Apple has released iOS 16.3.1 to the public, a version more than necessary after the accidental release of iOS 16.3 on the iPhone. The multiple bugs and errors that users have reported in recent weeks have been the cause of this version, before the anticipated iOS 16.4.
Although it would have been logical to wait for the release of iOS 16.4, Apple has prioritized improving system stability and fixing internal bugs. These fixes include iCloud and Siri, among many other aspects.
If we check the update sheet, we will see that it is not a very heavy patch. Still, the list of improvements is significant. On iPhones, iOS 16.3.1 fixes an iCloud bug that caused it to display incorrect information. It also fixes a Siri bug that caused it to not respond to Find requests.
Another important aspect is the Accident Detection feature of the iPhone 14. The arbitrary operation of this feature has been a major inconvenience for emergency services, who have had to deal with hundreds of “fake accidents”. In some places, users have even been asked to disable this feature on their iPhones.
Apple releases updates for all devices
Along with iOS 16.3.1, Apple has also released the following updates for its other products:
- HomePod 16.3.2
- iPadOS 16.3.1
- tvOS 16.3.2
- watchOS 9.3.1
- macOS Ventura 13.2.1
The most important improvements can be found in the HomePod and macOS Ventura. For the smart speaker, there is finally a solution to Siri bugs, which could fail when making requests related to HomeKit.
On the other hand, the new macOS update fixes two very important vulnerabilities related to Safari. The first security hole, logged as CVE-2023-23529, was found in WebKit and could be used to execute malicious code. The other was a post-release usage bug in the Kernel (CVE-2023-23514) that allowed an unauthorized application to execute code at the highest privilege levels.
With this update, Apple would have already fixed 10 vulnerabilities that we had day 0 since 2022. From here, we recommend that you update as soon as possible all Apple devices you own.
