Apple releases iOS 26.4 public beta, Apple Intelligence adds AI-generated Apple Music playlists and video podcasts via HLS, Platform turns AI and ad delivery into system-level toll roads

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Apple’s iOS 26.4 public beta is a small feature drop with a large strategic tell: generative AI is no longer a keynote prop, it’s becoming an OS primitive—owned, metered, and distributed by the platform gatekeeper.

According to TechCrunch, iOS 26.4 adds “Playlist Playground” in Apple Music, using Apple Intelligence to generate a 25-song playlist from a text prompt (and optionally matching cover art). Apple Music also gets a refreshed UI with full-screen artwork and a “Concerts Near You” discovery section.

In Podcasts, Apple is adding support for video episodes using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), with seamless switching between audio and video. At launch, TechCrunch reports support from major hosting and ad-tech players including Acast, Amazon’s ART19, Triton’s Omny Studio, and SiriusXM’s Simplecast/AdsWizz stack. Apple says it will later charge participating ad networks an impression-based fee for delivery of dynamic ads in HLS video podcasts—an elegant reminder that “open distribution” is still someone else’s toll road.

The security story is more consequential than the AI playlist gimmick. TechCrunch notes iOS 26.4 begins testing end-to-end encryption for RCS messages. Apple says the feature will roll out later across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, but the beta implementation is limited and not available for all devices and carriers.

iOS 26.4 also enables Stolen Device Protection by default, expanding biometric checks for sensitive actions such as accessing saved passwords or making certain account changes. That is good engineering—and also an implicit admission that the modern smartphone is a portable identity vault whose compromise can cascade into financial and account takeover.

CarPlay is gaining in-car video playback for select apps (including Apple TV) while parked, TechCrunch reports. The “safety” restriction is sensible; the deeper point is that Apple continues to push entertainment, payments, identity, and now AI into system-level services where third-party apps become optional accessories.

Apple’s preferred framing is “on-device vs cloud” privacy. But the platform reality is: if Apple Intelligence becomes the default interface for generating playlists, summarizing content, or mediating communications, then Apple controls not only distribution (App Store) but also interaction surfaces and data flows. Developers are left integrating with whatever APIs Apple exposes—on Apple’s schedule, with Apple’s guardrails, and inside Apple’s economic perimeter.

iOS 26.4 isn’t about playlists. It’s about Apple turning “AI” into another layer of operating-system sovereignty: a system service, a default UX, and—when convenient—a new place to charge rent.