iOS 26.4 beta now available, what’s new?
9to5Mac Daily
9to5Mac
4.6 • 624 Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Stories discussed in this episode:
- Apple special event announced for March 4
- Are people updating to iOS 26? Here's Apple's official data
- iOS 26.4 beta 1: Here are the new iPhone features
- iOS 26.4 beta adds support for testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging
- iOS 26.4 beta adds new 'Playlist Playground' AI feature for Apple Music
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to 995 Mac Daily for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. |
| 0:07.5 | I'm your host, Chance Miller. |
| 0:09.6 | We are sponsored this week by Stuff, the Clean and Powerful To-Do List application. |
| 0:16.0 | Leading off today, yesterday we talked about all of the new hardware in Apple's pipeline. |
| 0:22.0 | Shortly thereafter, |
| 0:27.6 | Apple announced a special event for next month, inviting members of the press to an event on March 4, 26 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, 6 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is branding this as a quote-unquote |
| 0:36.4 | special Apple experience rather than your typical Apple event. |
| 0:41.3 | I was invited to the event on behalf of 9-5 Mac in New York City. |
| 0:45.7 | Apple is also hosting separate gatherings for press in Shanghai and London. |
| 0:50.9 | So this doesn't sound like your typical Apple event. |
| 0:55.7 | It doesn't seem like there will be anything available for a live stream viewing from home. Instead, the in-person gatherings will focus on |
| 1:01.9 | hands-on time with new hardware, as well as briefings with Apple representatives. It sounds like |
| 1:07.8 | the actual new products will be announced in press releases on Apple's website. |
| 1:12.7 | It's a different strategy than what Apple usually utilizes for new product launches, |
| 1:17.6 | but it could be helpful to give press that hands-on time with the new hardware |
| 1:21.7 | and provide impressions to readers, listeners, and viewers. |
| 1:26.0 | As a refresher, Apple is expected to announce a new low-cost MacBook, the M5 MacBook Air, |
| 1:31.3 | more powerful MacBook Pros, new Mac displays, the iPhone 17E, the A18-based model iPad, and |
| 1:38.8 | the M4 iPad Air. |
| 1:41.1 | Whether or not Apple announces all of those products at this March 4th launch remains to be seen, |
| 1:46.6 | but again, there is clearly a lot in the pipeline. Next up today, Apple has released the highly |
| 1:52.2 | anticipated adoption statistics for iOS 26 for the first time. This comes after some analysts |
... |
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