New iOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 Developer Betas Make Apple Intelligence Easier to Access

Apple released yesterday the iOS 18.1 and macOS Sonoma 15.1 beta 3 for developers, and there are some notable changes regarding Apple Intellligence. As reported by 9to5Mac, users no longer have to set their device region to the US to try Apple Intelligence. However, users in the EU are still out of luck.

For beta testers outside of the US, it’s still required to set Siri’s language and the device language to US English to access Apple Intelligence, and that can be easily done in Settings. Previously, enthusiasts also had to change their region setting to the US, which can cause some troubles as some types of content might not be available after changing regions.

Apple’s latest set of developer betas also introduces a new ‘Clean Up’ feature in the Photos app that can remove distracting objects in the background of pictures. This is quite similar to the Magic Eraser feature in Google Photos, which Google recently made available to more users for free.

For Mac users, the latest macOS Sonoma 15.1 beta also makes Mac App Store downloads a bit more flexible. There’s a new toggle for downloading apps larger than 1GB on external drives, which should be useful on Macs with just 128GB or 256GB of storage. Additionally, the Mac App Store will no longer require twice the amount of available storage that an app actually needs to initiate the download. This had started to become an issue for Mac gamers as a growing number of AAA games are now being ported on Apple Silicon Macs.

iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 are expected to be released in October, nearly a month after Apple releases the big annual updates for its software platforms. The company has already announced the date of its iPhone 16 event, which will be held on Monday, September 9.