Earlier this week on March 4th, Apple came out with public betas across a variety of their OSes, including: iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and macOS. Covered earlier this week by 9to5mac, Public Beta 3 is now available for those OSes. You may sign up for the beta software on Apple’s Beta Software Program site. By consenting to knowing there will be bugginess and even instability, Apple will let you test drive new features on your devices before they’re out to the general public.

macOS 15.4

This newer update to macOS which is currently in Public Beta 3 adds a couple updates for the Mac. Here is what was added so far between the first beta and the current one:

• A new design for the mail app, and brings mail categorization to Mac.
• Apple brings “proximity pairing” to the Mac, like how it works on the iPhone already.
  • Will require iOS device to be on iOS 18.4 for it to work with macOS 15.4 proximity pair
• Create images in image playground using sketch style
• More languages supported in Apple Intelligence
• New option to create memory movies in the Photos app
• If you happen to use Apple News+ there is a new dedication section.
  • News+ Food has different reviews/editorials about places to eat, recipes, etc;
• New emojis (See screenshot below)
• New App download behavior
  • Previously when stopping an App download in the Mac App Store, the download would be erased and ceased altogether. Now the download is paused and may be resumed. To delete downloaded data or app, go to launchpad and delete the partial download.
• “Software update” page changes slightly in System Preferences.
• New “Your Mac is up to date” banner and icon in Software Update.
• Beta 2/3 fixes virtualization issues for M4 chip users which installed and used 15.4 beta 1.

(Click to enlarge above. Credit goes to WilliApple)

(Click to enlarge above. Credit goes to WilliApple.)

(Click to enlarge above. Credit goes to WilliApple.)

(Credit goes to WilliApple.)

iOS and iPadOS 18.4

This update for iPhones is most likely due sometime in early to mid April. iOS 18.4 gains the same new emojis that macOS 15.4 gains, Apple Intelligence keeps improving, among other things. 18.4 doesn’t have a ton of new features to the OS, yet it contains some changes – it’s more of an “s” release, meant for refinement. More details available in a MacRumors post. See 9to5Mac post about Apple releasing beta 3 for iOS 18.4. See: “What’s new in iPadOS 18.4?” by SlatePad.

• “Prioritize notifications” – customize app notification importance on a per-app basis.
• New Vision Pro companion app (if you have one) that helps download and find media for the Vision Pro without being on it.
• New Apple Intelligence section in control center (used to be the “Siri” section)
• Action button on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices can now activate Visual Intelligence
• Just like the Mac App Store, on iOS you can now pause app update downloads.
• Shortcuts actions for Apple apps – changing app settings w/o manual navigation.
• iPadOS 18.4 – New button: “Clear all photos” to delete all under “recently deleted” in Photos App.
• Slight UI changes in Apple TV app
  • On featured titles there will be a large “plus” button
  • There will now be release schedule information for upcoming episodes
  • New fonts/icons
  • See: 9to5Mac post on the details of AppleTV App UI changes.

(Click to enlarge above. Credit goes to 9to5Mac.)

New features (continued):

• (As seen above) if setting up as new device, you will now select your “age range” in setup.
  • If you choose “child” it will ask you to connect to a family account.
• New proximity setup (mentioned earlier in article, macOS section)
• SystemExtensions(Beta) for iOS
• Safari now shows connection security details. (Page prefs > Page menu > Connection > Security Details)
• Ambient music (toggle from control center), also on Lock Screen, and with action button
  • Apple Intelligence selects from Apple Music or your library what the vibe of the music is, but you can customize this and change it to your own playlists instead.
• “Matter Robot” vacuum support. (Ex; Switchbot S10)
• When using a dual sim, in the phone app the “P” icon now has arrows to show there is more than 1.
• New sketch style in image playgrounds
• Mail app is updated with categorization on iOS/iPadOS the same way as it is on macOS
• “smart reply” now available in 3rd part apps – contextually correct messages based on what you’re working on using Apple Intelligence.
• If you happen to use Apple News+ there is a new dedication section. (Also available for macOS)
  • News+ Food has different reviews/editorials about places to eat, recipes, etc;
  • You can tap the times for how long it takes to make each piece, and it auto-makes a timer
• New “Photos” albums list editor and view filters
• New skip/rewind button animations when viewing videos.
• New Genmoji icon
• New type to Siri animation
• Cellular data bars reflect actual signal strength in control center data toggle
• In control center:
  • When volume is zero the sound icon is white, and blue when volume is on.
  • Brightness icon is yellow when on and fades to white the darker the screen is.
• You can now change your default camera app