Apple Releases iOS 11.1 Beta 5 with Minor Updates

The iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus may be some of the fastest phones of 2o17. However, the equally new iOS 11 isn't quite as impressive. That being said, Apple is continuing updates to the developer beta for iOS 11.1, as it releases the 5th version of the beta today.

We read through the release notes for the beta, and, to be frank, not much has changed from iOS 11.1 Beta 4. It seems the only real change comes from identifying a Foundation issue that Apple claimed to have resolved in the fourth beta as a now "known issue" in Beta 5:

Clients of NSURLSessionStreamTask that use a non-secure connection fail to connect when an error occurs during PAC file evaluation and the system is configured for either Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) or Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC). A PAC evaluation failure can occur when the PAC file contains invalid JavaScript or the HTTP host serving the PAC file is unreachable.

Workaround: Use startSecureConnection to establish a secure connection.

It appears Apple thought they fixed this issue with Beta 4. Not so much.For those who skipped an upgrade or two, there are some main changes in recent betas that had a noticeable impact. For anyone noticing audio latency or distortion on their second-gen 12.9-in iPad Pro or their 10.5-in iPad Pro, this release should solve your issue. You may have also noticed some inconsistencies with external GPS accessories in previous versions of this beta, since Apple has resolved that issue.

In addition, client certificate-based authentication now works for servers using TLS 1.0 and 1.1. If you noticed your silent notifications — like Mail — were not coming through as frequently in iOS 11.1, you should see an improvement in this update. Apple also fixed an issue with loading webmail clients, stating that the action now behaves correctly.

The rest of the changes are less notable, however we've compiled them into a list below for you to see:

• Still capture requests using the 720p30 video format with the depthDataDeliveryEnabled property of AVCapturePhotoSettings set to truenow works correctly.
• Depth values in the nondefault 160x120 and 160x90 depth data formats now return the correct values.
• Apps with a deployment target earlier than iOS 11 that subclass NSFileProviderExtension now work on versions of iOS prior to iOS 11.
• NSURLSession and NSURLConnection now load URLs correctly when the system is configured with certain PAC files
• JavaScript execution during WKNavigationDelegate policy decisions now works correctly.

And those just include bugs. There's more fun stuff included in recent betas, including new emojis and the long-requested 3D Touch multitasking switcher. Those two additions alone make upgrading your beta essential, but other solid updates include a Reachability shortcut for notifications and widgets, as well as the return of haptic feedback for incorrect passwords. 

In addition, you should notice some new animations when tapping the status bar to scroll to the top of a page, as well as when unlocking your iPhone. Predictive emojis are also improved upon, as you will be presented with multiple options when typing an emoji-compatible word in a message. 

If you're running the developer beta, make sure to update to Beta 5. If you're running the standard beta, you should see the beta seeded to you sometime next week, since the developer beta is usually one week ahead.

On a final note, we've heard several reports that iOS 11.1 Beta 5 isn't installing properly for some users. The update acts as though it's installing, then the phone restarts and it's still running the previous version. If you run into this issue, we've found that performing a hard reset, then installing Beta 5 again seems to fix it.

If history is any indication, we're getting close to the public iOS 11.1 release. There's no word as to exactly when the final version will roll out, but we're betting it will happen sometime around October 27th, when the iPhone X goes up for preorder.