iOS 15 has been in the wild since September publicly and has brought in a slew of new features, although not all at the times originally promised. Whilst the argument could be made for iOS 15 being the best iPhone operating system to date, it’s still ignoring some pretty big issues under the hood. It looks like we could be receiving a new beta build anytime now, so will Apple fix and solve issues that have been plaguing iOS 15 users since launch?
iOS 15.3 Beta 2 – How do we know it’s coming?
Well, we don’t, but we have a pretty good hunch. After the holiday break, Apple normally kicks off the new year with a new iOS beta release for one reason or another. Here’s the last three years January Beta releases, just so readers know we haven’t fashioned our tinfoil hats just yet:
- iOS 14.4 Beta 2 released on January 13, 2021
- iOS 13.3.1 Beta 2 Released on january 14, 2020
- iOS 12.1.3 Beta 4 Released on January 10, 2019
See? It would make perfect sense for a new Beta to release any day now, we’re expecting iOS 15.3 Beta 2 to drop before Friday. There are also some serious issues going on with iOS 15 right now which would benefit from a security update as soon as possible too.
iOS 15.3 Beta 2 – What does it need to fix?
Although this is affecting users with iOS 14.7 and up, it’s a big issue that needs resolving with iOS 15 versions too. Apple HomeKit app used to control smart home devices much like Alexa and Google Assistant currently has a well-known denial of service vulnerability named ‘doorLock’. Apple has known about this vulnerability since August 2021 according to security researcher Trevor Spiniolas who can be found demonstrating the vulnerability below:
The vulnerability can be triggered by the attacker sending out a fake invite to add a product to a user’s HomeKit network. From there, the attacker can rename a device in the network to a string of characters over 500,000 to induce the exploit which causes a Denial of Service attack.
This requires a full reset of the affected iPhone which means all data will be lost. That’s not where the fun ends either as the victims’ iCloud account will still be linked to HomeKit, which means when a backup is attempted to be restored the DoS attack will happen again. Ultimately, this attack can be used to hold users’ iPhones at ransom, with them forced to pay the attacker to change the device name length below 500,000 characters.
Although not as serious, Apple is sitting on other problems within iOS 15 right now. Apple Music is still draining iPhone 13 batteries when streaming music nearly four months after the launch of Apple’s latest flagship. Noise-canceling is also an issue with the iOS 15 and iPhone 13 combination, with the latest Air Pods, Air Pods Pro, and Air Pods Max unable to turn it off and on. Privacy issues also remain such as users still receiving read receipts from text messages when the functionality has been turned off by the user. All of these issues have been present since iOS 15 launched back in September.
What’s Next for iOS 15?
Outside of some major fixes needed, we can’t confirm anything at this time. The new iPhone SE model is set to launch this year according to the rumor mill, featuring upgraded features from the last SE model and serving as Apple’s entry-level iPhone for 2022.
Seeing as Apple held their first event of 2021 on April 20th, it’s looking like we can bet on a March/April Q1 products event. Last year’s event saw the reveal of AirTags, M1 iMacs, Apple TV 4K gen 2, and the Purple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini. Currently, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will be revealed, but it looks like Apple needs to gain back a bit of trust from consumers with iOS 15 first.
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