Apple released the iOS 8.1.3 software update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users today. The update is available over-the-air through the Software Update section of the Settings app. The update includes the usual bug fixes and performances improvements, and notably claims to reduce the amount of free storage required to perform the update.
Apple first released iOS 8 in September near the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and iOS 8.1 added support for Apple Pay in late October. Since then Apple released iOS 8.1.1 in November, which focused on improving performance for iPhone 4s and iPad 2 users, and iOS 8.1.2 in December, which included bug fixes and a fix for missing ringtones.
Today’s software update release is available for all devices running iOS 8 including:
- iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus
- iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3
- iPod touch, fifth-generation
The mention of reducing the amount of space required to update over-the-air addresses a common issue users have. iOS 8 adoption has been noticeably slower than iOS 7 adoption the year prior with adoption sitting under 70% according to Apple. In practice, iOS 8 users with as little as 600MB are reporting being able to update, while iOS 7 users are reporting more than 3GB being required to update over-the-air.
Additional bug fixes address issues entering Apple ID passwords with Messages and FaceTime, missing app results on Spotlight search, and multitasking gesture performance on iPad. The release also includes additional configuration options for education standardized testing, according to Apple.
In addition to releasing iOS 8.1.3 publicly today, Apple pushed a new ‘120 Sports’ channel to Apple TV users, updated Apple TV 3 software to version 7.0.3, iTunes U version 2.1.1 for iOS with performance improvements, and released OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 for Mac.
