iOS 5.0.1 update fixes battery blues - or does it?

Stephen Withers
Friday, 11 November 2011 07:24

Your IT - Mobility

iOS 5.0 received a generally good reception from iPhone owners. Two particular issues were reduced battery life, and the absence of Siri for the iPhone 4. Apple's done something about one, but not the other.

Earlier this week, Apple officials stated they company had no plans to extend the iPhone 4S's Siri voice-recognising personal assistant feature to the iPhone 4, even though it ran on an iPhone 3GS before the company behind it was acquired by Apple.

But overnight Apple released iOS 5.0.1. The update includes fixes for bugs that were affecting battery life, but if some reports from iPhone owners among the first to install the update are to be believed, there may still be some issues causing the battery to drain faster than expected.

Another feature that will be very welcome by a particular subset of iOS users is that it brings the four or five-finger multitasking gestures (eg, swipes to switch between apps, and a pinch to return to the home screen). Apple never explained why multitasking gestures were supported on all iPads in a beta release of iOS 5.0, but only on the iPad 2 in the final release.

The update fixes certain unspecified bugs with Documents in the Cloud, and improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation.

iOS 5.0.1 also includes six security patches. Five of the issues have existed since iOS 3.0.

A maliciously crafted URL could cause navigation to the wrong server, with the potential for information disclosure. There were multiple issues in FreeType (an open source font engine used in iOS), the worst of which could result in arbitrary code execution when viewing a document containing a maliciously crafted font. Certificates issued by DigiCert Malaysia are no longer trusted (the organisation has issued certificates with weak keys and is unable to revoke them).

Please read on for details of the other security problems fixed by iOS 5.0.1.