Only two weeks after the emergency release of iOS 7.0.6, which fixed an important SSL bug across Apple’s iDevice ecosystem, the company has made available iOS 7.1 to the public. While on the surface it contains only “improvements and bug fixes,” the company has made a number of small aesthetic changes to parts of the OS so as better to serve its hundreds of millions of customers.
Specifically, Apple has re-added some of the touch indicators for buttons that were removed in the first version of iOS 7, which many people considered too flat, without enough context for where to tap.
Other changes include support for CarPlay, the company’s automotive dashboard play launched last week; improvements to accessibility options, including a new bold font; options to reduce motion and parallax for Weather, Messages and multitasking; better Siri support by adding the ability to hold down the home button to activate Siri and release it when finished speaking, rather than waiting for the voice assistant to detect when you’re done.
iOS 7.1 also fixes the persistent and extremely annoying random reboot issue that has been plaguing new devices, especially those with the 64-bit A7 chip like the iPhone 5s, since September. iOS 7.1 reportedly improves speed and stability on the aging iPhone 4 — Apple is still supporting a device released in 2010 — and increases the accuracy of the Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s.
The update is around 265MB for those upgrading from iOS 7.0.6, and you’ll need 2.5GB of free space to install it. It is compatible with iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5c, 5s, iPad 2, 3, 4, Air, mini and mini with Retina, and iPod touch 5th gen.
