- [Jeff] In this video we go hands on
with iOS 14.2 beta 2, check it out.
How's the going everybody, Jeff Benjamin with 9to5mac Mac.
In this video, we're taking a look at iOS 14.2 beta 2.
So it was a little under two weeks ago
when we looked at the initial iOS 14.2 beta,
but now we're looking at beta 2.
And Apple seems to be continuing to refine
the AirPlay 2 interface in the control center.
So just like in beta 1,
you have this new interface
that shows recently played music
if you're not currently playing music.
So this makes it easy to quickly select the song
or select the podcast that you would like
to begin playback right from this interface.
And in the bottom right hand corner,
you can see it has the music logo there.
So that tells you the source coming from Apple Music.
So this looks largely the same as what,
we found on the initial beta.
But there is one difference that I did notice here
and that is what, the control other speakers
in TV button down below.
In the previous beta that button was animated to indicate
when music was playing on other AirPlay 2 sources
on your WiFi network.
And here's what I mean right here.
So this made it super easy to tell, hey,
there's something else playing on my network right now.
If I tap that, I can quickly see what that is.
So just tap like that.
And I can see the bedroom is now playing.
You also have the little animation at the top,
the now playing animation.
That's cool.
But you don't get that here on this second beta,
you just get sort of like a generic button.
There's no animation.
And when you tap on that,
there is no now plane animation at the top either.
So that's gone as well.
You do still see all of your AirPlay 2 destinations,
but it's decidedly a little less whimsical,
a little less informative at first glance
and just a lot less fun without those animations.
What do you guys think?
Do you think I'm being a little bit nitpicky here?
Do you think it's being overly dramatic
about something so small.
I personally enjoy little touches like that.
So hopefully they bring it back.
But let me know what you guys think,
down below in the comments.
The good news is that you still do see a nice animation
on the speakers, in TVs output sources
when you tap the AirPlay button.
So you can see the bedroom is currently playing there.
And of course, when you tap that output source,
it will on this case,
it's gonna ask you to replace the music
since there's currently playing music there.
Now output to the bedroom.
And then it gives you the option to output
to multiple sources with those little radio buttons there.
So I can select multiple outputs.
And of course, I can control the volume
of both of those outputs either at the same time
or independently by tapping
the disclosure triangle that appears to the left.
So it's sort of minimizes it.
Now you can open it up like that,
and control each speaker independently.
And if I disable AirPlay playback to those sources,
and I switch back over to iPhone,
just like that,
and pretty intuitive, pretty easy to get the hang
of this after a little bit of practice.
Again, the lock screen also gets some changes.
But these changes were also present in the previous beta.
And just like before,
you can tap control other speakers and TVs
to see all your other AirPlay 2 destinations.
Now the big change here
with beta 2 for iOS 14.2,
is the presence of a lot of new emoji characters.
And these were previewed back,
I believe back in July by Apple,
they only previewed a few of them.
But we're gonna look at a couple of them right now,
the ones that I like the best in that first one,
the disguise emoji was awesome looking.
And the cool thing about iOS 14
is that you can actually,
well, you can quickly access your recent just like that.
But you can also use the iOS 14 emoji search capability.
And this allows you to type in,
the name of an emoji character,
and it will pull it up just like that.
So if I type the first word,
or the first few letters of disguise,
the disguise pops up just like that.
So super nice little feature in iOS 14.
One of my favorite iOS 14 features by the way,
it makes it easy to find these new emoji characters.
So you could see the dodo emoji,
the disguise emoji, the smiley with the tear.
These three, and more you'll find in iOS 14 beta 2.
Let's talk about a couple of more.
So we're going to go in here and search for ninja.
There he is the new ninja emoji.
And let's search for another,
how about bubble tea.
Type bubble tea.
There we go.
That reminds me,
I have to admit I've never actually had bubble tea.
Just a fun fact that throw that out there for you guys.
And you also have the new Boomerang emoji.
If I can tap it, there we go.
And lastly, in the Wallet app for the Apple Card,
you're gonna find a new year tab which allows you
to switch over to yearly card activity.
So what do you think about iOS 14.2 beta 2,
let me know down below in the comment section.
This is Jeff with the 9to5 Mac.
(upbeat music)