This is Technology Bytes, episode 165, for May 3rd, 2026.
Technology Bytes is a microcast, where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
Today I’m doing a little bit of a going backwards, I’m going to be talking about something that has just come out but is solving an issue that I had a few podcasts ago, and that is Safari 26.5 beta 4.
So you may remember that when 26.5 beta 2 came out, that a tool that I use for work in Safari just stopped working.
It would not load on my iPad, I could not get it to load on my MacBook Air, thankfully I didn’t update my iMac so I was able to use the tool there at my desk.
But I didn’t understand, I jumped through a lot of hoops, did a lot of reading the other day in my podcast I talked about maybe using AI to figure out what I could do.
And then when 26.5 beta 3 came out, I thought okay this may fix it, it did not.
And as I was reading the things that Apple posted, so it’s kind of interesting, a little bit of a side note, is that all of 26.5 betas have been almost next to nothing.
I’m not 100% sure why we even have that beta.
People dig pretty far into it and give you well in the .5 beta this is what’s coming and this is what’s available and this is what it’s doing.
But in essence it’s been very little because everybody’s waiting for the new Siri to be available in iOS and iPadOS and everything else.
But there’s no indication of any work in Safari when I read through the notes of the different versions of the beta.
And so when I was having the issues I also loaded the, I can’t remember what they call it, it’s kind of an advanced Safari that gives you a preview of the technology, I think it’s called the technology review or something.
So I had updated that one and it still didn’t work.
I could not get to that tool.
So when 26.5 beta 4 came out I had no indication that it would work at all.
And so I first installed it on my iPad.
Well, I always install it on my phone first because then I get a chance to get it to start working on updating and downloading the software for my watch.
So that’s where I start.
But then the next thing I did was put it on the iPad.
And so I loaded it up with no expectation whatsoever.
Once it finished I just opened Safari, well logged into the VPN, opened Safari and the tool worked.
Again, nothing that you’re reading, nothing in the notes, nothing would indicate that anything in Safari broke.
Now, I know that this one website, the tool that I use at work, is the only thing that I use on a regular basis.
I can’t say it’s the only thing because there’s way more websites in the world than I’m ever going to visit.
But it’s the only one of all the ones that I use that had any trouble whatsoever.
Every other site that I use worked, including the other tools that I use at work.
And so the same software developers who make the tool that doesn’t work at my work are the ones who wrote the tools that still work.
And so that was really weird again.
So now it’s a matter of what do I do as the betas go forward.
So the one thing that I do know is that if Safari breaks on my MacBook Air, almost always Chrome almost always works.
And so I always have a fallback there.
So I think my new strategy is going to be not skipping the betas because that’s not me, but I will be putting the beta initially on my MacBook Air because I have a fallback for that.
So if it doesn’t work there, then I won’t put it on my iMac.
I won’t put it on my iPad so that I don’t lose that tool when I’m upgrading software.
And so that is my current and new path.
The last time this happened to me, I just willy nilly updated everything.
And then once everything was updated, I went and tried to get onto the different tools that I use and found out it was broken.
So I’m going to take a little more thoughtful path in the future because I do have a backup for my MacBook Air.
But this week was a hugely busy week at work.
We were processing about 6,000 T-shirts, and that is a big job.
And so I was on the floor with my iPad.
And if I could not have used the tool that now worked in 26.5 Beta 4, that would have made my job multiple times harder than it was on the Thursday and Friday of this past week.
So it was so nice to have it working again.
I hope that it stays.
I’m looking forward to iOS 27 and the betas of that.
I probably won’t hold off because that’s not what I do.
So a little bit smarter, figuring out to do maybe one device at a time.
I don’t use the tool on my phone because there’s not a big enough screen.
I mean, I use the biggest screen that they make until maybe the Fold comes out.
But not a big enough screen, not a tool that is even useful on my phone unless it was the absolutely last resort.
So not ever worried about it breaking there.
But I will not put it on my iPad, the latest beta, or on my iMac until I test it on my MacBook Air because of the backup through Chrome.
And then I will go from there.
But I am so glad that whatever changed in 26.5 Beta 4 has fixed my tools.
I hope whatever they do, I feel like we’re not going to get another beta before they just hold off and do the iOS 27 in June sometime.
So maybe I don’t have anything to worry about there.
But so glad to have the tool back.
I really wish I knew what had broken.
I have no idea, no real way for me to figure it out.
I’m sure someone who is much smarter in the development world would probably have some ideas.
But in my world, I’m just glad it works and just thought I would share that with you today.
That is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.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.
