The latest mobile OS from Apple is now rolling out, and the accompanying release notes stated that iOS 11.2.6 chiefly contains emergency fixes for the Telugu character bug.
The glitch that was detected last week seemed fairly simple but powerful enough to crash an iPhone or iPad. Affected devices that received messages with the Indian character experienced series of crashes that rendered apps such as Messages, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp unusable. Also, the bug caused problems of the same nature on watchOS, tvOS, and macOS platforms, prompting Apple to accelerate the deployment of the fixes across the board.
In the case of iOS, the original plan was for the release of version 11.3, but 11.2.6 had to be sent out first, specifically to make the Telugu bug go away.
"This update ... fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash," Apple said on its update notes, adding the same patch will resolve a related problem also blamed on the Indian character bug.
When installed, iOS 11.2.6, which weighs around 42 MB, will likewise correct an issue, "where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories," the company explained.
Feature Upgrades Not Included
It was clear that the patch was rushed out to stop the Telugu bug on its tracks, and in so doing, Apple had to bypass the inclusion of other improvements. As a result, the latest iOS version is not packing anything in excess save for the solution to Telugu. No feature upgrades and security updates were included.
It's also worth noting that Apple has had to deal with crashing issues on the iPhone three times in a row. In January, a message loaded with a malicious link caused some iPhones to hang, and Apple responded by stuffing iOS 11.2.5 with a corrective measure. Before that, several cases of the iPhone suffering crashes were reported in December 2017 that the company was forced to bump up iOS 11.2 in haste.
New Update Strategy For iOS 12
With iOS 11 apparently plagued by numerous stability issues, a careful rethink of Apple's update deployment strategy seems to be in order. In the face of criticisms that the company is compromising quality control in order to deliver impressive feature upgrades, Apple is likely to take on a different approach for the release of iOS 12.
If true, the change of strategy could be in full play as Apple transitions to focus on iOS 12, which is expected to be introduced at the 2018 WWDC in June.
