P
Peter Cohen
Apple on Monday released iOS 7.1 . The new version is available immediately as an over the air (OTA) download. CarPlay, enhancements to Siri and iTunes Radio, and other changes have been made in the new release - including some performance improvement for long-suffering iPhone 4 users.
Apple officially unveiled CarPlay at the Geneva Motor Show last week. While the new technology won't be accessible until auto manufacturers roll out new models later this year, iOS 7.1 adds CarPlay support. CarPlay enables you to control Music, Maps, Messages, and select third-party apps using your car's center console display or through voice commands using Siri.
Also new in this release are changes to Siri - you can manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak, rather than letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking. More natural-sounding voices have been included for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English and Japanese.
iTunes Radio gets a search field to find new stations, along with other changes. Calendar will let you display events in month views, Accessibility gains new bold font options, offers a Reduce Motion option for Weather, Messages and multitasking UI animations, and more.
Here's the complete list of changes, according to Apple:
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
Other
- 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
Have you updated already? Are you excited about the changes? Any trouble? Let us know in the comments!
Continue reading...
