Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.1 update to developers, a few days after releasing the fourth iOS 11.1 beta and over a month after releasing the iOS 11 update to the public.
Registered developers can download the fifth iOS 11.1 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
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iOS 11.1 introduces hundreds of new Unicode 10 emoji like crazy face, pie, pretzel, t-rex, vampire, exploding head, face vomiting, shushing face, love you gesture, brain, scarf, zebra, giraffe, fortune cookie, pie, hedgehog, and more.
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Several emoji also feature some small design changes in iOS 11.1, including the dolphin, octopus, bee, snail, and whale characters, among others. The new designs are more detailed and realistic than existing designs.
The update also introduces a fix for a Reachability bug that's been present since the release of iOS 11 and it brings back the 3D Touch App Switcher gesture that has been missing from iOS 11 since its release. With the return of the gesture, iPhone users can once again 3D Touch at the left edge of the display to bring up the multitasking App Switcher interface.
A few other small features are included in the iOS 11.1 beta. The built-in keyboard in iOS 11.1 now offers up multiple emoji symbols when using an emoji-related word, there's an updated camera icon under Restrictions, a new animation when tapping the status bar to scroll upwards, and a faster unlock animation.
As for security fixes, iOS 11.1 addresses a serious vulnerability in the WPA2 Wi-Fi standard that protects many modern Wi-Fi networks. Using a key reinstallation attack or "KRACK," attackers can exploit weaknesses in the WPA2 protocol to decrypt network traffic to sniff out sensitive information.
Though not in the developer/public beta right now, the iOS 11.1 update could introduce the Apple Pay Cash feature, which Apple employees are currently testing in a special version of the beta.
iOS 11 marks a major update to the operating system with systemwide design tweaks, a new Lock screen experience, a revamped Control Center, ARKit, new app features, and an entirely new interface for the iPad that includes a Dock, Drag and Drop support, and a redesigned App Switcher for better than ever multitasking.
Update: Apple has also released a new beta of iOS 11.1 for public beta testers.
Update 2: Many public beta testers are having trouble installing the beta. The update appears to download, reboots back to the home screen, and re-downloads the beta again without installing it.
Update 3: The issue appears to be fixed, so public beta testers should be able to install the new beta over the air.
Top Rated Comments
Sorry I obviously hit a wrong button here... I'm actually a long time happy Apple user using macs, ipads and iPhone. And no I'm not even considering switching to Andoid. I am however just very disappointed about Apples approach to releasing iOS 11. Just removing features (force touch app switcher on my iPhone, inability to remove all todays notificatons at once) and releasing an OS to the public way before all critical bugs have been ironed out. I actually downgraded my 6s+ back to 10.3.3 right in time, and man that sure felt (and still feels) like a huge upgrade. And that's just not the way it's supposed to be. Apple is a premium brand with premium products and should not release software that does not meet those standards. So creating a half-finished iOS release that has a worse user experience than the previous version for most of your install base and forcing that update upon your users is just ugly.
With the announcement of the X phone and the iPad iOS overhaul (which is an immense improvement by the way) they've put themselves in a very challenging position with iOS trying to facilitate many different devices and interaction patterns in a single operating system which they obviously had a hard time to get right the first time.
By the way, it's not just iOS, also High Sierra has its trouble. Many of my colleagues that have already upgraded are experiencing system crashes multiple times a day. That's unacceptable when using these machines in your profession.
So forgive me that I'm on the edge of losing faith in Apple's software quality, but it's not entirely without reasons... and yes that's why I get a bit cynical when reading on new Emoji as one of the key elements of 11.1. I don't want this kids stuff, i just want a phone that works as well as it did before.