ‌Exposure Notification‌.

Have you found any other changes in iOS 14 beta 4 not listed here? Let us know in the comments and we'll add them to the list.

As of today, the iOS 14 beta supports the Exposure Notification API, which will let iOS 14 users download ‌Exposure Notification‌ and COVID tracking apps in countries where those apps are available.

‌Exposure Notification‌ support was added in the fourth beta released this morning, and it is listed as a feature in the update's release notes.

‌Exposure Notification‌ was released as an iOS 13.5 update back in May, but the API was not added to iOS 14 until today, which prevented iOS 14 users from being able to download and use apps that take advantage of the ‌Exposure Notification‌ API.

That wasn't a major issue when only developers were able to download iOS 14, but it became a problem when the public beta was released and more people had iOS 14 installed as none of those people could use contact tracing apps.

‌Exposure Notification‌ now works on both iOS 13 and iOS 14, with apps that use the API available in Canada, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, and more.

For more on ‌Exposure Notification‌ and how it works, make sure to check out our Exposure Notification guide.

Apple today seeded the fourth betas of upcoming iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third betas and more than a month after unveiling the new software at the WWDC keynote.

Registered developers can download the betas over the air after installing the proper profile from the Apple Developer Center.

iOS 14 introduces a redesigned Home Screen that supports widgets on iPhone for the first time, plus widgets have been redesigned and can now be customized in three sizes through the new widgets gallery.

An App Library shows all of the apps installed on an ‌iPhone‌ in one place, both in an icon view and in an alphabetical list. With all of the apps in the App Library, app icons and ‌Home Screen‌ pages can be hidden for a cleaner look.

Incoming phone calls and FaceTime calls no longer take up the entire ‌iPhone‌/iPad display, and Siri requests have also been minimized so summoning ‌Siri‌ doesn't monopolize the screen. ‌Siri‌ is smarter in iOS 14 and can send audio messages, and dictation can now run on device. A Picture in Picture mode allows users to watch videos or use ‌FaceTime‌ while using other apps.

App Clips lets users take advantage of some app features without needing to download a full app, useful for quick actions like purchasing a coffee, making a restaurant reservation, or renting a scooter, where downloading an entire app would be a hassle. App Clips can be scanned from QR codes, NFC tags, or Apple-designed App Clip Codes, plus they can be shared in Messages or accessed from Safari.

In the Messages app you can now pin important conversations, use @mentions in group chats, and take advantage of inline replies to keep multi-person conversations better organized. There are new Memoji options and group chats can be assigned icons with photos, emoji, or Memoji.

The Health app supports the Apple Watch's new Sleep Tracking feature and there's a Health Checklist for managing health settings, and in the Weather app, there's more info on precipitation and severe weather events.

Cycling directions are available in the Maps app with directions incorporating elevation, how busy a street is, and stairs, plus for those who own electric vehicles, there are options for routes with EV charging stops.

Digital Car Keys let an ‌iPhone‌ be used in lieu of a physical key, a feature that's coming soon to BMWs, and CarPlay now lets users set wallpapers.

A new translate app provides text and voice translations to and from 11 languages, and there are tons of new privacy protections. Developers need to get user permission before accessing devices on a local network, limiting access to photos, and providing apps with approximate locations instead of exact locations.

Safari has a Privacy Report that lets you know which websites have trackers, and there are new icons on the Home screen that let you know when an app is using a camera or microphone. Third-party browser and mail apps can be set as default for the first time, and Apple added new AirPods capabilities.

As for the ‌iPad‌, the Apple Pencil can now be used in any text field, with handwritten text converted automatically to typed text thanks to the new Scribble feature.

There are tons more features in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, so make sure to check out our iOS 14 roundup and our iPadOS 14 roundup for a full list of everything new. We also highlight all of the new feature tweaks and changes introduced with each beta iteration, and you can see the changes from beta 2 and beta 3 in our beta 2 and beta 3 tidbits articles.

Beta 3 brought a new red Music icon, changes to the design of the Music Library in the Music app, a Clock widget, an updated Screen Time widget, and more.

We'll be doing a separate article featuring the changes in beta 4 after we download the update and discover what's new.

iOS and iPadOS 14 are available to registered developers and public beta testers at this time. Beta testing for ‌iOS 14‌ will last for a couple of months, with the update set to be released in the fall.