While it’s a given that Apple rolls out updates for its platforms regularly, and in turn, its users avoiding such updates profusely — the company’s latest update, which is the iOS 10.3, is something that many may want to download and install immediately.
The iOS 10.3 contains several feature updates and bug fixes, most of them useful — but one particularly significant.
Among the features of iOS’s latest update include a Find My Airpods app, a revised Setting menu which now includes an Apple ID Settings and a new iCloud storage section, an advanced WiFi calling feature for iCloud devices on Verizon, and the integration of the Apple File System or APFS.
The most significant change included in this update, however, is one that’s intended as a major bug fix.
Late last year, an 18-year-old iPhone app developer exposed a security vulnerability in the iPhone that affected thousands of its users, where possibly hundreds of unintended 911 calls were placed.
Meetkumar Desai was said to have been arrested on charges of felony computer tampering after he allegedly designed and created the code that caused the commotion, and shared in on a Twitter account with over 12,000 followers.
Desai’s Twitter post has reportedly been clicked around 117,502 times.
According to Desai, he originally meant to report the iPhone security vulnerability he discovered to Apple through the latter’s bug bounty program — but was purportedly told he was not part of the program.
Desai also claimed that he replaced 911 in the code to a dead number, but accidentally published the one that incessantly calls 911 instead.
The bug exposed by Dessai caused users’ iPhones to incessantly dial 911 even when the users attempt to press the hang up button. The only way to stop the phone from continuously calling 911, it it appears, was to power the phone off completely.
Apple’s iOS 10.3 update was designed to fix this issue.
With the said update, iPhone users are now required to press a confirmation before a call is even placed.
This feature not only addresses the issue raised by Desai’s bug discovery, but a common issue that iPhone users are all too familiar with — making phone calls accidentally.
Apple clearly does not intend to stop right there, however.
Reports say the company has already started running a beta test for its iOS 10.3.2 earlier this week.