Apple released the first developer betas for iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, and macOS 26.4 this week, followed by public beta versions. These updates typically arrive around the midpoint between major releases and bring significant new features and refinements.

The macOS 26.4 beta introduces a new battery charge limit slider, allowing users to manually set a maximum charge percentage between 80 and 100 percent in 5 percent increments. This builds on the existing Optimized Battery Charging feature, though the beta currently runs both features simultaneously rather than disabling one when the other is enabled.

Other notable additions include Playlist Playground for generating Apple Music playlists with text prompts, native video podcast support in the Podcasts app, and the Creator Studio version of Freeform with access to Apple's Content Hub and AI-generated images. The update notably lacks the promised "more intelligent Siri" feature, which Apple has delayed until 2026 due to quality concerns.