This is Technology Bytes, episode 153 for February 8th, 2026.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
This week I’m talking about the beta of iOS and all the other OS from Apple that is coming in 26.4.
And it’s interesting because just this week, I don’t remember what day it was, Tuesday, I think afternoon, I don’t know, they did the release candidate for 26.3.
So that is still coming from Apple for the rest of the masses who don’t live in the beta world as I do.
And so now I’m already past that.
Yep, great, I’ve got that on my phone, but I’m looking forward to the 26.4 betas and what they might have to offer.
I live in a tech world, that’s where I like to exist, and I really like technology and like to look forward to what’s coming down the pipe.
You know that I live mostly in the Apple ecosystem, and that’s okay, I’m okay with that.
I have technology outside of Apple that I have talked about on this podcast.
But we’ve also spoken about using Gemini to power Siri, and that’s supposed to be coming, is supposed to work?
That’s supposed to be coming in the betas of 26.4.
So my news feeds are often filled with Apple news, whether it’s news of things that have happened or news of things that people think are going to happen.
Obviously 26.4 betas are going to come.
That is no news at all.
That is going to happen unless, I don’t know, the world comes to an end before, you know, a week and a half from now.
But what is going to be offered in that 26.4?
So many of the feed news stories that show up for me are talking about, oh, they’re going to do this, and it’s going to be better to do this, and it’s going to have some context of what’s on your phone, and you’re going to have these app intents so that the Siri can react to a variety of things that are happening across the different apps that you use.
Now, I mostly live in the world of Apple apps, so if they do anything in that realm, then I should be in pretty good shape because I don’t stray far, mostly because I don’t want to spend any money, the apps that Apple provides, and I’m comfortable in that environment.
Herein lies the problem that I have, though.
I am reading things that people say are going to happen in the 26.4 betas, but it doesn’t, the people that are writing these, the pundits, don’t really know when.
Is it 26.4 beta 1?
How much is coming at the very beginning?
How much is Apple willing to risk to offer to their customers in this beta environment things that Gemini brings with it, the things that we look forward to Siri being able to do and being able to use the smart assistant in a more productive environment?
What is going to happen?
So I’m trying to maintain a sense of calm.
I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.
I’m trying not to get too much of assumption-based things happening as I read these articles, but it’s really hard because I use Siri for what it can do.
I have a smart home.
It does very well at all the things that I ask it to do, but we all know that when you try to press Siri to do things, then it often ends in failures because she’s just not built to do those things yet.
So it’s a bit of a challenge.
And then, as I said just a little bit ago, there’s a timing to that.
So when we look at 26.4 coming out, is it going to be baby steps?
And one of the people that I read is like, yeah, there’s two functions coming out.
This first is a real baby step.
And then in the fall, when they release iOS 27, we’ll get more.
Well, we’re a bit away from iOS 27, and I’m hoping they build into this current version of iOS 26, whatever betas they are, and really press the envelope a little bit.
Give their customers, Apple gives their customers something close to what they promised a year and a half ago.
So it’s hard.
I really want Apple to succeed.
I like Apple as a company.
I like their products.
And for the first time, one of the pundits I listened to said, if Apple doesn’t step it up, he may become an Android user.
I’m like, I understand what he’s saying, but one of the other people on another podcast I listened to says, so what?
You can do all the AI stuff on Apple devices.
It doesn’t matter which one you use, whether you use Gemini, whether you use OpenAI, whether you use Claude, all those kind of things.
But I don’t use any of those really.
And so I’m really looking forward to Apple providing those types of environments in the environment that I work in all the time and being able to use them there without going outside the ecosystem and to have that same availability that others talk about.
So we’ll see what happens.
Again, this is all looking forward, guessing at what Apple’s going to do.
They have let some of the cats out of the bag, as it were, but I am looking forward to the first run of 26.4 beta to see what Apple has done.
Are they taking very tiny baby steps?
Are they trying to push the envelope?
I think people are going to be disappointed, myself maybe included, but I think that these are going to be tiny little steps towards something bigger and we may have to be more patient than we want to be.
That is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.com and that is m-e-a-r-i-g family dot com.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
