Apple Pulls Buggy iOS 8.0.1 Update

There’s little that us Windows and Android fans love more than seeing Apple take a misstep. That’s probably because Apple’s products are so damn polished and slick, while our Windows and Android wares are usually much rougher around the edges. As such, it’s with no shortage of glee that I write these words: Apple had to pull a buggy update to its just-released iOS 8 when it was discovered that it was messing up people’s iPhones. Whoops!

In all seriousness, it seems that the update for iOS 8 – appropriately called iOS 8.0.1 – has been causing problems since its release this morning, causing Apple to pull it within an hour of its launch. According to a post on CNET, the update was keeping users from being able to connect their iPhones to cellular networks, and also caused Touch ID to stop functioning.

Apple issued a brief statement on the issue:

“We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can. In the meantime, we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update.”

The only iOS interaction I have on a daily basis is with my iPad, which I use mostly for playing games. As such, I wasn’t even aware that an update had launched, much less that it was causing major glitches. Furthermore, my iPad doesn’t have Touch ID and it doesn’t connect to cellular networks. No problems over here!

The update, it seems, was issued to fix some other bugs that had shown up during the initial iOS 8 rollout last week. The CNET post explains that it was meant to fix a problem with HealthKit apps being launched in the app store, as well as bugs with Safari and using third-party keyboards. For now, it seems that Apple is going to work double time to try and fix what they broke – and considering that it started the week crowing about its record number of iPhone 6 sales, it sounds like they broke somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million new iPhone handsets.

Of course, knowing the laws of technological karma, my delight in the misfortune of iOS users will probably mean that when I download Android L this fall, my phone will just explode. Ah, well.

[Source: CNET]