Beta 8 of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, macOS Big Sur 11.3 Available for Testing

Apr 13, 2021 - 1 Comment

Apple has released beta 8 of macOS Big Sur 11.3, iOS 14.5, and iPadOS 14.5, available now to users enrolled in the Apple operating system beta testing programs. Builds are available for both public beta and developer beta testers.

The eight beta builds arrive just a week after the seventh beta builds, and a week before a scheduled Apple event is set to take place.

Betas of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 include new Siri voice options which remove gender specification and accent labels and instead rename voice options to “Voice” followed by a number, new game controller support for Playstation 5 and Xbox X controllers to be used with iPhone and iPad, a feature that allows users to unlock an iPhone using Apple Watch, crowd-sourced Maps features like speed traps and road hazards, dual SIM card support for 5G mobile networks, and a variety of other changes. iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 also include new diverse, inclusive, and equitable emoji icons including a woman with a beard, new skin color options for Emoji couples, a coughing face, dazed face, syringe, heart on fire, bandaged heart, and others.

macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta 8 is available as well, carrying the build number of 20E5231a, and also includes support for Playstation 5 and Xbox X game controllers, Reminders regains the ability to print and show a list view, new customization options for Safari, and there’s a new system preference panel for Touch Alternatives aimed at when using iOS and iPadOS apps on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac. The new emoji icons are also available in macOS 11.3 beta.

Those currently enrolled in an iPhone and iPad beta testing program can download iOS 14.5 beta 8 or iPadOS 14.5 beta 8 from Software Update in Settings app.

Mac beta testers can find and download the latest macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta 8 build from the Software Update section of System Preferences.

Apple usually goes through a handful of beta updates before issuing a final version to the general public, and with this being the eight beta release it seems likely the final version will be available sooner than later, perhaps as soon as next week. It may be coincidental, but Apple also announced an online event for next week on April 20, which is speculated to be where updated iPad models will be released. Often software updates are released with new hardware in order to support the new hardware.

While any user can technically run a beta build through the Public Beta program (or the developer beta if they have access to it), it’s generally not recommended for standard usage due to the buggy nature of beta system software. Thus beta builds are typically best reserved for advanced users, and most people are better off waiting until the final builds of macOS 11.3 and iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 are made available.

The most recent final builds of Apple system software are currently macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 for Mac, iPadOS 14.4.2 for iPad, and iOS 14.4.2 for iPhone.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in News

One Comment

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  1. Smokey says:

    O boy, Algore is pushing more “diversity” now! So we get a woman with a beard. That’s just what we need to further polarize society into factions that hate every faction that has even a slightly different opinion.

    This country became the world’s greatest because of the focus on Equal Opportunity. But that has now morphed into Equal Results: Everyone must get a trophy! Because we can’t hurt the runner-up’s precious feelings, see?

    The problem with that is that equal results ends in mediocrity. The Left wants that result, because they’re controlled by extra-national entities; they just don’t know it. But where else would the current “hate America” meme come from?

    America has made enormous progress in correcting racism, more than any other country. But it’s never enough; the perfect is the enemy of the good.

    No country will ever be perfect because countries are run by people, and human beings are imperfect. But the Left’s incessant criticism drowns out the astonishing progress this country has made, in less than a century.

    And now the entire mainstream media establishment has gone all-in with the hate-America crowd, so we never hear about the immense progress we’ve already made.

    Instead, we get the drumbeat of “racism” rained down on us 24/7/365. They never tell us we’ve done anything positive. All we ever hear now is negative: how awful our own country is, was, and always will be.

    At the same time, there’s never any media criticism of mainland China, which is strong evidence that the media has been bought and paid for with Chinese bribes. As if China — the country that subjects their own protestors to vivisection — has any right to lecture Americans.

    When Steve Jobs ran Apple we could buy computers without this constant scolding and finger-wagging. Now we’re constantly lectured with insidous propaganda, like Apple’s new women with beards icon. (Earth to Apple: Stop lying. Women don’t have beards.)

    The dictator running the PRC (mainland China’s gov’t) must be thrilled by the sellouts on Apple’s Board of Directors and by Big Business in general, for promoting their anti-American propaganda.

    Those corporate Directors and CEOs will surely get their reward, too. Just like Cthulhu’s disciples, their reward will be that they will be eaten last.

    My only regret is that I won’t be around to hear their howls of despair when they realize — too late — what they’ve done, and what it got them.

    For everyone else… you’re being sold out. Learn to bow to your new Chinese masters. Or do you think you can fight them? Really?

    Rebels will be quickly and easily liquidated — along with their families, including their parents, grandparents, children and and grandkids. That makes it very difficult to be a rebel. Bowing to the new overlords is much easier and safer. It will become the new meme, and the few rebels will be laughed at, out of survivors’ guilt. Any rebels will disappear in short order.

    It’s a very effective tactic, as the Norks and Chinese have found. They already use it in their countries, why wouldn’t they use it right here?

    You can thank Algore, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, &etc. for your predicament. They might survive, but the average American will become a peon with zero rights.

    That’s the future — and it’s much closer than you think.

    /rant

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