- [Jeff] How's the going ladies and gentlemen?
Jeff Benjamin here.
In this video, we take a look
at what's new in iOS 14.2 beta 1.
(soft music)
(air whooshing)
So the first thing that you'll notice about iOS 14.2 beta 1,
is the attention to detail paid to the Control Center
and the Lock screen now playing music controls.
So here you could see,
if I can keep it loaded on screen there,
you see some differences right off the bat.
For instance, you have a timestamp
right there on the scrubber as you scrub through.
And I like this because it kinda simplifies the interface,
previously, you had the duration
and then you had the time remaining on the right.
Whereas this is just right there where the scrubber is
and it makes it super simple to know,
where you're at in the song.
And I also like the fact that the scrubber knobs themselves
are larger here on this interface,
you also get a little indicator
in the bottom right hand corner of the album artwork
to tell you where the source of the music is.
So in this case, it's the Music app.
And then if you tap the AirPlay button,
which has also been redesigned,
you'll see a new redesigned AirPlay 2 interface.
So that tells you your current source,
which you can see there as the iPhone,
and then you have all of your available sources
under the speakers and TV section here.
So if I tap one of those,
I can select one or more sources to output to,
courtesy of AirPlay 2.
So you could see the little radio buttons there.
So right now I'm outputting the music
instead of to my iPhone,
to the stereo HomePod set up on my desk.
But I can also tap the Control Other Speakers and TVs
to see other AirPlay 2 destinations
in their current now playing status.
And that interface too has been redesigned.
Now hopping over to Control Center,
when we long press on the music controls,
look what you have here,
nothing's playing currently, so, iOS says,
hey, let me suggest some of the recently played music
and audio sources directly to you.
So you can select something right there on the fly.
And it doesn't just show me Music app sources,
no, it shows me Podcasts as well,
and presumably it will show other sources
if I recently played audio from other places.
But if I just tap there on the Podcast, you can see,
I can easily resume my 9to5mac Happy Hour episode,
just like that.
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make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button
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And compared to the previous interface,
what I really like about this redesign
is how large the album artwork is.
It really makes a big difference in my opinion.
But that's not all.
You're gonna notice here
when I open up the AirPlay controls, guess what you have,
you get the ability to control,
fully control your music playback while at the same time,
being able to control your various AirPlay sources.
So I can play, pause, I can skip forwards, skip back,
actually, I could show you that better here,
since this is an actual music track,
so I have full transport controls there,
while the AirPlay interface portion is displayed down below.
So that's a difference between how it used to be,
where you really didn't have full controls
while being able to view the AirPlay output locations
at the same time.
So, I like this change very much,
I think it's a much improved interface over
what was just in iOS 14 even.
So, let's talk about this other one little item
here at the bottom.
You see that animated little portion right there,
where it says Control other Speakers and TVs,
the reason why that is animated,
is because there are other AirPlay 2 destinations
that are currently active on my home network.
So if I tap on that, you can see right off the bat,
all the various AirPlay 2 destinations,
you can see my bedroom, living room, the office,
and I can play and pause those destinations
and jump into those destinations.
But notice when I pause everything, the animation ceases.
That's pretty cool, isn't it?
So, nothing actually is happening on your network.
But when I start the playback again in the bedroom,
the animation begins again.
So, just a little visual cue to let you know,
hey, something else is playing on your AirPlay 2 network
just in case you wanna know.
But what do you guys think about this new updated interface?
I really love it,
I love having the little destination icon or the source icon
in the bottom right hand corner, you can see the Music app,
I just think it's really cool.
And in the Music app, speaking of that,
you see the redesign AirPlay interface there,
and the same principle applies
I can access all my other locations,
just by tapping the control button at the bottom.
But that's not the only cool new music related function
in iOS 14 beta 2.
Let's hop over to Control Center.
You're gonna notice a new toggle here,
called music recognition.
And this is Shazam integration baked directly into iOS.
So, no other downloads needed,
this is baked directly in iOS 14.2,
so I'm gonna go in and play a song,
I'm just gonna tap on the recents and that's playing
and watch what happens
when I scroll down here and enable the Shazam toggle,
just tap on that for music recognition,
it's gonna automatically start listening,
and yeah, it's gonna identify the song
that's playing on my device.
Instead of listening to an external device,
it can actually identify music
that's playing on your device,
even if you're listening to that music via headphones.
So that's really cool.
So I am playing YouTube here,
and it's gonna recognize that YouTube song
that's playing back, so I can long press there,
and then tap Listen on Apple Music,
and then add that song directly to my Apple Music library.
So that's really cool because it can be from any source,
whether it's playing locally on device,
or if it hears it, in your environment,
it's gonna be able to identify that song.
Now here, I have my AirPods connected,
you could to see there,
so I'm going try to identify this song
that I'm playing right now through my AirPods,
and it identifies it just like that.
So, a super low key way of identifying songs
that you wanna save to your library,
even if you're listening through headphones
like I'm doing right here,
I can identify that track
and add it to my Apple Music library if I wish to.
What do you guys
think about that new implementation of Shazam
directly in iOS 14.2?
Now, let me show you something else here, the Magnifier app,
if I go into the settings,
you're gonna see a new People Detection option,
and this helps with social distancing,
so, you could see how far away you are from a person,
so, I'm gonna enable that, I'm gonna hop over here,
and you can see it measures right there on the fly,
things to that true depth cameras,
you can see them about five feet away.
Probably need to back up another foot,
according to guidelines here.
And then you see the updated Watch app icon,
with that single loop for the new Apple Watch Series 6
and the new Apple Watch SE.
So, that's something that's new,
hopefully, we'll be getting those in very soon
and we'll have a full review of the Apple Watch.
Now, here's something else.
If you go into Settings, Privacy,
and you go to Analytics and Improvements,
you're gonna see an Improve Handwashing toggle,
of course the new Handwashing assistant
is new in watchOS 7,
so here, you're allowing some of the audio and motion data
to be shared with Apple to Improve Handwashing.
And then last but not least,
we have under Sound and Haptics,
Reduce Loud Sounds has been renamed to Headphones Safety.
And you'll still see a Reduce Loud Sounds toggle in there,
but what you'll see that's new is Headphone Notification.
So, this will actually notify you,
if you're continually subjected to Loud Sounds.
And it'll tell you how many of those you are subjected to
in the last six months.
So again, just a nice way to protect your hearing.
So ladies and gentlemen, this is iOS 14.2 beta 1,
lots of AirPlay interface and AirPlay 2 changes here,
in this latest beta.
What do you guys think?
Let me know down below in the comment section.
This is Jeff, with 9to5Mac.
(soft music)