- [Reviewer] Hands on with iOS 14.2
'Release Candidate.'
Check it out.
(upbeat music)
How's it going ladies and gents, boys and girls,
Jeff Benjamin with 9to5Mac.
So on the iOS 14 'Release Candidate.'
Yes, I say 'Release Candidate',
Apple's no longer calling it a GM.
You're no longer gonna get this
annoying pop-up message
every time you unlock your phone.
So that's one of my favorite changes of 14.2 RC.
And of course, one of the most outstanding features
or should I say one of the eight most outstanding features
of iOS 14.2
are the eight new wallpapers
actually really 16 new wallpapers
when you include their dark variants.
So let's take a look at all
16 of these wallpapers right now.
The thing I like about these wallpapers,
well, well, at least some of them
is that they're not all abstract images
you know, produced in Adobe illustrator.
These look like real life locations here.
And of course you have some illustrations
but these illustrations are probably based
on real locations at least.
And the cool thing is,
just like all the wallpapers nowadays,
you get two variants.
So you get the light mode
and the dark mode
and you can see the stars
in the sky at the top of those dark wallpapers.
Those look excellent.
What do you guys think about those?
Which one is your favorite?
Let me know down below in the comment section,
I know I will be rocking one of these wallpapers
on my iPhone 12.
If you haven't seen our iPhone 12 top features video
be sure to click the link down below
in the description for that as well.
All right, so let's talk about another big feature
for iOS 14.2
and you probably already know where I'm going with this.
Of course you have
over a hundred new emoji characters in 14.2.
Let's talk about some of the more outstanding ones
like this one right here..
up this disguise face.
That is such an awesome emoji.
What do you guys think?
Let me know, but that's not where it stops of course.
We're gonna actually use the iOS 14 search feature
the emoji search feature which I love
to be able to search for these new emojis.
So Dodo,
you see the new Dodo emoji.
I'm just gonna type 'boom' for boomerang.
You see it in there.
let's backspace.
There we go.
Keep them big, just like that.
So you have those three new emojis.
Let's talk about some others.
Let's go and use our search again.
Let's type in 'pinch.'
There we go,
pinch of salt, just like that.
Or maybe that's a chef's kiss
or the beginning of a chef's kiss.
I don't know.
Now let's talk about one of my favorites,
the smile with a tear.
Smiley, no.
Let's search again.
Let's try 'tear.'
Here we go.
And I don't wanna read into this too deeply,
but you see the smile,
you see the tear.
Maybe it's a hallmark moment,
we don't know for sure
but that is a new emoji
and there's also the ninja as well.
There's also bubble tea.
Still haven't tried it yet,
if anyone has any recommendations, let me know.
And then you have the mask,
the mask, obviously is an old emoji,
but notice,
he's smiling this time no longer frowning.
All right, so,
let's talk about the new lock screen interface for music.
And you're gonna notice quite a few changes here.
The obvious change, the big change is the fact that
the album artwork is much larger than before,
you also get a larger button for your volume control.
So you can grab that
and drag it to the left or to the right
to increase or reduce volume.
And you also notice a new design for the AirPlay icon
in the upper right-hand corner.
You tap on that
and you get this brand new AirPlay interface
and this allows you to output to different AirPlay speakers
on your home network.
It also allows you to control other speakers
and TV's as well.
And like I said this is a brand new design
looks a lot different than we had before.
So let's go ahead and tap this button here.
And now you can control
other AirPlay 2, destinations on your home network.
So I can pause or play any of these locations
if I wanna do so.
So I can play there in the living room and office
or pause,
pretty cool and you can just tap out
to get back just like that.
So, this is the new lock screen interface.
Notice also you get the little indicator
on the album artwork
that shows you the source
of the now playing music as well.
So here is our music app
looks beautiful of course, from iOS 14,
if you tap the AirPlay button
again, you get that nice pop over
with the new AirPlay 2, interface for iOS 14.2.
So again, you can go in here,
change your destination,
you can control your music.
You can even see as you see right there,
when speakers are active on your network,
you see the little animation.
And if I pause that,
you're gonna see that little animation stop.
So you see that animation right there
and watch what happens when I go in
and control other speakers around the network,
I'm gonna go ahead
and pause that one.
And you're gonna see that animation is no longer active
indicating that there's no music being played
on that current speaker,
which is really awesome,
so you can quickly see that at a glance.
A little bit different on some of the earlier betas
but nonetheless, I like how it is
currently on 14.2 RC.
All right.
Another cool feature is the completely redesigned
AirPlay 2, interface in control center,
which looks absolutely phenomenal.
I mean the prior version wasn't terrible,
let's be honest.
But this version is a lot more appealing to the eye
and it's actually a little bit more functional as well,
we'll talk about that,
one of the things that stands out to me though,
is the source icon.
So you can see, where the music is playing from.
Whether it's playing from the podcast app
or the music app or other sources
you can see that right there with that handy little icon.
And of course you have your scrubbers
so you can scrub through all your music.
You also have your transport controls,
to play, go back to the prior song,
skip forward and control volume.
You have the name of the song as well,
you also have the source speaker.
And of course, if you tap the AirPlay icon,
you can output to other devices on your network as well.
Other AirPlay 2, devices.
And you also see your disclosure triangle
if you're outputting to multiple speakers.
And the cool thing is you can still see your
transport controls,
in the prior version of iOS 14,
it would hide those transport controls
when in this view,
but now you have more functionality
within the AirPlay 2, control center interface
which is awesome.
And let's go ahead and play,
one of my favorite podcasts here of course,
9to5Mac Happy Hour.
Definitely subscribe to that
if you haven't done so already so informative
but you can see, notice the source.
It's showing podcasts now
and you see that beautiful 9to5Mac Happy Hour ...
shout out Michael Steber
for the awesome artwork.
In here on the lock screen,
you can also see that source icon as well.
All right, so let's go back in here
and if we're not playing music,
notice what you get here.
You get suggestions, not only from the music app
but also from recently played podcasts as well.
You simply tap on one of those
and starts playing that music immediately.
And if you tap on the album artwork
guess what, takes you right to that destination
or it takes you right to the source, I should say.
And if you have air pods connected
and you're not currently playing any music
guess what you get on the lock screen.
You get suggestions there as well.
You can scroll through like that
and simply tap on one of those and voila.
Your selection begins playing just like that.
Super handy little functionality here in iOS 14.2
but that's not where the music goodness ends in 14.2.
If we go into settings control center
you're gonna find a new music recognition toggle for Shazam.
So you can add that directly to control center
and have Shazam functionality right there,
just a swipe away.
So now you can be completely inconspicuous
about trying to learn what song is playing
in the background.
Sometimes, I don't know for me,
it's kind of embarrassing.
I feel like sometimes I should know the song
and I know I really shouldn't be embarrassed
about such a thing
but, whatever.
But this allows you as you can see,
to be completely in conspicuous
and you can instantly learn what song is playing.
So you simply tap on the banner notification,
you saw it there, it takes you directly to Shazam,
you even saw the video,
for Sakura Drops
and then you just tap on play in Apple music
and it loads.
Now, if you go to settings and go to Sound & Haptics,
you're gonna notice that, 'reduce loud sounds'
is now renamed 'Headphones Safety
and then you'll find actually, 'Reduce Loud Sounds'
within that section.
So you get headphone notifications
and 'Reduce Loud Sounds',
both really aimed at helping you stay conscious
of your hearing health, which is awesome.
Now another change you'll notice
here in 14.2 is the Apple watch app icon.
Now it displays the Apple watch with a solo loop,
which was of course launched alongside
the Apple watch series six,
in the Apple watch SE.
And if you have an Apple card,
you'll find a new month breakdown
within the Apple wallet app
to help you track your spending on a month to month basis.
And in iOS 14.2,
you'll notice the new Intercom functionality,
within the home map,
this was of course launched alongside the home pod mini
at the iPhone 12 event.
And you can simply tap the Intercom button,
talk to the Intercom,
and it'll play back.
(drowning Intercom sounds)
With the dubious sound quality.
All right, so you'll also find some Intercom settings
within the home app there
that you can go in and adjust
and Intercom will eventually work across
all of your major devices
like your Apple watch and iPhone, et cetera.
Now, another thing I noticed here is that,
some of the HDR videos that I created
and I sent to my iPhone,
the thumbnails were kind of messed
up on the prior version of iOS.
Now it seems to be fixed in 14.2.
Now here's another really interesting feature in 14.2,
you notice no music was actually playing.
You can see there on my local device, nothing is playing
but I can ask Siri to stop music playback
and watch what happens here.
So I'm going to invoke Siri,
stop music
and notice what happens,
I get this little card that pops up
and music playback on my home pod stops.
So it recognizes that no,
there's no music playing back on your phone,
but yes, music is playing back on the home pod,
let me go ahead and pause that
and that little card pops up
to allow me to control my home pod speaker.
So talk about handy,
talk about intuitiveness.
I mean, iOS 14 has it in spades.
Another thing that you'll appreciate here
for your AirPods pro,
if you own AirPods pro
you have those paired to your device,
now you can enable optimize battery charging
to reduce battery aging.
So this will basically make it,
so it will wait to finish charging past 80%
until you need to use your AirPods
thus saving battery.
So ladies and gentlemen,
what do you guys think about iOS 14.2 RC.
Let me know what you guys think
down below in the comment section.
This is Jeff with 9to5Mac.
(upbeat music)