Apple has released its first beta for the new iOS 8.1.1 update to developers earlier this week. The patch is said to fix several of the bugs and improve the overall performance of the popular mobile operating system for the company's iPhones and iPads, but is the software stable now?
Originally released at iOS 8 on September 17, 2014, the operating system software's launch was spoiled by bugs so severe, Apple tossed out the iOS 8.0.1 patch a week later to make things right again. But that patch proved to make things even worse with a bug affecting the TouchID fingerprint sensor, cell connection, and essentially turning some iPhones into paperweights.
Instead of whipping up another quick fix for the new problems, Apple opted to pull the 8.0.1 patch two hours later and push out iOS 8.0.2 the next day. This one seemed to fix most of the original issues, but it also introduced a connectivity conflict with Bluetooth.
On October 20, Apple rolled out iOS 8.1 to fix the Bluetooth problem, introduce Apple Pay, and bring back the missing Camera Roll feature that most users missed when it vanished with iOS 8. But this patch was reported by many users to cause another issue with Wi-Fi connectivity, stifle the Safari browser's performance, and contribute to some unusual battery drain. The latest iOS 8.1.1 is said to fix those conflicts, although it is still in beta.
The stable 8.1 update is available for all iPhones from the 4 S to the 6 Plus, the fifth generation iPod Touch, the iPad Mini from the first generation (Wi-Fi only) to the iPad Mini 3 4G LTE, and most iPads from the iPad 2 Wi-Fi to the iPad Air 2 4G LTE and everything in between. It is recommended, howeever, that iPhone 4 S users hold off a bit until the hang-up issue is resolved, hopefully with 8.1.1.
This iOS 8.1.1 update is also said to fix the Health app that was introduced with iOS 8. According to cNet, "...the display of blood glucose data has been temporarily disabled for the app. Disabling that data for now will allow Apple to support devices that display the information in a unit of measurement known as mmol/L, or millimoles per liter, which is a standard way of measuring such levels."
No further details are available on the 8.1.1 beta and what other issues it resolves, but we expect the patch to roll out to customers soon.
