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This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: iOS 15.4 packs a punch with some fun and useful new features. It’s still just a beta, but it will give us lots of new emoji for our critical, high-level communications when it goes live. Plus, the beta includes a convenient new way to unlock your iPhone while wearing a face mask — just in time for the end of the pandemic! 🤞

Also on The CultCast:

• An Apple event in March looks quite likely.
• Mini-LED iMac Pro might be delayed.
• An Apple car patent sheds light on an advanced sunroof.
• How to download Wordle, just in case The New York Times screws up the popular game.
• Donkey talk!

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below (down by the headlines and donkey links).

Soon you’ll be able to use an emoji to show that your battery is low. Or that you’re melting, are feeling ambivalent or patriotic, or getting teary-eyed. This is because the crop of fresh emoji approved in fall 2021 will debut when iOS 15.4 does.

Then they be used in texts, emails … wherever.

Face ID in iOS 15.4 will let users unlock their iPhones while wearing a mask. No Apple Watch necessary. The system will scan just the area around eyes. It comes with a warning that the change makes Face ID less secure, though.

Apple seeded the first iOS 15.4 beta to developers Thursday.

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People like to laugh. And that leads to Tears of Joy accounting for over 5% of all emoji use in 2021. We also love to love. That put the heart in second place.

The Unicode Consortium compiled a list of all the most popular emoji for the year. And also shared data on the different types of emoji that get used the most.

Soon there’ll be a fresh crop of new emoji that let you show you are melting, have a low battery or are feeling ambivalent or teary-eyed. There are 37 brand-new additions.

But don‘t get too enthusiastic. The emoji probably won’t appear on iPhones and other devices until 2022.

Emoji just got a sonic boost in Facebook Messenger. The social network’s chat app added Soundmojis on Thursday, giving users the option of sending audio snippets with some key emoji.

At launch, you can send catchphrases from TV shows, bits of hit songs, and garden-variety stock sounds. If your conversation demands the world’s tiniest violin emoji, your chat partner can actually hear it!

Windows users can’t escape Clippy. The much hated personal assistant is coming back. Fortunately, it’ll be far less prominent than back in 1997. And Mac users won‘t have to see it at all.

Apple has made its share of mistakes over the years. But few of these can compare to Clippy’s irritating attempts to help people using Microsoft Office.

Soon there could be new emoji that let you show you are melting, have a low battery or are feeling ambivalent or teary-eyed. These and more are on the list for approval in Emoji 14.0. But they might not appear in iPhones and other devices until 2022.

The list appears with World Emoji Day coming July 17.

In something of a rare sensitivity slip-up for Apple, the company is being blasted by STAMMA, the British Stammer Association, over an emoji recommendation that seemingly mocks people with the speech disorder also known as a stutter.

When users write the word “stammering” in the iPhone’s predictive keyboard, it suggests the comical “woozy face” emoji as a substitute. STAMMA CEO Jane Powell described this as “demeaning and damaging.”

The fresh emoji appearing in iOS 14.5 will set your heart afire. Or at least let you show that in texts. The new collection of pictographs also includes some new faces, and plenty of additional variations to show how we couple up in the 21st century.

iPad users get the same emoji thanks to iPadOS 14.5 and macOS 11.3, which also launched on Monday.

iPhone fans were first able to search for emoji last year, and Apple is finally bringing this feature to iPads. It’s built into the iPadOS 14.5 beta 1 released to public beta testing on Thursday.

Also, those with the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad get a horizontally-oriented boot screen.

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Apple on Friday gave developers access to iOS 14.2 golden master, along with the iPadOS equivalent. This is the last step before releasing these new versions to the public.

When available to all, iOS 14.2 will offer plenty of fun new emoji, as well as Shazam music recognition integrated into the Control Center.

Apple updated the mask-wearing emoji in the latest iOS 14.2 beta so it shows the person is happy to be wearing a mask. It’s a change very much in sync with 2020, when health experts say masks are a vital part of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Apple seeded a second beta of iOS 14.2 to everyone on Wednesday, along with the iPad equivalent. It brings plenty of fun new emoji like ninja, the transgender symbol and a certain Italian hand gesture. And beta testers get Shazam music recognition integrated into the Control Center.

But anyone hoping to get an iPhone 12 in October might want to skip this beta.

The new emoji set to appear in 2021 will help you express relief or confusion. Or show that your heart’s afire, or that it’s mending.

Those might seem fairly ordinary, but there is something extremely odd about the the list of upcoming emoji: It’s very short. The group responsible for coming up with new emoji picked just seven new designs to debut next year. The reason is simple: COVID-19.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when wearing a face mask slows the spread of this disease, Apple really must change its medical mask emoji. It seems like a small tweak, but it’s important.

Currently, the face shown is unhappy about having to wear a mask. The design needs to show the person is glad to do their part.

Friday is World Emoji Day, and the celebration wouldn’t be complete without Apple unveiling the new additions coming to iPhone, iPad and Mac. Highlights of the iOS 14 emoji include ninjas, the transgender symbol, and a certain Italian hand gesture.

But the complicated process emoji have to get through before reaching our phones means there aren’t any timely ones, like more people wearing masks.

Registered Apple developers can already get the finalized version of iOS 13.4 and iPadOS 13.4 ahead of its public debut on March 24.

Apple released the Golden Master builds iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, watchOS 6.2, macOS Catalina 10.15.4, and tvOS 13.4 on its developer today, bringing a host of new features to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac.

Customers ready to click the “buy” button on a pair of new AirPods now have the option to have Apple customize the charging case with a name, phrase or emoji.

Apple posted a banner ad on its website to announce that its free engraving services now extend to AirPods and AirPods Pro.

Just a few weeks after the debut of macOS Catalina, Apple already has an update with features that had been planned for the original version.

On the list of enhancements are support for additional emoji, the just-launched AirPods Pro, HomeKit Secure Video and more.

Apple released iOS 13.2 to the public this morning after beta testing the software update with developers for a month.

iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 bring a bunch of new features and bug fixes to the iPhone and iPad, including more than 50 new emoji characters and support for the new AirPods Pro that were just revealed this morning.

Progress on iOS 13.2’s public release has hit a blistering pace after Apple seeded the fourth beta build to developers today.

iOS 13.2 beta 4 arrived one week after Apple seeded beta 3 to developers. Apple’s website hinted that the public release could come by the end of the month, bringing new emoji, Siri features and more to iPhones and iPads very soon.

The next iPhone update will be iOS 13.2, and it might be out before the end of this month. A feature of the recently-announced Beats Solo Pro headphones requires this version, and the accessory debuts next week.

Version 13.2 brings dozens of additional emoji, and also adds Deep Fusion camera technology to the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro series.

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Apple is back with a brand new beta build of iOS 13.2 less than a week after seeding the second beta to developers.

iOS 13.2 beta 3 builds on the last two betas that added over 57 new emoji to iPhone and iPad along with Deep Fusion camera technology for the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. Today’s update is joined by watchOS 6.1 beta 4 and tvOS 13.2 beta 3, bringing tons of improvements to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

The biggest iPhone emoji update of the year is finally ready for testing if you’re a developer.

Apple seeded iOS 13.2 beta 2 and iPadOS 13.2 beta 2 to developers today. The update comes just over a week after the first beta brought Apple’s Deep Fusion camera technology to the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. With this latest beta, Apple has finally added support for the Unicode 12 update that adds 59 new emoji characters.