Apple today released the first public beta of iOS 11.1 to its public beta testing group, just a day after seeding the beta to developers and a little over a week after releasing the iOS 11 update to the public.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 11 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.
Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.
While Apple has promised that some major features like peer-to-peer Apple Pay payments and iCloud support for Messages are coming in beta updates, those features are not present in the iOS 11.1 beta.
iOS 11.1 seems to feature only small changes like a tweak to add multiple emoji suggestions to the predictive text options on the built-in keyboard. There's also an updated camera icon under Restrictions, a new animation when tapping the status bar to scroll upwards, and a faster unlock animation.
iOS 11 is a major update to the iOS operating system, introducing significant design changes, a revamped Lock screen experience, a new Control Center, ARKit for developers, new app features, a new App Store, and an entirely reimagined interface for the iPad that includes a Dock, Drag and Drop support, and a new App Switcher for better than ever multitasking.
Thursday February 20, 2025 5:06 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Now that Apple has announced its new more affordable iPhone 16e, our thoughts turn to what else we are expecting from the company this spring.
There are three product categories that we are definitely expecting to get upgraded before spring has ended. Keep reading to learn what they are. If we're lucky, Apple might make a surprise announcement about a completely new product category.
M4...
Friday February 21, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple finally released the first beta of iOS 18.4 to developers for testing purposes, and while the beta is lacking some of the Apple Intelligence features we were hoping for, there are some notable new additions.
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Priority Notifications - Apple Intelligence
There is a new Priority Notifications feature that can show you your most...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued.
The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
Friday February 21, 2025 11:06 am PST by Juli Clover
In iOS 18.4, there's a new Ambient Music option that can be added to Control Center. There are four different sound categories, including Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.
Each category can be added to Control Center separately, and tapping one plays a random selection of sounds or music from that particular category.
You can't choose what's playing from Control Center, but if...
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Over the years, Apple has switched from an aluminum frame to a stainless steel frame to a titanium frame for its highest-end iPhones. And now, it has been rumored that Apple will go back to using aluminum for three out of four iPhone 17 models.
In an investor note with research firm GF Securities, obtained by MacRumors this week, Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu said the iPhone 17, iPhone...
Friday February 21, 2025 8:01 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple has confirmed that its custom-designed C1 modem in the iPhone 16e has nothing to do with the device's lack of MagSafe support, according to Macworld.
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, there was some speculation online about how MagSafe magnets might have interfered with the C1 modem's cellular connectivity performance, and this was considered to be a potential reason for the...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 11:38 am PST by Juli Clover
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple updated its iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia pages to give a narrower timeline on when the next updates are set to launch.
All three pages now state that new Apple Intelligence features and languages will launch in early April, an update from the more broader April timeframe that Apple provided before. The next major point updates will be iOS ...
Thursday February 20, 2025 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Oppo has launched the Find N5, the world's thinnest foldable phone yet. When closed, the book-style foldable measures 8.93mm. That's less than a millimeter thicker than an iPhone 16 Pro, and thinner than the Honor Magic V3, which was the previous record holder.
The device is barely thicker than its USB-C port. Indeed, Oppo has suggested that the obstacle to making it any thinner is now "the...
Hey devs! How's this beta working compared to 11.0?
Some random bugs, fixed some previous ones though. One of the really nasty ones on Ipad's.. landscape mode within an app, turn back to portrait.. crash.. So that's not a fun one. Sometimes it won't crash right away, just lock up for 30 seconds then work. That's a combo of IOS bug and application, obviously depending on the app. On the phones.. haven't noticed any huge bugs, just more minor ones. You won't notice much of a change compared to 11.0 really.
My iPhone 6 has crawled to a glacial pace since I updated to iOS 11. Even 11.0.1 didn't help. My phone hard crashes 3-5 times a day. I hope 11.1 fixes that.
As for speed issues, its already been documented by Ars Technica that a 5s is slower under iOS 11 and lots of anecdotal experiences have been described by users as well. Unfortunately, every iOS release is slower than the last.
It may be frustrating, but I don’t think it’s unexpected. The 5S is a 4 year old device with an A7 & 1GB.The latest HW platform is an A11 with 2 or 3GB. Between the A7 and A11 the performance gains are relatively large, huge wrt graphics. Similarly, the iPhone 6 (A8/1GB) is relatively underpowered to run iOS 11.
But beginning with the 6S/iPhone SE/$329 iPad, the A9/2GB platform reaches that “fast enough” point, where the differences from the newest HW aren’t so large. (But who’s to know whether the 6S running iOS 13 will be any less painful than is a 5S trying to run iOS 11? However, with the 6S HW being so similar to the 7, I like the odds.)
There is reason for optimism, though, that the 5S’s performance under iOS 11 will improve. Historically, older devices are slowest with the initial releases of the latest OS. After the dust settles and OS bugs are fixed—and maybe more importantly, ill-behaved apps are updated—the situation will improve. Apple will optimize iOS performance for older models, and to a lesser extent, third party developers will tweak their apps as well.
This goes against the “forced upgrade” narrative some like to push, but it’s proven to be true. Sometimes I wish Apple were more aggressive in cutting off newer OS support for older devices. But I guess they figure more people would rather have access to the latest OS, even if their device runs slower, than be stuck on the old OS. (Which would cause an even louder outcry from pushers of the “forced obsolescence” canard.)
My iPhone 6 has crawled to a glacial pace since I updated to iOS 11. Even 11.0.1 didn't help. My phone hard crashes 3-5 times a day. I hope 11.1 fixes that.
Was ios11 supposed to offer a performance boost? If not, given how ios8 was the original for Iph6, I hear folks say that you should update no more than one major version of iOS, perhaps 2, in order to prevent... well, such performance hits.
