Technology
iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1 beta 2
In this episode of Not a Five Mac Daily, host Cheyenne Smiller discusses the latest updates on iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1 beta 2, including anticipated new iPad Pro features and the introduction of a ne...
iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1 beta 2
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Welcome to Not a Five Mac Daily 4 Tuesday, October 7th, 2025.
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I'm your host, Cheyenne Smiller.
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We are sponsored this week by Backblaze.
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Leading off today, Apple is widely expected to announce at least new iPad Pros and a new
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Vision Pro sometime as soon as this month.
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One lingering question is whether or not that in 5 iPad Pro will have two front facing cameras.
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This is something that Bloomberg's Mark Gurman had reported a couple months ago as being
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in development.
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But recent hardware leaks have failed to show a clear indication of whether or not that's
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true.
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In his power on and newsletter, here's what Gurman says about whether or not the new
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iPad Pro will have those two front facing cameras.
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He says that he can say with certainty that in 5 iPad Pros within Apple have the second
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lens.
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There is, however, a history of Apple testing features at an advanced stage before pulling
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them at the last minute.
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For example, Apple has made last minute changes to things like certain storage capacities
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or on the original iPad that was originally set to have two dock connectors instead of
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one.
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So at this point, it still seems like Gurman is confident that the new iPad Pro will indeed
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feature a second front facing camera.
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As for when to expect the M5 iPad Pro to be released, if you look on Apple's website
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today, inventory levels for the iPad Pro are starting to dwindle with current shipping
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estimates for most configurations showing mid to late October.
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Generally, this is viewed as a sign that an announcement of new products is imminent.
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Supply levels for the base model MacBook Pro powered by the M4 are also starting to dwindle,
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but availability for the M4 Pro and M4 Max configurations remains strong.
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Whether or not Apple releases new MacBook Pros this year remains to be seen, but we are
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confident that we'll see at least new iPad Pros and a new M5 Vision Pro.
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In other news today, back at CES in January, LG caught the attention of Mac users by teasing
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a new ultra fine 6K display with Thunderbolt 5.
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The company, however, was tight-lipped on details about the display, including pricing
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and availability.
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Mac users, however, were excited about the prospect of a 32-inch 6K display,
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at perhaps a reasonable price point.
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Well, now that new LG Ultra Fine 6K display is now available to pre-order from B&H,
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and B&H says that it will cost $2,000.
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That makes it significantly more affordable than the Pro Display XDR, which also features
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a 6K resolution at 32 inches, and actually about the same price as Apple's studio display,
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which is a 27-inch panel with a 5K resolution.
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In terms of connectivity, you get a display port, an HDMI port, two USB-C Thunderbolt 5 connectors,
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and three normal USB-C ports.
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The resolution matches Apple's PartisPlay XDR and comes out to 218 pixels per inch.
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Like the XDR, the LG Ultra Fine 6K also doesn't have built-in speakers,
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or a built-in webcam.
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The Pro Display XDR, however, does have higher brightness at both normal usage and HDR usage.
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In terms of design, the LG Ultra Fine 6K bears a lot of resemblance to the Pro Display XDR,
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at least in terms of how it looks in the pictures.
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The jury is still out on actual build quality, which has been a major problem with previous LG
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Ultra Fine displays. According to the images, it does feature a fully height, tilt,
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and rotation adjustable stand. Meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that Apple is nearing mass
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production on two new Mac monitors, but it remains to be seen how those compare to the existing
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XDR and studio display. If you're interested in the LG Ultra Fine 6K, you can hit the link in the
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show notes. Again, I'd caution to maybe wait for reviews of this display before pulling the $2000
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trigger, but at the very least it's nice to have another option on the market,
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in this coveted resolution and form factor. We're sponsored this week by Backblaze.
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October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a perfect time to rethink your backup strategy.
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Backblaze protects your data automatically and in the background, a no-brainer part of your
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defense against ransomware and hardware failure. From business critical documents to your entire
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From the cloud, the client, or even a physical drive, 9-5 Mac listeners get 20% off with code 9-5
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daily. That's 9-105 daily. Go to Backblaze.com slash 9-5 Mac to start a free trial and use the
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promo code at checkout. My thanks to Backblaze for their support of the show.
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Running out today, Apple has released iOS 26.1 beta 2, and there are a few interesting changes
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here worth highlighting. First, there's a change that should make it harder to accidentally snooze or
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dismiss your alarms every morning. Apple redesigned the alarm screen in iOS 26 with much larger
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buttons than before, but in iOS 26.1 it's redesigned this interface yet again, with a new slide to stop
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gesture for dismissing an alarm. So no longer can you simply tap the screen to dismiss an alarm.
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Instead, you have to slide all the way from the left to the right. Above that, you still have a
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single tap button for snoozing the alarm, so you can tap to snooze or slide to turn the alarm off
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altogether. Other small changes include the text and icons in the Settings app are now left
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aligned. App folder titles on your home screen are also now left aligned, and there are a couple
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of small changes to the calendar app and the downloads interface in Safari. But perhaps the
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biggest change is actually in iPadOS 26.1 beta 2. When iPadOS 26 launched, it introduced a brand new
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more powerful windowing system for apps. It's a model that looks and works a lot like the multitasking
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interface on the Mac. But as part of this, Apple also did away with the prior split view and
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slide over multitasking options. But some users, if not many users, found the absence of slide over
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as a feature regression. Split view is easy enough to replicate with the new system. You can
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simply slide an app to the left or the right, and it'll automatically split the app sizes down the
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middle. Slide over, however, wasn't easily replicated with the new windowing interface.
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So now, with iPadOS 26.1, Apple has restored slide over multitasking to the iPad. It works alongside
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the new windowing system. So when viewing an app's window resize controls inside the green
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traffic light option in the top left corner of a window, there's a new dedicated button to enter
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slide over. This button resizes the window to a typical slide over size and lets you work inside
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any apps in the background without hiding the slide over app from view. You can swipe the app to
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the right to hide it out of view and pull it back when you need it. You can also now resize the
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slide over window to your liking, which is a new benefit compared to the previous implementation
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of this feature. There does, however, appear to be one feature missing. At least in beta 2,
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you can only have a single slide over app at a time. In iPadOS 18, Apple let you keep a whole stack
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of apps in slide over mode that you could easily swipe between. But at least, again, as of right now,
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that's not possible in this new iteration. For a closer look at how slide over works in iPadOS 26.1
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beta 2, you can hit the link in the show notes. There's an episode of Night of 5 Mac daily. As always,
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you can find all of the latest Apple news on Night of 5 Mac.com, follow along with me on threads,
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at Chance H Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of Night of 5 Mac daily.