- The iOS 14 update will work on all the iPhones that can run iOS 13, a new leak claims.
- If the iOS 14 rumor is accurate, the 2015 iPhone 6s will be the oldest iPhones to run Apple’s latest operating system.
- Providing five years of software support to smartphones is a crucial iOS feature that Google can’t even dream of matching.
Apple’s new software innovations should be unveiled in a few weeks, during an online-only WWDC 2020 keynote presentation. That’s assuming the protests against police brutality won’t force Apple to postpone an event that was already delayed by the coronavirus health crisis. Google and Sony postponed their Android 11 and PS5 announcements that were scheduled for this week in light of the George Floyd protests.
The iPhone maker will unveil software novelties across all its platforms, including iOS (and iPadOS), macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. But, as always with these events, it’s the iPhone operating system updates that will be the stars of the show. iOS 14 leaks have already revealed some of the highlights of the new OS update. All of that seems to be genuine information, as someone got their hands on an iPhone running an internal version of the unreleased OS. A new report appears to confirm that iOS 14 will help Apple secure a huge advantage over Android, one that Google can hardly dream of.
We heard all the way back in January that iOS 14 will run on all the devices that can run iOS 13, which might not necessarily sound like surprising news to iPhone users who are used to getting all the latest software updates that Apple puts forward.
But what that practically meant was that every iPhone launched since 2015 will get iOS 14, including the iPhone 6s series that arrived that year. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be five years old in September, but they’ll still be treated to Apple’s latest mobile OS release.
That’s something that doesn’t happen on Android because Google doesn’t have the same control over its own OS. Not even Pixel phones get that much support, which could be a key detail for anyone looking to use a flagship device for more than just a couple of years. In fact, some smartphone makers can barely ensure two years of fast Android updates for flagships, let alone mid-range handsets.
That’s one of the reasons why the brand new iPhone SE model is such a nightmare for Google. The $399 phone has the same hardware as the iPhone 11 series, which means it’ll probably get software updates for several years, well beyond what you can expect for a mid-range phone like the upcoming Pixel 4a.
This brings us to the latest iOS 14 rumor from Israeli blog The Verifier that says all iPhones running iOS 13 will be upgraded to iOS 14. The news comes from evidence found in iOS 14 code and from a “trusted source” involved in the development process.
The report focuses on the iPhone, but if it’s accurate, then it probably means that all iPads that can run iOS 13 will also get the update.
Apple will likely release the first iOS 14 beta soon after the virtual press conference, and the first public beta shouldn’t be too far off after that.
