Apple released iOS 7.1 on Monday, packing in a host of new features and improvements. Chief among them is the official rollout of CarPlay, the company's new automobile interface for iOS devices. Apple also added a way of controlling how long Siri listens to you, and the company added new features to iTunes Radio.
Calendar got some love, with the addition of a Month view on iOS devices and the addition of several country-specific holidays. On the accessibility front, Apple added new options to the Bold font, more Reduce Motion options, and other changes.
Buried at the bottom of the patch notes are improvements to Touch ID fingerprint recognition, performance improvements for iPhone 4, a cleaner FaceTime interface, and iCloud Keychain support in more countries.
Those patch notes:
iOS 7.1
This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:
- CarPlay
- iOS experience designed for the car
- Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
- Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
- Control with Siri and the car's touchscreen, knobs, and buttons
- Siri
- Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you're done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
- New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
- iTunes Radio
- Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
- Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
- Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
- Calendar
- Option to display events in month view
- Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
- Accessibility
- Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
- Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
- New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
- New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
- iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
- FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
- Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
- Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
- Improved performance for iPhone 4
- Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000 Continued user interface refinements
- For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
You can download the update through iTunes or over-the-air directly on your iOS device. The iTunes download is a 1.44GB, so mind your use of carrier bandwidth.