Apple has begun rolling out iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5 bringing new features, fixes, security updates, and tools for developers to play with.
Members of the Apple subreddit were charitable enough to provide the release notes on Pastebin for those who haven’t gotten the update yet.
The new iOS 15.5 update will allow Apple Cash users to send or ask for money via the Wallet app, a new Podcasts feature that puts a limit to the number of episodes stored on an iPhone and then automatically deletes the old ones, and a bug fix to automations on the Home app.
These automations could be assigned to turn off the lights when you leave your home for example, but apparently, there was a reliability issue where they failed to activate. And for the Cash update, you will see two new buttons labeled ‘Request’ and ‘Send’ for the new money transfer capability. iPadOS 15.5 is seeing a much smaller update as it’s only getting the podcast changes.
iOS 15.5 first came out as a beta back in April 2022 and it looks like there are missing features. Hidden in the beta code were indications of a new SportsKit feature for streaming baseball games, Apple Classical which is a streaming service for classical music, and a gift code feature for the App Store called iTunes Pass.
It’s unknown when these features will launch, but Apple’s WWDC 2022 event is coming up soon on June 6 so there’s a good chance people could see them and iOS 16 then.
Security and upcoming changes
The security fixes are also pretty minor too. All of them pertain to patching up holes in the code of these apps to prevent bad actors from gaining access. Apple also beefed up Wi-Fi security to further prevent denial of service attacks.
Regular consumers may not find the Developer side of things to be particularly interesting but may give an indication of future releases. A particularly interesting change is the support for DualSense adaptive triggers.
DualSense controllers have a unique sensitivity to their back triggers that are available on the PS5 and that may change for iOS. There may also be fixes coming to the Health app. The notes state the app crashes when people try to use the Blood Oxygen feature.
If you’d like to have these changes, Apple has a set of detailed instructions on how to update your iPhone or iPad.
