Going into Tuesday’s iPad launch event, many had predicted Apple would launch iOS 7.1, bringing plenty of improvements and new features enabled by the new tablets.
While that turned out not to be the case, Apple has launched a new and significant update for its iOS devices.
iOS 7.0.3 brings the new iCloud Keychain feature from OS X Mavericks into play, which helps users create secure passwords for websites they browse to within the Safari web browser. It’ll keep track of account names, passwords and credit card numbers across approved Apple devices.
There’s also a new password generator for the Safari browser too which “can suggest unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts.”
Apple has also restored the ability to search the web and Wikipedia within the iPhone’s Spotlight search functionality, while the iPhone 5S will also wait before asking users to ‘Slide to Unlock’ when the Touch ID sensor is enabled. The latter is probably due to the assumption that those users would rather use their fingerprint than the on-screen slider.
Now onto the fixes; Apple has dropped in a couple of remedies for iMessage issues where messages were failing to send and also nukes a bug that could prevent iMessage from activating.
The company has also improved the stability of the iWork apps, zapped an accelerometer calibration issue and taken care of an issue “that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower quality voice.”
Another noteworthy improvement is the enhancement of the Reduce Motion setting, amid reports the live wallpapers had been causing some users to experience motion sickness.
It also fixes a big that could allow unwanted intruders to bypass the Lock Screen passcode, but to be honest, we thought that had already been addressed in the 7.0.2 update.
There are a couple more minor bug fixes, but nothing to write home about.
The update is available to download now, over the air, within Settings > General > Software updates or by plugging in via iTunes.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
