Today, Apple released software updates for all of its platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod. Updates should be rolled out to users around the world throughout the day.
In general, the updates are quite small. As usual, iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6 are the most robust, but they are still small. The main feature is the addition of support for the digital car keys on the iPhone. Additionally, Apple has added voice-narrated stories to Apple News +, as well as local news and expanded customization options in the News app. There is also a new category of “symptoms” in the Health app, plus a variety of bug fixes.
Here are the Apple 13.6 release notes. iPadOS 13.6 is similar but lacks News’s digital car keys and audio features. Additionally, Apple has included security updates for iOS 13.6.
iOS 13.6 adds support for car digital keys, features audio stories on Apple News +, and contains a new category of symptoms in the Health app. This version also includes bug fixes and improvements.
Digital car keys
- Unlock, lock and launch your compatible iPhone car
- Securely delete digital keys from a lost device through iCloud
- Easily share digital keys with iMessage
- Driver-specific profiles so you can configure shared keys for full access or restricted driving
- Power reserve allows you to unlock and start your car for up to five hours after iPhone runs out of battery
Apple News
- Audio stories are professionally narrated versions of some of the best Apple News + readings, selected and produced by Apple News editors as part of their subscription to Apple News +
- Apple News Today is a new free audio briefing on the top stories of the day from Apple News publishers, also available in the Podcasts app
- New Audio tab makes it easy to find audio stories from Apple News Today and Apple News +
- CarPlay lets you listen to audio stories from Apple News Today and Apple News + on the go
- Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City.
- More stories available from local news providers with an Apple News + subscription
- Your daily Apple Newsletter can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests.
Health
- New category of symptoms in the Health app, including symptoms recorded from Cycle Tracking and ECG
- Ability to record new symptoms, such as fever, chills, sore throat, or cough, and share them with third-party apps
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Add a new setting to choose whether updates are automatically downloaded to your device when on Wi-Fi
- Addresses an issue that may cause apps to stop responding when syncing data from iCloud Drive
- Addresses an issue that could cause data roaming to appear disabled in eSIM even though it remains active
- Addresses an issue that causes some Saskatchewan phone calls to appear as originating in the United States
- Resolves an issue that could interrupt audio when making phone calls over Wi-Fi calls
- Fixes an issue that was preventing some iPhone 6S and iPhone SE devices from registering for Wi-Fi calls
- Addresses an issue that could cause the software keyboard to appear unexpectedly when connected to certain third-party hardware keyboards
- Addresses an issue that could cause Japanese hardware keyboards to be incorrectly mapped to a US keyboard.
- Fixes stability issues when accessing the Control Center when Touch Assist was enabled
- Provides a mechanism for administrators to specify domains to exclude from traffic carried by always-on VPN connections
macOS Catalina 10.15.6 and watchOS 6.2.8 are even more modest. Mac software update expands local news offerings and customization options on Apple News, “adds new option to streamline video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac laptops for better battery life” and includes great security fixes and updates. Here are the update notes:
macOS Catalina® 10.15.6 features local news in your Today feed in “Apple News” and improves the security and reliability of your Mac.
NewsApple Newsp
- Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City.
- More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to Apple News +
- Your boApple News daily newsletter can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests.
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Adds a new option to optimize video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac laptops for better battery life
- Addresses an issue where the computer name may change after installing a software update
- Addresses an issue where certain USB mice and trackpads may lose connection
watchOS 6.2.8 adds digital support for the car key in the Apple Watch 5 series and expands ECG capability and irregular heart rate notifications to Bahrain, Brazil and South Africa. Here are the notes:
watchOS 6.2.8 includes new features and improvements:
- Add support for digital car keys for Apple Watch Series 5
- ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 or later is now available in Bahrain, Brazil and South Africa
- Irregular heart rate notifications now available in Bahrain, Brazil and South Africa
Apple also released tvOS 13.4.8 and the HomePod 13.4.8 update. Both offer stability improvements and bug fixes, but there are no new features, according to Apple.
Earlier this month, Apple announced its plants for its largest annual updates, including iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, watchOS 7, and macOS 11 Big Sur. We will likely continue to see only small updates like the current one until those new versions roll out in September or October.
