Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Apple Releases iOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, and Other x.4 OS Updates Adam Engst Apple has released what may be the final notable feature release of its 2024 operating systems, including iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4 Sequoia, watchOS 11.4, visionOS 2.4, tvOS 18.4, and HomePod Software 18.4. The company also released older versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with fixes for exploited security vulnerabilities that had already been patched in current releases. Despite Siri's conspicuous absence from the announcements (see '[1]Apple Delays 'More Personalized' Siri,' 7 March 2025), these releases focus heavily on [2]Apple Intelligence, which is now available in more languages in nearly all geographic regions, including the EU. Supported languages now include French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified), as well as localized English for Singapore and India. Apple also shipped the promised Priority Notifications feature for the iPhone and iPad, though not the Mac, and brought an initial set of Apple Intelligence features to the Vision Pro. Photos on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac receives substantial organizational improvements. You can now filter the Library view to show or hide items not contained in albums or synced from a computer. The app offers the same filtering options in all collections, including the ability to sort by oldest or newest first, and you can sort albums by modification date. The Media Types and Utilities collections can be reordered to match your workflow, and you can turn off the Recently Viewed and Recently Shared collections if you find them unnecessary. Plus, if you use Face ID to protect hidden photos, they won't be included when importing to a Mac or PC. These updates also expand Mail categorization across Apple's platforms. After debuting in iOS 18.2, the feature now comes to both iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4, automatically sorting email into Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions categories. While the categorization isn't perfect, you can manually recategorize messages to improve its accuracy over time. Other features common to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac include support for Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners in the Home app, new Followed Shows and Library widgets in Podcasts, Screen Time App Limits that persist even if a child uninstalls and reinstalls an app (I wonder how long it took kids to figure out that workaround), and eight new emoji. Let's look at the more specific features of each release. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 For those with an Apple Intelligence-compatible device, [3]iOS 18.4 and [4]iPadOS 18.4 bring the debut of Priority Notifications, which appear at the top of your notifications to highlight those that may warrant immediate attention. It analyzes the content of the notifications to determine which should appear, but you can turn the feature off for any apps whose notifications are never important. We'll see if this feels like a noteworthy improvement or just another tweak for those who haven't already tamed their notifications using previous systems. The other promised Apple Intelligence feature is a Sketch style for Image Playground that joins the Animation and Illustration styles. It's tough to be enthusiastic about Sketch in Image Playground the week after OpenAI released a [5]new image generation feature in ChatGPT 4o that creates vastly more impressive images and [6]lets you tweak portions of the image through text prompts rather than submitting updated prompts that generate an entirely new image. Apple News+ subscribers gain a new [7]Food section that provides access to tens of thousands of recipes from major recipe publishers, complete with a Recipe Catalog for browsing and searching, plus a Cooking mode that makes following recipes easier. The Food section also includes restaurant reviews, kitchen tips, and articles about healthy eating. Those who don't subscribe to Apple News+ will see a subset of stories and recipes. This feature may encourage people to subscribe to Apple News+ given the influence of publishers like Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats in the foodie world (but also see ' [8]Filling Out Your Cookbook Shelves with ckbk,' 12 May 2023). A big question is if you'll be able to save recipes to a recipe management app like [9]Paprika and [10]Mela. Other improvements include: * Safari's recent search suggestions now help you quickly return to previous search topics (Safari 18.4 also features [11]a boatload of new WebKit features under the hood.) * Streamlined Setup Assistant steps for creating Child Accounts (see '[12]Apple Aims to Boost Child Privacy with New Age-Related Controls,' 7 March 2025) * App Store summaries for user reviews * The ability to pause and resume App Store downloads without losing progress * An Ambient Music feature in Control Center offers hand-curated playlists of free music for activities like relaxation, productivity, sleep, and wellbeing * A new Apple Vision Pro app helps Vision Pro users discover spatial experiences, queue apps and games to download, find tips, and access device information * Apple Fitness+ Collections can now be added to the Library * Support for 10 new system languages, including Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu I've been running beta versions of iOS 18.4 since Apple started releasing them, and I've noticed that the iPhone's motion detection in StandBy is far less sensitive than in the past. Previously, when I woke up at night, looking at the iPhone screen was enough to get it to light up with the time. Now I have to wave at it or even tap the screen. I consider this a bug'anything that requires me to move more or think about how to find out what time it is will make it harder to get back to sleep. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 include fixes for [13]60 vulnerabilities, though none are zero-days that are being exploited in the wild. Apple also updated previous versions of iOS and iPadOS with security fixes: * [14]iPadOS 17.7.6 addresses 35 security vulnerabilities, including a CoreMedia bug that Apple says was exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2. * [15]iOS 16.7.11 and iPadOS 16.7.11 block two zero-day exploits that Apple recently fixed in current operating systems (see '[16]iOS 18.3.1, iPadOS 18.3.1, and iPadOS 17.7.5 Block USB Restricted Mode Attack,' 10 February 2025, and '[17]Apple Updates Keep Malicious Web Content in the Sandbox,' 11 March 2025) * [18]iOS 15.8.4 and iPadOS 15.8.4 address those same two vulnerabilities. Although it's not essential to update to iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 for security reasons, if you're still running an older version of iOS or iPadOS, we strongly encourage you to update to the latest version available for your device. macOS 15.4 Sequoia On M-series Macs running [19]macOS 15.4, Apple Intelligence now supports the same new languages as iPhone and iPad and includes the Sketch style in Image Playground. You can also create Memory movies by describing them in Photos, which was previously possible only on the iPhone and iPad. However, macOS did not receive the new Priority Notifications feature'perhaps it will appear in macOS 15.5. macOS 15.4 also: * Adds the Retouch brush to the Clean Up tool in Photos * Fixes an issue that prevented certain external displays from turning off Night Shift * Solves a problem that caused VoiceOver to navigate elements in Music in an incorrect order * Addresses a bug where a Braille display could show an incorrect line when navigating lines with left or right arrows * Increases the default maximum memory allocation limit available to the GPU on the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256 GB or 512 GB of unified memory * Improves transcoding performance in Final Cut Pro on the M3 Ulrta Mac Studio * Includes [20]numerous changes and fixes for enterprise users Although I don't know what his source is, [21]Howard Oakley adds: * Apple silicon Macs with an internal SD card reader now support SDUC cards larger than 2 TB * macOS 15.4 should resolve problems with some M4 Macs being unable to launch virtual machines * The Finder no longer fails to copy some dataless files from SMB file shares On the security side, macOS 15.4 addresses what could be a record [22]128 vulnerabilities, none of which are actively being exploited in the wild. As with iOS and iPadOS, Apple also pushed out security releases for older versions of macOS: * [23]macOS 14.7.5 Sonoma addresses 88 security vulnerabilities, including the exploited CoreMedia bug that was also fixed in iPadOS 17.7.6. * [24]macOS 13.7.5 Ventura fixes 82 vulnerabilities, including the CoreMedia problem. * [25]Safari 18.4 for Sonoma and Ventura resolves 13 vulnerabilities Given the vast number of vulnerabilities fixed and the fact that one was exploited in the past, we recommend updating those older versions as soon as it's convenient. watchOS 11.4 Apple made only one change worth calling out to [26]watchOS 11.4: an option to allow the Sleep Wake Up alarm to break through Silent Mode. Setting that option ensures you get an audible alarm even if your Apple Watch is in Silent Mode. Haptic notifications have worked well for me, but I could easily imagine someone sleeping through them. watchOS 11.4 also resolves a bug that caused face selection to become unresponsive when switching faces. Apple doesn't list any security fixes, although that may be an artifact of the company quickly pulling the update. It will likely return very soon. visionOS 2.4 The big news in [27]visionOS 2.4 is the arrival of Apple Intelligence features in US English, including Writing Tools with ChatGPT integration, Image Playground with all three styles, Genmoji support, natural language search in Photos, Smart Reply in Messages and Mail, Priority Messages in Mail, Mail Summaries, Image Wand in Notes, Priority Notifications, and Notification Summaries. The update also introduces Spatial Gallery, a new app showcasing spatial photos, videos, and panoramas curated by Apple from well-known brands and artists. For those who share their Vision Pro with others, Guest User enhancements make it easier to start a session from a nearby iPhone or iPad and let owners choose which apps guests can access. visionOS 2.4 addresses [28]36 security vulnerabilities. tvOS 18.4 and HomePod Software Version 18.4 Although Apple acknowledges only 'performance and stability improvements' in [29]tvOS 18.4, [30]9to5Mac reports that the Apple TV app receives some user interface changes. The update addresses [31]34 security vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, [32]HomePod Software 18.4 also receives only the usual 'performance and stability improvements.' Update Scenario None of these updates are essential to update immediately, but there's nothing special about their predecessors, so I recommend waiting a week to see if any problems shake out and then installing when it's convenient. References Visible links 1. https://tidbits.com/2025/03/07/apple-delays-more-personalized-siri/ 2. https://www.apple.com/apple-intelligence/ 3. https://support.apple.com/en-us/121161 4. https://support.apple.com/en-us/121162 5. https://www.theverge.com/openai/635118/chatgpt-sora-ai-image-generation-chatgpt 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=32&v=E9RN8jX--uc 7. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-introduces-news-plus-food/ 8. https://tidbits.com/2023/05/12/filling-out-your-cookbook-shelves-with-ckbk/ 9. https://www.paprikaapp.com/ 10. https://mela.recipes/ 11. https://webkit.org/blog/16574/webkit-features-in-safari-18-4/ 12. https://tidbits.com/2025/03/07/apple-aims-to-boost-child-privacy-with-new-age-related-controls/ 13. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122371 14. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122372 15. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122346 16. https://tidbits.com/2025/02/10/ios-18-3-1-ipados-18-3-1-and-ipados-17-7-5-block-usb-restricted-mode-attack/ 17. https://tidbits.com/2025/03/11/apple-updates-keep-malicious-web-content-in-the-sandbox/ 18. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122345 19. https://support.apple.com/en-us/120283 20. https://support.apple.com/en-us/121011 21. https://eclecticlight.co/2025/03/31/apple-has-released-macos-sequoia-15-4-and-14-7-5-13-7-5/ 22. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122373 23. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122374 24. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122375 25. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122379 26. https://support.apple.com/en-us/121163 27. https://support.apple.com/en-us/121164 28. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122378 29. https://support.apple.com/en-us/106336 30. https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/31/tvos-18-4-now-available-with-new-design-changes-for-apple-tv-app/ 31. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122377 32. https://support.apple.com/en-us/106336 Hidden links: 33. https://tidbits.com/uploads/2025/03/Apple-Mail-catgorization.png 34. https://tidbits.com/uploads/2025/03/Priority-Notifications-scaled.jpg 35. https://tidbits.com/uploads/2025/03/Image-Playgrond-vs-ChatGPT-4o-scaled.jpg .