WASHINGTON – In its much ballyhooed release of new iPads, price-slashed MacBooks, and a new Mac Pro line, Apple didn’t mention the elephant in the room – the complaints about the iOS 7 operating system that’s left mobile users wondering why their devices weren’t working well.
Soon after Apple CEO Tim Cook ticked off successes of iOS 7, Apple quietly released a third update to the operating system, which has included bugs affecting built-in apps, including iMessages, lock screen problems and an animation effect that caused some users to become nauseated.
The iOS 7.0.3 update became available to users shortly after the Apple news conference, saying it contained improvements and bug fixes.
“So far I haven’t heard many complaints,” says computer consultant Jeff Lauterette, of Springfield, Va.-based Mid Atlantic Consulting, which often works on Apple products.
“It looks like Apple has fixed most of the bugs, but there may be some bugs on individual devices that they need to work on, on a case-by-case basis,” says Lauterette.
One improvement in the update is the addition of iCloud Keychain support, that also was introduced in OS X Maverick. The feature syncs passwords and other information between Mac and iOS devices.
Lauterette says the Keychain feature will improve on earlier methods of buying something with the mobile devices.
“You take out your wallet, you fumble with your credit cards. It’ll now be easier to click on the credit card field on the iPhone and it will pop up all the credit cards you’ve used before, you choose the one you want to use, and press ‘buy.'”
Here’s Apple’s complete list of improvements, listed on its website.
- Adds iCloud Keychain to keep track of your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers across all your approved devices.
- Adds Password Generator so Safari can suggest unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts.
- Updates lock screen to delay display of “slide to unlock” when Touch ID is in use.
- Adds back the ability to search the web and Wikipedia from Spotlight search.
- Fixes an issue where iMessage failed to send for some users.
- Fixes a bug that could prevent iMessage from activating.
- Improves system stability when using iWork apps.
- Fixes an accelerometer calibration issue.
- Addresses an issue that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower quality voice.
- Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode.
- Enhances the Reduce Motion setting to minimize both motion and animation.
- Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver input to be too sensitive.
- Updates the Bold Text setting to also change dial pad text.
- Fixes an issue that could cause supervised devices to become un-supervised when updating software.
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