iOS 7.1 is packed with interface refinements, bug fixes, improvements, and new features. Apple CarPlay introduces a better way to use iPhone while driving. And you can now control exactly how long Siri listens and more. Getting the update is easy. Go to Settings. Select General. And tap Software Update.
Getting the update is easy indeed. There’s a certain other mobile operating system that could learn a few things from that one.
.1 updates are notorious for dropping older models in the apple world. i’ll wait to hear from other 4 owners before applying the update. i’ve never had a problem with apple mobile updates before, but when your device gets 3+ years old you gotta be more careful.
i am rocking a 2010 iPhone 4, 32mb, going strong, runs most of my life through it, still gets all day battery life under duress. amazing product, but i know apple would like me to upgrade soon.
if i get a new car this year i def want that airplay in the car thing, although i can see bypassing it to run audio out of the browser.
Edited 2014-03-10 17:56 UTC
The release notes note that 7.1 should improve performance on your iPhone 4.
It’s not like they will brick your phone if you update. Most likely, the worst thing that would happen is you just don’t get all the benefits of the update.
The update worked great for me… but then I have the 64GB iPhone 5S
Edited 2014-03-10 18:11 UTC
i never worry about the bricking, it’s apple, plus i got it all backed up all the time.
i worry about my favorite apps and features just disappearing in the name of progress.
the iOS app market has been so active the only thing it’s missing is predictability and stability. so many of these apps can’t keep a version out for more than a few weeks/months.
You could turn automatic updates off and not update manually either. Then you keep the app at their version.
But I don’t think you should worry. iOS will only install if your iPhone can run it and your iPhone 4 can. Apps will continue to work and should they not be able to run on your iPhone 4 / iOS 7.1 the phone will offer to download an earlier version that does work.
iOS 4 did brick most iPhone 3G. The phone app took longer to load than the time it took to get to your voicemail. If a phone can be used to receive calls, it is pretty much bricked.
Oh c’mon, do you know what bricked actually means?
Ars just wrote an article about this very issue:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/03/ios-7-1-on-the-iphone-4-as-goo…
You said: “There’s a certain other mobile operating system that could learn a few things from that one.”
In my Android mobile, I go to “Settings” > “About phone” and click on “Update” too.
I guess on Windows terminals would be something alike.
My guess you wanted to say “other carriers that made their own derivates” as the ones to learn a few things.
I think the point is: how often is there an update for your phone?
Typically zero or one in its lifetime, for Android phones.
Almost always zero for second tier brands.
or daily/nightly if you run Cyanogenmod
or every 6 months if you own a Nexus
point is: its your choice \o/
Edited 2014-03-11 09:04 UTC
I don’t know if i’d count cyanogen nightlies as OS upgrades though. Cyanogen has it’s own version numbers (10, 11 etc) – those would be more accurate.
True, But those updates are maintained by the manufacturer. So you rarely will have the latest offerings from Google.
True, but if you care about updates, yo can choose a Nexus phone and then you will get rapid updates for a long time. There is less choice in Nexus phones than in generic Android, but there is not much choice in iPhone either. Anyway, there is always a Nexus available that is roughly comparable with the latest iPhone, and it will cost A LOT less money.
It is true that most Android phones seldom get a whole-system upgrade, but on the other hand they ALL receive continual updates of the high-level APIS and applications, without even waiting for the yearly or half-yearly OS spin. Which is what most people care about (if at all).
Anyway, I hope that now that SS has been brought (closer) into peace with Android stock look-and-feel, their updates will become more frequent. And that the other manufacturers follow suit. Yeah, and world peace, and flying pigs…
i think it’s a comment more on the ease of pushing it out to all phones at once in the world. As you mention the carriers slow down a lot of the updates as well as the testing for drivers and software like touchwiz, im glad samsung are commited to released but it takes about a year or more to get an update, my galaxy note 10.1 is still on 4.1.1, i just updated my iPad 3 to 7,1
Carriers and handset makers. They got their grubby little hands in there. But Google is in a strong position and really should start to insist on improving the process throughout the Android ecosystem.
Is the UI fixed or is it still flat and ugly?
Still flat and ugly.
Yes, all the pundits and web glitteratti wanted flat & boring because that’s what Android and Windows Phone have since those glitteratti got bored with the skeuomorphic style of OS, so we’re stuck with it. 7.1 does give you “button shapes” to give a better indication of what actually is and is not an actual button. Instead of just text that you have to touch or press on to see if it is really a button, you can have iOS display a shape in light gray around that text indicating that that text is, in fact a button that does something. What a concept, buttons that actually look like a button.
Thank you, the button issue in iOS was a peeve. But i also really dislike the flat scrollbars without mouseover indication in win8 and mavericks.
“What a concept, buttons that actually look like a button.” ZOMG SKEUOMORPHISM! /s
FWIW, when I saw the “new” iPhone appearance I though it looked remarkably like Android’s Holo. Jony Ive must’ve been inspired by the same muses 😉
BTW, have they already hidden the application folder and given the homescreen to the user to use as he likes?
All the changes are an improvement over 7.0. Biggest is the sped up animations, which make everything feel much snappier. Also performance tweaks in quite a lot of areas which actually do make it faster than before. Biggest impact is on the iPads and older hardware.
Only thing I’m not a fan of is the exaggerated bounce from the control centre. Feels a bit unnatural.
Not a placebo but my iPhone5 is a lot speedier after the update and i would also add this is not because of the restart.
The only thing i didn’t like is the voice for siri in the UK, the pitch was lower but for some reason the pitch of the male voice is a lot higher it sounds really strange, although im very pleased to see the option to switch between male/female.
I know pretty small thing, but it keeps me happy.
I would say this was a solid update, nice speed updates and seems pretty solid, will have to wait a week to see if it affects stability and/or battery life.
The iOS app developers I know are very angry with Apple for this release.
From what I hear, this release is great for users — it fixes loads of issues and is significantly faster, especially on older devices.
However I’m also hearing that it has caused a whole load of apps to break, that the XCode update which came with it also has major issues.
And most importantly, it was released without any notice and there haven’t been any recent beta releases for devs to test against, which means if you upgrade now there will be loads of apps that are broken simply because the devs haven’t had an opportunity to fix them yet.
That’ll all get sorted out in time, but for now if you use a lot of apps, especially from smaller developers with fewer resources, you might want to hold off your update until they’ve had a chance to fix things.
I guess you hear the wrong persons.
Apple released 5 iOS 7.1 beta to let developers test their app before the final release, the latest beta being released about one month ago.
And what kind of “notice” do you expect exactly apart from beta releases?
Edited 2014-03-11 10:05 UTC
To quote one dev I know:
“Every other iOS release in history has had a GM release to developers a couple of weeks ahead of launch, and they’ve allowed developers to upload apps for the new version to the app store ahead of the actual launch, so that they could work seamlessly with the new version. 7.1 hasn’t had any of that; just that beta a month ago, and there’s loads of changes since that.”
I’m not an iOS dev, so I’m reporting this all second-hand, but the people I know are upset about it.
Edited 2014-03-11 10:56 UTC
Hum… the GM is just the last beta release. Whether you call it GM or not doesn’t change anything for a serious developer who is supposed to start testing his app since the early betas.
It may be an issue for a lazy dev who is waiting for the last beta labelled GM to start testing his app however.
I am an iOS dev myself and I am not upset because iOS 7.1 do not break anything in my app which is probably the case for the vast majority of apps.
Dev here, nothing broke for our apps. No impact at all from 7.1. There were tons of betas to test against as well.