Apple is still expected to release iOS 17.4 in early March to beat the EU's March 8 deadline for Apple to deliver all upcoming changes to Safari, the App Store, and iOS to all 27 EU member countries. EU residents will be able to use a browser with an engine other than WebKit, select a default third-party contactless payment app, choose an alternative third-party app store from which to install apps, and much more. Today, Apple released the Release Candidate (RC) version of iOS 17.4, which means that software released today will likely remain the same when the final version becomes available.
Developers will be able to have in-app purchases processed through an alternative payment processing platform and avoid the Apple tax which will be reduced in the EU from 15-30% everywhere else to 10-17%. EU residents can thank the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for these changes, while those living in other countries who own an
iPhone can look forward to their own DMA.
iOS 17.4 will bring an improvement to the Stolen Device Protection feature that will make it harder for passcode thieves to grab your phone and change your Apple ID and password, reset Face ID and Touch ID, disable Find My
app and create new passwords for your financial apps allowing them to take control and eliminate you. The feature requires the use of Face ID and Touch ID to verify your identity before changes can be made to your phone. More sensitive tasks will require verification from Face ID and Touch ID and will hold some changes for an hour before they become official. This way, if you realize your iPhone has been stolen, you can call Apple to alert the company.
Apple releases iOS 17.4 release candidate
When stolen device protection debuted in iOS 17.3, users can either enable it to work in unknown locations or disable it. In iOS 17.4, a new option has been added to disable the feature, enable it for use in unknown locations, or configure it to always be enabled. Personally, I chose the latter solution because it seems to give you protection against passcode thieves no matter where you are.
With iOS 17.4, the Apple Podcasts app will give you the ability to read transcripts of your favorite podcasts, including an entire episode. You can tap any part of the transcript and listen to the podcast from that point, or search for a specific word or phrase. When a podcast is played on the app, the transcript is highlighted to match what is heard.
The update to iOS 17.4 will include improved security for iMessage that will defend it “even against very sophisticated quantum attacks.” The system is called “Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocol or PQ3”. And the new Emoji arrives on the iPhone with iOS 17.4 including a brown mushroom, a phoenix, a broken chain, a lime and two shaking heads. One head shakes vertically, the other heads shakes horizontally.
