iOS 14.4 Beta 2 Hands-On: What's New and What's Changed?

We recently got our hands on iOS 14.4 beta 2, and we're here to give you a brief look at what's new and what's changed. After a lengthy wait between betas, we finally have the second beta of iOS 14.4, and it's running smoothly on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The first thing you'll notice is that not a lot has changed in this second beta. A lot of the bugs, such as the stuttering that occurs when swiping from an app back to the home screen, are still there. Battery life seems more or less the same. However, it's worth noting that these changes are subtle and may not be noticeable to everyone.

One of the biggest differences in my opinion is the HomePod mini handoff functionality. This new feature was first revealed at Apple's iPhone 12 event, and it all works thanks to the U1 ultra-wide band chip inside the HomePod mini and the iPhone. As you get closer to the HomePod mini, the handoff functionality will alert you by vibrating your phone subtly and then more drastically as you get closer. You'll also see a little handoff preview bubble at the top of the screen, which will expand into a full view once you're close enough.

In the developer beta 2, this handoff functionality works a lot better than it did in the initial beta. The buttons didn't work well at all in the first beta, and the handoff functionality was extremely finicky and didn't always populate the right information in the preview window. However, now as you can see, it works pretty well. This allows you to easily hand off music from your iPhone to your HomePod mini and vice versa.

To demonstrate this feature, I'll play some music on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. The music should be playing as is on my phone right now. Now, I'm going to move a little closer to the HomePod mini so that we can try out the handoff functionality. As you can see, the preview window gets a little larger and the haptic feedback on your phone gets a bit more forceful as you get closer to the HomePod mini. It looks like the song just changed there, and you'll see the little preview bubble automatically update. Now, let's move even closer to see if this will hand off without any problems.

Lots of haptic feedback and it pops right in there into view handed off back to the homepod mini just like that. This is like I said works a lot better than it did in the initial developer beta but still not perfect.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this hands-on video we take a brief look at what's new in ios 14.4 beta 2. check it out so after a lengthy wait between betas we finally get ios 14.4 beta 2 here it is right here running on my iphone 12 pro max and what you'll notice right off the bat is that not a lot has changed in this second beta in fact a lot of the bugs like the stuttering that occurs when swiping from an app back to the home screen are still there and battery life seems more or less the same now that all being said there are some differences they're just very subtle the biggest difference in my opinion has to do with the homepod mini handoff functionality which is different than the handout functionality that you get with the standard size homepod if you can remember this new handoff functionality was first revealed at apple's iphone 12 event and this all works thanks to the u1 ultra wide band chip inside the homepod mini and of course inside the iphone and that lens greater spatial awareness so that as you get closer to the homepod mini the handoff functionality will alert you by vibrating your phone subtly and then more drastically as you get closer to the homepod mini and as this occurs you'll see a little handoff preview bubble at the top of the screen which will then expand into a full view like this once you get close enough to the homepod mini with your iphone now in the developer beta 2 this handoff functionality works a lot better now it's still not perfect but it is way better than the initial beta in the first beta the buttons didn't really work all that well the handoff functionality was extremely finicky and it didn't always populate the right information in the preview window but now as you can see it works pretty well so this allows you to hand off to your homepod mini and hand off back to your iphone from the homepod mini so the homepod is currently playing but you see that button transferred to iphone you can tap that now and it'll transfer the music as you can see the homepod stops playing and the song is transferred back to the iphone so we're going to open up the music app the music should be playing as it is right here on my iphone 12 pro max now what i'm going to do is i'm going to hand off back to the homepod mini so let's go ahead and try that right now so we're just going to move a little close like that and bam pops in the view just like that so now i hand it off back to the homepod menu let's try this again so i'm just going to move my iphone slowly towards the homepod mini and as you can see the preview window gets a little larger and the haptic feedback on your phone gets a little bit more forceful as you get closer to the homepod mini so it looks like the song just changed there and you see the little preview bubble automatically update so that's okay we're gonna move closer to the homepod mini now and see if this will hand off without any problems so lots of haptic feedback and it pops right there into view handed off back to the homepod mini just like that so this like i said works way better than it did in the initial developer beta but still not perfect now another new feature that you'll find in ios 14.4 beta 2 is the ability to define bluetooth device types now why would you need to do this well actually apple really kind of explains it when you open up the device type section so in a nutshell specifying the type of device can ensure that your headphone audio level measurements are accurate and you see the different types of devices you have car stereo you have headphone hearing aid speaker and other you can just choose whichever device this is obviously it's a tv so this doesn't really apply here but the point is this will make it so that ios doesn't mistake for instance a speaker or a car stereo for a pair of headphones in which it will turn down the volume drastically so this will prevent your volume from automatically dropping which can be super annoying when connecting to something like a speaker so ladies and gents that has been a brief look at ios 14.4 beta 2 what do you guys think let me know down below in the comment section be sure to hit that subscribe button for more videos like this this is jeff with 905 mac youin this hands-on video we take a brief look at what's new in ios 14.4 beta 2. check it out so after a lengthy wait between betas we finally get ios 14.4 beta 2 here it is right here running on my iphone 12 pro max and what you'll notice right off the bat is that not a lot has changed in this second beta in fact a lot of the bugs like the stuttering that occurs when swiping from an app back to the home screen are still there and battery life seems more or less the same now that all being said there are some differences they're just very subtle the biggest difference in my opinion has to do with the homepod mini handoff functionality which is different than the handout functionality that you get with the standard size homepod if you can remember this new handoff functionality was first revealed at apple's iphone 12 event and this all works thanks to the u1 ultra wide band chip inside the homepod mini and of course inside the iphone and that lens greater spatial awareness so that as you get closer to the homepod mini the handoff functionality will alert you by vibrating your phone subtly and then more drastically as you get closer to the homepod mini and as this occurs you'll see a little handoff preview bubble at the top of the screen which will then expand into a full view like this once you get close enough to the homepod mini with your iphone now in the developer beta 2 this handoff functionality works a lot better now it's still not perfect but it is way better than the initial beta in the first beta the buttons didn't really work all that well the handoff functionality was extremely finicky and it didn't always populate the right information in the preview window but now as you can see it works pretty well so this allows you to hand off to your homepod mini and hand off back to your iphone from the homepod mini so the homepod is currently playing but you see that button transferred to iphone you can tap that now and it'll transfer the music as you can see the homepod stops playing and the song is transferred back to the iphone so we're going to open up the music app the music should be playing as it is right here on my iphone 12 pro max now what i'm going to do is i'm going to hand off back to the homepod mini so let's go ahead and try that right now so we're just going to move a little close like that and bam pops in the view just like that so now i hand it off back to the homepod menu let's try this again so i'm just going to move my iphone slowly towards the homepod mini and as you can see the preview window gets a little larger and the haptic feedback on your phone gets a little bit more forceful as you get closer to the homepod mini so it looks like the song just changed there and you see the little preview bubble automatically update so that's okay we're gonna move closer to the homepod mini now and see if this will hand off without any problems so lots of haptic feedback and it pops right there into view handed off back to the homepod mini just like that so this like i said works way better than it did in the initial developer beta but still not perfect now another new feature that you'll find in ios 14.4 beta 2 is the ability to define bluetooth device types now why would you need to do this well actually apple really kind of explains it when you open up the device type section so in a nutshell specifying the type of device can ensure that your headphone audio level measurements are accurate and you see the different types of devices you have car stereo you have headphone hearing aid speaker and other you can just choose whichever device this is obviously it's a tv so this doesn't really apply here but the point is this will make it so that ios doesn't mistake for instance a speaker or a car stereo for a pair of headphones in which it will turn down the volume drastically so this will prevent your volume from automatically dropping which can be super annoying when connecting to something like a speaker so ladies and gents that has been a brief look at ios 14.4 beta 2 what do you guys think let me know down below in the comment section be sure to hit that subscribe button for more videos like this this is jeff with 905 mac you\n"