Apple's upcoming iOS 17.1 update is set to be released to the public by October 24, according to the French regulatory group ANFR (via iPhoneSoft). The release date was shared on the ANFR's website in an update outlining Apple's plan to address radiation levels in the iPhone 12.
"Apple has committed to deploy an update in France," reads a translation of the update, which is in French. "This fix will be available to all users no later than October 24."
Apple earlier this week confirmed that iOS 17.1 will include a tweak that will lower iPhone 12 radiation levels. Back in September, France ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12 and "fix" devices to bring them into compliance with European electromagnetic radiation standards. The order came after the ANFR found that the iPhone 12's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) came in at 5.74 watts per kilogram, above the limit set by the European Union.
According to Apple, the ANFR made an error in its radiation tests, using a testing protocol that did not account for the off-body detection mechanism in the iPhone. iPhones have a built-in feature that allows them to increase their transmit power when not held on the body for optimized cellular performance.
Apple says that the off-body detection has been "thoroughly tested and verified internationally to be an effective mechanism to comply with SAR requirements," bur nevertheless, the company has agreed to disable this feature on iPhones in France.
According to Apple, the iPhone 12 is safe to use "and always has been." After the iOS 17.1 update, iPhone 12 models in France will no longer increase their transmit power when the off-body state is detected, so coverage in areas where cellular signal is low may cause lower cellular performance in some use cases.
The iOS 17.1 update brings a number of other changes to the iOS 17 operating system, including an Apple Music favorites system, support for AirDrop over the internet, new options to see bank and card balances in the Wallet app, changes to the iPhone 15 Pro Action Button and more, with a full list available in our iOS 17.1 features guide.
Top Rated Comments
Second, it looks like Apple has a safety feature on phones (not to mention a battery saving feature) designed to reduce the power the cellular radio puts out when it’s near your body. Rather than test it to see if it does result in less overall exposure, it sounds like France decided Apple had to cut the power levels across the board.
Of course, by that logic, the French government should be putting more effort to end the cultural acceptance of tobacco smoking. After all, the tobacco-cancer link is much stronger than the non-ionizing radiation-cancer link, and it’s lung cancer at that. (Lung cancer metastasizes fairly quickly, since it’s part of the circulatory and pulmonary systems.)