Well this was inevitable. Last week Apple released iOS 8.4.1, the final version of iOS 8 before the launch of iOS 9 in September. iOS 8 is undoubtedly the most controversial generation of iOS so far and now - one week later - iOS 8.4.1 is signing off the same way…
The update, which made several Apple Music fixes, has come under fire for both failing to fix longstanding problems and introducing new bugs. In fact many have labelled it as little more than a cynical attempt to stop jailbreaks ahead of iOS 9, since breaking the iOS 8.4 jailbreak is one of the few things users have confirmed iOS 8.4.1 does successfully.
Rounding up threads across Apple Support Communities, MacRumours, TechTimes and many more, here are a list of the common complaints iOS 8.4.1:
- Battery drain - for some a bug is consuming fully charged iPhone batteries in an hour
- Broken iTunes Bluetooth syncing
- Intermittent WiFi (a mixture of phone and router reboots have had limited success)
- Freezes when making calls and accessing SMS
- Slowdown bugs (notably wake and screen rotation) for some iPad Air 2 users
- In Apple Music (ironically the target of iOS 8.4.1 fixes) the ‘Make Available Offline’ bug still exists for many as well as duplicate and missing album artwork
Read more - Apple iOS 8.4.1: Should You Upgrade?
Frustratingly Apple has also still not fixed the infamous WiFried bug, which has plagued users since the release of iOS 8 in September 2014. Apple has acknowledged the issue since iOS 8.3, but a full fix (switching the troubled DiscoveryD process back to mDNSResponder used in previous iOS generations) will not take place until iOS 9 and the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.
Similarly Apple has already confirmed the crippled Home Sharing implementation introduced in iOS 8.4 won’t be addressed until iOS 9.
But is there a defence of iOS 8.4.1? Let's take a look…
A Troubled Stop Gap
The most obvious point to make about iOS 8.4.1 is it’s one of the smallest updates Apple has delivered to iOS 8. It weighed in at just over 55MB and was not meant to be a comprehensive fix to any long running issues users have suffered.
Furthermore iOS 8.4.1 arrives at a strange time. The common belief was iOS 8.4 (released in early July) would be the last iOS 8 update before the launch of iOS 9 in September, but iOS 8.4.1 has been crowbarred in and as such will likely have one of the shortest shelf lives in iOS history.
Then again neither of these points defends iOS 8.4.1 from the problems it has introduced and the ongoing iOS 8 problems it continues to ignore. As such iOS 8.4.1 is ultimately a half hearted attempt to address its greatest self interests (Apple Music and jailbreaks) and its slap dash introduction appears to have caused more problems than it addressed.
A cynic might say this actually makes it the perfect send off to iOS 8 in general. Roll on iOS 9!
Read more - Apple iOS 9 Vs iOS 8: What's The Difference?
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