iPhone users may have experienced some frustration over the past few weeks with the release of iOS 9.3, especially considering the number of bugs that the operating system has supposedly had since its release.
In actuality, however, iOS 9.3 is one of the most stable versions of iOS in circulation, according to a report from analytics firm Apteligent.
The report mentions that the most current version of iOS 9.3 in circulation has a crash rate of around 2.2 percent, basically suggesting that while the bug reports from iOS 9.3 have been highly publicized, they’ve been largely exaggerated by the media. Not only that, but the software is also ahead of the latest version of Android, which has a crash rate of 2.6 percent, still less than most other versions of iOS. iOS 8, iOS 9, and iOS 9.2 all have crash rates of 3.2 percent or higher.
“Despite this bug, iOS 9.3 stands as Apple’s most stable new release in years. The average crash rate over the past eight days is 2.2%, by far the most stable iOS version. For the sake of comparison, that’s better than any current Android release, including the most recent Android Marshmallow, which stands at 2.6%,” said Apteligent in its statement.
Lets just take a moment to note something – all of these operating systems have crash rates of under 3 percent. They’re all doing something right, and while crashes are certainly frustrating, the fact that one operating system has a fraction of a percent higher percentage rate than the others is hardly important. What is important, however, is why an operating system is crashing.
One of the major bugs that has been associated with the iOS 9.3 actually turned out to be an issue with Booking.com and the apps associated with the service. Despite this, Apple promised to fix the issue in future updates.
Perhaps more serious is the fact that iOS 9.3 caused some users (under 3 percent, apparently) to get stuck on the Activation lock screen. Apple ended up fixing this issue, however some users ended up having to restore their device through iTunes.
Apart from the (few) bugs, iOS 9.3 brings a number of great features to the iPhone.
One of the best new features of the iPhone is Night Shift, which is aimed at helping users who might find themselves unable to sleep at night. Studies have shown that device use tricks users’ brains into thinking that it’s still day considering the amount of blue light that it emits, leading to trouble sleeping. Night Shift allows users to reduce the amount of blue light coming from the display, ensuring that the brain doesn’t think that it’s still day time. You can set the feature to go on automatically at a certain time of day, or switch it on and off manually.
Another cool feature is the ability to lock particular notes in the Notes app. After notes have been locked, users can unlock them using the designated password. The feature is perfect for those who might keep important or sensitive information, however bad of an idea that might be in the first place.
Apart from these additions, iOS 9.3 also adds HealthKit functionality to allow developers to more easily add summaries for workouts and show apps that connect to workouts. CarPlay also has improvements, including new Music features as well as the ability to look up stops in the Maps app.
Of course the release of iOS 10 will bring many more features than iOS 9.3, which is an incremental update. iOS 10 will be released alongside the iPhone 7, and it may include a pretty major redesign considering the fact that the last major iOS redesign came in iOS 7.
We’ll get a much better idea of what to expect from iOS 10 when Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference hits and the operating system starts becoming available to developers. Apple is expected to seriously beef up the security features in iOS 10, largely in response to the recent controversy about the FBI wanting access to the iPhone, but also because of the natural progression of device security. Apple is even said to be working on its own data centers and servers to try and gain more control over security in iCloud.
In any case, there are sure to be a few bugs in the release of iOS 10, but hopefully it can sit in the same under-3-percent crash rate.
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