Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.6 updates to developers, one week after seeding the first betas and a couple weeks after releasing iOS/iPadOS 13.5 with Exposure Notification API, Face ID updates, Group FaceTime changes, and more.
iOS and iPadOS 13.6 can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or over the air once the proper developer profile has been installed. Note that Apple has changed the version number of this beta to 13.6. When it was first released last week, it was iOS 13.5.5.
Though the feature is not live yet, iOS and iPadOS 13.6 include signs of a new Apple News+ Audio feature, which will see Apple offering some news stories in an audio capacity.
Apple has been working with publishers to garner permission to create audio versions of some stories. Apple also plans to offer a recap of the day's top stories for subscribers to listen to.
Code in iPadOS 13.6 also suggests Apple is working on keyboard shortcuts that will allow users who have a Magic Keyboard or other attached keyboard to adjust the brightness level of the keys, but it's not clear if this will be a feature included in the update.
You'd think things would be slowing down heading into the holidays, but this week saw a whirlwind of Apple leaks and rumors while Apple started its next cycle of betas following last week's release of iOS 26.2 and related updates.
This week also saw the release of a new Apple Music integration with ChatGPT, so read on below for all the details on this week's biggest stories!
Top Stories
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Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now.
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Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
Tuesday December 16, 2025 8:44 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu.
As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
Friday December 19, 2025 10:37 am PST by Juli Clover
Since the beginning of December, Apple has been pushing iPhone users who opted to stay on iOS 18 to install iOS 26 instead. Apple started by making the iOS 18 upgrades less visible, and has now transitioned to making new iOS 18 updates unavailable on any device capable of running iOS 26.
If you have an iPhone 11 or later, Apple is no longer offering new versions of iOS 18, even though there...
Apple is significantly increasing its reliance on Samsung for iPhone memory as component prices surge, according to The Korea Economic Daily.
Apple is said to be expanding the share of iPhone memory it sources from Samsung due to rapidly rising memory prices. The shift is expected to result in Samsung supplying roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17, compared with a...
Tuesday December 16, 2025 4:42 pm PST by Juli Clover
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond.
We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
Monday December 22, 2025 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has imposed a €98.6 million ($116 million) fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency feature.
Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising, as part of a feature named App Tracking Transparency. If a user...
I'm surprised they're adding new features this late in the iOS cycle...
I like it. Use WWDC to lay out the annual roadmap (fall through summer), but don't ship everything in one go.
I suppose there will be overlap this time, though: iOS 14 beta 1 will likely drop later this month, while iOS 13.6 final might ship the same day or even after.
Look, I don’t blame Apple for this, but here is an interesting comparison: iOS 5 5.0: October 12, 2011 5.0.1: November 10, 2011 5.1: March 7: 2012 5.1.1: May 7, 2012. Now for 13: 13.0: September 19, 2019 13.1: September 24, 2019 13.1.1:September 27, 2019 13.1.2:September 30, 2019 13.1.3:October 15, 2019 13.2:October 28, 2019 13.2.1: October 30 , 2019 13.2.2: November 7, 2019 13.2.3: November 18, 2019 13.3:December 10, 2019 13.3.1: January 28, 2020 13.4:March 24, 2020 13.4.1: April 7, 2020 13.5: May 20, 2020 13.5.1: June 1: 2020 And now 13.6
I really don't think the amount of releases is an indicator of quality. Windows used to be more Service Pack-focused, where bugfixes were only released about once a year (if that). It didn't mean that Windows was more stable, just that it was on a different schedule.
Look, I don’t blame Apple for this, but here is an interesting comparison: iOS 5 5.0: October 12, 2011 5.0.1: November 10, 2011 5.1: March 7: 2012 5.1.1: May 7, 2012. Now for 13: 13.0: September 19, 2019 13.1: September 24, 2019 13.1.1:September 27, 2019 13.1.2:September 30, 2019 13.1.3:October 15, 2019 13.2:October 28, 2019 13.2.1: October 30 , 2019 13.2.2: November 7, 2019 13.2.3: November 18, 2019 13.3:December 10, 2019 13.3.1: January 28, 2020 13.4:March 24, 2020 13.4.1: April 7, 2020 13.5: May 20, 2020 13.5.1: June 1: 2020 And now 13.6
While I think it is a bit crazy how many updates iOS 13 has gotten, but at the same time I prefer this versus keeping bugs/features held back till the next year’s OS release. Things like cursor support in 13.4 was a nice mid-cycle surprise.
Just More and more ways to kill blocks of your Solid state memory by constantly slamming in big lumps of files over and over again. Brilliant!
I'm not aware of a single case where a critical amount of blocks died on an iPhone. Given how much better flash storage has become, and how relatively short the lifespan is (five years is probably stretching it), I don't think that's a big concern.
