It’s a big day to update your favorite Apple gadgets. Now rolling out to the general public are macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, and visionOS 1.1. The updates for Macs, Apple Watches, and the Apple Vision Pro bring several new features. The latest macOS version is adding some new emoji, on watchOS 10.4, there’s a fix for the ghost touch issue, and in visionOS 1.1, there are changes to the virtual keyboard. We’ve divided up all the information on these releases for you below.
What’s new in macOS Sonoma 14.4
As we’ve highlighted, macOS Sonoma 14.4 brings new emojis to your Mac that’ll help you express your personality more. It also brings tweaks to Podcasts, iMessage, and Safari. Here’s the full changelog from Apple.
- New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in emoji keyboard
- 18 people and body emoji support facing the opposite direction
- Podcasts Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, clicked to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver
- Business Updates in Messages for Business let you get updates that you’ve opted into, like order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions from trusted businesses
- Safari Favorites Bar adds an option to show only icons for websites
Updating your Mac to macOS Sonoma is pretty easy. Just head into the Software Update part of System Settings. Note that if you’re still running macOS Ventura and macOS Monterey, you’ll see macOS 13.6.5 and macOS 12.7.5, which are separate releases.
What’s new in watchOS 10.4
For Apple Watch models, there’s watchOS 10.4. This release is pretty minor, though it’s delivering a fix for the issue where Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models experience “ghost touch” when the screen on the watch turned on and off without user intent. Here’s Apple’s changelog.
- Tap to Show Full Notification setting now allows you to double tap to expand the notification
- Using Apple Pay with Confirm with AssistiveTouch will require a passcode for additional security and will not support double clicking the side button
- Resolves an issue that causes some users to experience false touches on the display
- Fixes an issue that prevents contacts from syncing to Apple Watch for some users
If you want to update to watchOS 10.4, you’re going to use your iPhone. Just open the Watch app, and head to the Software update section. Keep your watch close to your iPhone and make sure that it’s fully charged.
What’s new in visionOS 1.1
The first big update for visionOS, which powers the Apple Vision Pro, is a pretty significant one. The update brings tweaks to mobile device management, messages, accessibility, Persona, Virtual keyboard, Mac Virtuak Display, and Network support. The changelog is below.
- Enables account-driven device and user enrollment using Managed Apple IDs
- Support for device configuration (Wi-Fi, VPN, email accounts, single sign-on, and more)
- Support for deploying apps in volume including iPhone and iPad compatible apps, visionOS apps included in a Universal purchase, and proprietary in-house visionOS apps
- Support for remote erase via MDM and device inventory data
- Adds support for iMessage Contact Key Verification
- Closed captions can be anchored to the playback control while viewing Apple Immersive Video
- Adds an option to enroll your Persona hands-free
- Improves hair and makeup appearance
- Improves neck and mouth representation
- Improves rendering of the eyes for EyeSight
- Cursor positioning for text input is now more accurate
- Resolves some instances where the virtual keyboard placement obscures the text input field
- Fixes an issue where in some cases, the text preview on the virtual keyboard may appear out of sync with the text field in the app
- Fixes an issue where the edit menu may appear unexpectedly
- Improves the reliability of discovering and connecting to a Mac using Mac Virtual Display
- Resolves an issue where Universal Control may stop working
- Addresses a connectivity issue that occurs when a previously paired Bluetooth device cannot be found
- Adds the ability to set up your device while using a captive WiFi network such as those found at hotels, cafes, and airports
Updating to visionOS 1.1 is different from other Apple products. Put on your headet, head into the settings app, the general, and head into Software Update. You’ll eventually have to take it off to apply the update, and the front of the headset will show how it is progressing.
Apple also released tvOS 17.4 today, though there’s no changelog. And, for the HomePod, there’s HomePod Software 17.4, which will allow Siri to learn your favorite media service, meaning you’ll no longer have to include the name of a media app when requesting to play music.