AppleInsider Staff
With the U.S. debut of the iTunes Festival set to kick off next week, Apple will reportedly update its iOS application to support live streaming of the concerts from the SXSW festival — but not before the iOS 7.1 update is issued to iPhone and iPad owners.
The well-connected John Gruber of Daring Fireball reported on Tuesday that a "little birdie" told him the new iTunes Festival application will require iOS 7.1 Based on that tip, iOS 7.1 is expected to ship "any day now" to end users.
AppleInsider was also told weeks ago that iOS 7.1 is expected to arrive in March. Ahead of the update's launch, Apple debuted new mass deployment tools last week, making it easier for IT professionals to launch large numbers of iOS devices in enterprise or education settings.
Pre-release versions of iOS 7 have been supplied to developers for testing since last November, making it a particularly lengthy beta period.
Since iOS 7 launched last September, users have expressed frustration with a number of lingering bugs that have yet to be patched. Most notably, users have experienced crashes when using the new multitasking interface, while the Safari browser is also prone to frequent crashes.
To date, there have been five beta releases of iOS 7.1, the most recent arriving in early February. It features new "natural-sounding" Siri voices for international users in the U.K., Australia and Japan.
Separately, AppleInsider was told by sources last week that Apple is preparing a software update that will enhance the functionality of Touch ID, potentially fixing a "fade" issue that has been experienced by some iPhone 5s users. It is unknown whether that update will be a part of iOS 7.1, or if it will arrive independently.
Charles Martin
Amber Neely
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49 Comments
Will support iTunes festival app!!!!!!?? Lol. In other news 7.1 beta 5 still has a few front facing bugs. The virtual space between the date and the first line of a note in Notes keeps growing and shrinking. That bug has been around since beta 2. There's a visual glitch when in Safari in window view when your other devices have no iCloud tabs open. Other stuff too. And I'm still not happy with the speed of all the animations. Some are still too slow. And there's no reason why I should be able to swipe three times across the home screen when going home or unlocking before my pagination interaction registers when I only needed to swipe once in iOS 5 or 6. A significant step backwards when we're unlocking over 100 times a day. Steve wouldn't have put up with it.
I am not sure about the rest of you but the ability to run an iTunes festival app that I likely will never install is a rather unimportant detail in regards to a 7.1 update.
[quote name="gwmac" url="/t/162459/apple-expected-to-ship-ios-7-1-any-day-now-will-support-new-itunes-festival-app#post_2481328"]I am not sure about the rest of you but the ability to run an iTunes festival app that I likely will never install is a rather unimportant detail in regards to a 7.1 update.[/quote] I think the reason it got a mention here is clear in hindsight after reading the piece, but AI should drop that from the article title.
I heard they were waiting to release iOS 7.1 until the fluctuating price of marble rye stabilizes. Purely rumor though.
[quote name="Ireland" url="/t/162459/apple-expected-to-ship-ios-7-1-any-day-now-will-support-new-itunes-festival-app#post_2481327"]Will support iTunes festival app!!!!!!?? Lol. In other news 7.1 beta 5 still has a few front facing bugs. The virtual space between the date and the first line of a note in Notes keeps growing and shrinking. That bug has been around since beta 2. There's a visual glitch when in Safari in window view when your other devices have no iCloud tabs open. Other stuff too. And I'm still not happy with the speed of all the animations. Some are still too slow. And there's no reason why I should be able to swipe three times across the home screen when going home or unlocking before my pagination interaction registers when I only needed to swipe once in iOS 5 or 6. A significant step backwards when we're unlocking over 100 times a day. Steve wouldn't have put up with it.[/quote] C'mon,"Steve wouldn't have put up with it"? I'm surprised at you, resorting to this empty troll taunt. Be original and blame it on the loss of Scott. (Four crashes on my iPad mini retina while posting this.)