As expected, Apple Inc has finally released the much awaited major updated of its mobile operating system iOS 7. Tech pundits were predicting the release somewhere in the middle of March, but the Cupertino based tech giant made it quite early from the predicted schedule.
The iOS 7.1 is now available for download for all the Apple devices that can run iOS 7. The new update has come a long way of beta testing and had five pre-Golden Master builds before being released for Apple fans.
The new firmware brings lot many bug fixes and improvements to the iOS 7 which saw six minor updates and stopped iOS 7.0.6 some days ago. The iOS 7.1 comes with an exciting new feature CarPlay which was shown at the recent Geneva Motor Show.
Here is the complete change log of iOS 7.1
CarPlay
- iOS experience designed for the car
- Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
- Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
- Control with Siri and the car’s touchscreen, knobs, and buttons
Siri
- Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you’re done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
- New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
iTunes Radio
- Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
- Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
- Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
Calendar
- Option to display events in month view
- Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
Accessibility
- Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
- Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
- New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
- New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
- iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
- FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
- Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
- Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
- Improved performance for iPhone 4
- Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
- Continued user interface refinements
The firmware iOS 7.1 is available over the air (OTA) and also via iTunes. If you own an iOS 7 supported iDevices and want to updated it via iTunes then here are the download links
- iPad Air (5th generation WiFi + Cellular)
- iPad Air (5th generation WiFi)
- iPad (4th generation CDMA)
- iPad (4th generation GSM)
- iPad (4th generation WiFi)
- iPad mini (CDMA)
- iPad mini (GSM)
- iPad mini (WiFi)
- iPad mini 2 (WiFi + Cellular)
- iPad mini 2 (WiFi)
- iPad 3 Wi-Fi (3rd generation)
- iPad 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular (model for ATT)
- iPad 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular (model for Verizon)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi (Rev A)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (GSM)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G (CDMA)
- iPhone 5 (CDMA)
- iPhone 5 (GSM)
- iPhone 5c (CDMA)
- iPhone 5c (GSM)
- iPhone 5s (CDMA)
- iPhone 5s (GSM)
- iPhone 4s
- iPhone 4 (GSM Rev A)
- iPhone 4 (GSM)
- iPhone 4 (CDMA)
- iPod touch (5th generation)
The firmware update is right now really new and cannot be reviewed on every device very fast as it takes a lot of time to check all the aspects of it. We will be coming up shortly with qualities and drawbacks of the iOS 7.1, so till then update your iDevices and help us in getting authentic reviews about the new mobile operating system.