Apple today released iOS 7.1, its largest update to iOS since it unveiled iOS 7 back last September. The improvements and bug fixes it comes with span across various aspects of the operating system from improved Touch ID fingerprint recognition for the iPhone 5S to the new CarPlay app for Apple’s new in-car dashboard system.
Highlights include a fix for the home screen crash that plagued some users and tweaks to the user interface designed to improve the flatter interface Apple introduced with iOS 7.
The changelog lists the following changes:
- 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
- Option to display events in month view
- 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
- 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
iOS 7.1 is compatible with the iPhone 4 and more recent models, the iPad 2 and newer models including the iPad Air, both the iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina and the fifth generation iPod touch. The update weighs in at between 215MB and 265MB depending on your device.