Apple released iOS 14.7 and tvOS 14.7 on Tuesday (Monday US time) and on Thursday (Wednesday US time) for macOS 11.5 and iPad 14.7 – a last minute bug found in the macOS 11.5 release candidate necessitated a fix followed by a new build being made available to ensure that there were no regressions. Both bring a lot of bug fixes as well as security fixes (link) but keeping in mind that when Apple list bug fixes the list isn’t always exhaustive given that you can find many of the improvements are also listed in the Webkit blog, LLVM project website and others. Long story short, when you see the changes you’re seeing ‘these are the most visible ones’ – as noted at the last update of macOS included big improvements from the Webkit project which addressed the issue I was having with the videos not playing properly (skipping, video pausing but the audio playing and vice versa).
macOS 11.5 has upgraded the system firmware to 429.140.8.0.0 from 429.120.4.0.0 and on iOS 14.7 it upgraded the modem firmware from 1.71.01 to 1.80.2 – I haven’t noticed any difference but I have a feeling the improvements bought about by the modem firmware will be relating to 5G since it is still very much a technology that yet to mature so there is a lot of room for optimisations to make it as efficient as prior generation technologies. Keeping in mind that the system firmware also includes microcode updates – I wouldn’t be surprised if it included the June 2021 microcode update.
The next version of macOS, iOS, tvOS etc. are being developed however there are no firm dates on the release – when it comes to macOS the release date could be anywhere from a week after the release of iOS all the way to mid November (macOS 11 was released 12 November 2020) so as much as I’d like to get a week off work and have fun I have to wait it out until there a formal release date. I’m still deciding whether I want to make the switch on day one or whether I should hold out until the first update is released – I guess it is something that will need to be made based on how the beta testing goes and whether, by the time it becomes ‘golden master’, that the general mood from those who participated in beta testing give it a thumbs up.
Some good news coming out regarding Microsoft’s Duo 2 – there are leaked photos of the Duo 2 with system specifications (link) and thank goodness they’ve finally added not only NFC but also a decent SoC as well (Qualcomm 888 w/ 5G). IMHO What I’d love to see is an even closer relationship between Samsung and Microsoft, merging Microsoft Pay and Samsung Pay then work to it adopted by as many banks as possible so then at least consumers can have an alternative to the Google hegemony today. I also say that regarding the Galaxy store – Samsung has an opportunity to hitch their wagon and work with Microsoft to provide an integrated alternative to the Google ecosystem – maybe create a Samsung exclusive Office 365 ecosystem where, if you have a Samsung device, you can register for a @mysamsung.com email address, access to 1TB storage, Office along with lots of other services thus growing both Samsung and Microsoft.
Tomorrow I might write something about the recent moves the United States regarding the ‘right to repair’ movement and those in power signally that their willingness to take on the challenge. I’ll cover that along with the general trend within the technology sector to push trends that don’t benefit customers – wireless mice and keyboard on a desktop computer when a wired one would be perfectly fine or this resent obsession over wireless earbuds resulting in a tonne of batteries being wasted – again, what is wrong with a wire? Anyway, I’m starting to rant already – I’ll leave that for the next blog entry.
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