Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 updates to public beta testers, providing the software to the general public. Today's beta comes two weeks after Apple released the first public betas.
Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's free beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS 16.2 betas over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website.
iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 introduce the Freeform app, which can be used for jotting down notes, sketching, drawing, brainstorming ideas, creating mood boards, and more. Multiple people can work on the same Freeform board, with changes synced for all participants in real time.
For the iPad, the update brings external display support to the Stage Manager multitasking feature, allowing up to eight apps to be used at once. External display support is available for the M1 and M2 iPad models.
There is a new Home app architecture coming in iOS and iPadOS 16.2, which Apple says is designed to bring faster, more reliable performance, especially in homes with a lot of smart home accessories. The new architecture requires the HomePod 16.2 beta software, and it causes the Home app not to work with devices updated to iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, or macOS Ventura 13.1.
Unintentional Emergency SOS calls can be reported to Apple in iOS 16.2, and there are a few other minor changes that can be found in our iOS 16.2 feature guide.
Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
Saturday November 15, 2025 2:40 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is preparing for Tim Cook to step down as CEO of the company "as soon as next year," according to the Financial Times.
The company's board of directors and senior executives "recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins," the report said.
While the report said that Apple is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, it went on to ...
Friday November 14, 2025 6:20 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone.
iPhone Pocket is available to order on Apple's online store starting today, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, it is already completely sold out in the United...
Friday November 14, 2025 3:23 pm PST by Juli Clover
Most of Apple's Macs are slated to get M5 chips across 2026, and there's a possibility we'll even see the first M6 chips toward the end of the year. Updates are planned for everything from the MacBook Air to the Mac Studio.
MacBook Air (Early 2026)
The MacBook Air will be one of the first Macs to get a 2026 refresh, with an update planned for the first few months of the year. The MacBook...
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account.
In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...
Walmart's Black Friday sale has officially kicked off today, with an online shopping event that's also seeing some matching deals in retail locations. There are quite a few major discounts in this sale, including savings on headphones, TVs, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose.
Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
Sunday November 16, 2025 6:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that Tesla plans to add Apple CarPlay support to its vehicles "in the coming months."
This is easily the biggest news for the regular version of CarPlay in years, should Tesla actually follow through with offering the system in its vehicles.
As noted by Gurman, this would be a stunning reversal for Tesla and its CEO Elon ...
Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen.
Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
Public beta testers, if you're not currently on beta 1, or maybe even if you are, please check out the macrumors forum thread on 16.2 beta 2 before installing. There seems to be a greater than usual number of reports of problems, especially with frame drops or stuttering on iPhones with promotion. A fair number of developers who installed beta 2 are going back to beta 1 or 16.1 public release.
(That said, there are plenty of developers who are having little to no problems with beta 2; it just seems like the number with problems is higher than normal for a second beta on a .2 release.)
I cannot wait to use FreeForm! I tried some of the other brainstorming apps out there a couple months back, and each of them had different issues… I think Apple is going to get it right!
* Can’t delete boards while offline, or if iCloud data is disabled for Freeform. (100294085) Workaround: Go to Settings (System Setting on macOS) > Apple ID > iCloud, then in the Apps using iCloud section, toggle Freeform to On. * Adding or removing collaborators can fail while attempting to change share settings. (101186059) Workaround: Close the share sheet and try to add or remove the participants again.
[HEADING=2]Keyboard[/HEADING] [HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 16.2 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Fixed: When typing in Chinese Pinyin, selecting an option from the candidate bar is unresponsive. (73513207)
* While using Stage Manager with an External Display, dragging a second window to the workspace incorrectly hides the Recent Apps list—shifting all windows in the workspace to the right. (98540114)
[HEADING=2]TV App[/HEADING] [HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 16.2 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Fixed: Play tracking (Up Next, and Top Shelf Update) won’t work for all platforms. (101258095)
[HEADING=2]SwiftUI[/HEADING] [HEADING=3]New Features in iOS & iPadOS 16.2 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Disable animations of NavigationStack push and pop by wrapping path mutation in withTransaction(transaction) { … } where transaction has disablesAnimations set to true. (88993253)
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 16.2 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Fixed: Programmatically popping multiple views from a NavigationStack, by manipulating its path binding, now animates. Use with Transaction to override this behavior. (96852321)
[/SPOILER]
Released yesterday to devs, today to PB testers, mobile Safari is now 16.2 iOS 16.2 beta 2 (20C5043e) - November 8, 2022 iPadOS 16.2 beta 2 (20C5043e) - November 8, 2022 macOS 13.1 beta 2 (22C5044e) - November 8, 2022 watchOS 9.2 beta 2 (20S5342d) - November 8, 2022 tvOS 16.2 beta 2 (20K5342d) - November 8, 2022
