Is iOS 9.3 Apple's worst ever update? First it bricks iThings, now Safari is busted Apple gave unlucky loyal fans more headaches this weekend when the latest version of iOS caused the Safari browser to crash. Lots of people say their iPhones are no longer able to open links in Safari or Mail without the browser freezing. "Never had any problems with my iPhone 6S. Just upgraded to iOS 9.3 without any issues …
I don't get it, I have a 6s plus and no Safari problem. I'll bet it is people using a certain ad blocker app that are affected, or some sort of non-default setting in Safari, because it certainly isn't universal or instead of being on the Apple support forums you'd see messages all over Facebook and Twitter about it.
"Apple. It just works."
When you lock down something so tight it squeaks, then "upgrade" it so sadly, you deserve a figurative kick in the hurtybits.
And #downloads != #installs. My device has been nagging me for days but luckily I saw the Reg article before I let it loose.
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Yes, Safari has got really slow (and crashes a lot now). I put it down to web pages being so full of crap these days, but maybe an iPad2 just can't run iOS9x.
I wish I had not upgraded (from 7!), but you can't stop the nagging and one day I hit "Install now" instead of "Install later"..... Have managed to avoid doing that for 9.3 so far (and I think it has stopped nagging now while they fix it).
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Don't get me wrong, bricking a device is bad but it could be worse.
surely this took development resources away from the new version of ios
otherwise the combined effort of these two activities, plus ejecting a new model of fondleslab, would be overwhelming
apple should reign in its ambitions, it's just pushing too hard
It already does in terms of cash and customer loyalty. It may well reign in terms of its ambitions as well, but I expect that Microsoft & Google also have great ambitions, so there's a lot of competition and it's not accurate to say that Apple reigns unless you have the evidence for it.
"apple should REIGN in its ambitions, it's just pushing too hard"
<pedantry>
This may be a "loosing" battle, but you mean "rein", not "reign"
"reign" = to possess or exercise sovereign power or authority e.g. The Queen reigns over her subjects.
"rein" = to curb; restrain; control
Ergo ...
"rein in" - exercise tighter control or restraint
</pedantry>
Face it, most updates aren't that important. If your system is working, leave it alone. If there aren't a bunch of new features who needs it? If it isn't at least noticeably faster who needs it ?
I haven't updated Windows 7 in years (I never go with X.0 of any version of software, it has be at least .1 or above). Haven't missed a thing. And spare me the security issues.
Most security issues with users are because they are ignorant of what they clicking on or downloading.
I don't use Apple but my wife does and I have turned off updates for her since an update from a year and a half ago messed up her email.
These guys fix one bug and introduce two more. This is not news, it is an axiom in software development since the complexity far exceeds the ability of the human brain to contain all the interactions of all the components.
What are the specific apps? If they are ad blockers then it makes sense, because those obviously have to grub around in Safari to do their thing, and it is easy to imagine that could cause some breakage that makes links stop working.
FWIW I updated my 6s plus the day 9.3 came out, and I'm using an ad bocker (of the dozens now available) and have no problems. Though I rarely use Safari on my phone so I had to check to see if it had broken!
@jaffa99
‘over the years’? Dude, you sound like you’re seventeen years old, and picking your zits in a PC World call centre. What do you know about ‘over the years’ in IT? Get some experience, and then make the jokes*
The sad truth is that software updates sometimes go wrong - even updates from Microsoft. Linux isn’t perfect either, and Android has its fair share of bugs. And damn, if all software companies (like every other type of company) don’t claim to have invented everything from the wheel onward. It’s called marketing - you don’t have to believe it.
The thing is though that Apple does have a certain amount of right to make claims of innovation in the field of personal computing. I do remember the PET, TRaSh 80 and the Apple II, and believe me - the Apple II is the only one really recognisable as a personal computer today. I remember the Lisa - and whatever the Xerox boys say, the Lisa was the first GUI which worked in the modern way you’d recognise now. Newton was innovative (if massively flawed), and you couldn’t buy a candy coloured device for love nor money before iMac - and then they were everywhere. Come to that, USB was scarce before iMac and then common as muck afterward. You might not like Apple, or want one (and you’d be a bit of dipstick to buy any device without considering whether its right for you), but you’re a colossal fucktard if you dismiss Apple completely out of hand. Where Apple goes, others tend to follow.
*for bonus points, see if you can make them funny too.
Whilst the average Reg reader can handle a borked device following a screwed updated from Apple/MS or whoever, your average punter will be well and truely buggered.
Assuming they don't have a handy 5 year old to fix it for them, they'll most likely take it into their local PC shop for a fix. So, my question is, who pays for this? Shouldn't some financial redress (besides class action law suits) be availble as a dis-incentive to treat end users as beta testers?
yes latest ios9 stutters
yes I got prompted for full security info on upgrade.
more important is the sync issue with latest itunes on latest win10 - my photos on idevices are visible but nothing seen for itunes to sync (incl iphone3GS ! )
so recovery of borked ipad would be impossible
multiple issues will collude....
I usually recommend apple stuff to people 'cause it just works' but now it doesn't....................
It looks like the issue is due bug in iOS that completely breaks the Universal Links if it gets served an app association file that's too large according to the following site : https://bencollier.net/2016/03/unable-to-open-links-in-safari-mail-or-messages-on-ios-9-3/
The common thread appears to be people who have the app "Booking.com" installed. Unfortunately just uninstalling Booking.com doesn't fix it but you can fix it by following these instructions :
https://infinitediaries.net/how-to-fix-ios-9-x-safarimail-link-bug/
It's all gone down the pan. We have to re-deploy apps now iOS9.3 is out but we can't. We have to upgrade Xcode to 7.3 (which is reporting build issues) but that wont work on anything but El Capitan, the latest OS that is super buggy and being avoided by our company. So I can't compile to a buggy iOS version with my buggy Xcode version because I need to upgrade to a whole new buggy OS! What the hell is going on in Cupertino??
Latest from Tim Cook ... "At Apple we take our customers interests very seriously. We realized that if customers have working iPhones then they may start storing private information on it. Some users may store information that the FBI woudl like to see so they will want to have a backdoor into those iPhones. It would only be a small step from here for them to demand access to all iPhones and if this was possible these would undoubtably also become accessible to criminals. As a result we concluded that allowing people to have working iPhones would inevitably result in their data becoming available to criminals and as that might included data about children we decided we had to act now to stop iPhones from working as SOMEONE HAS TO THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN"
I was playing with an ipad mini 2 belonging to a relative over the holidays and had multiple browser crashes when looking at a UK newspaper website from a link on google news, can't recall if it was the Guardian or Telegraph. I would have thought at least one of those would be 'Apple compatible' It was updated to Version 9.3 a few weeks back but might have been just as rubbish before then :)
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