Since the world’s all in a panic about the iPhone tracking their movements, Apple’s pushing forward with a patch that will update your iPhone and prevent locationgate from spreading further than it already has to date.
Location fixes
It’s being reported around the internet that iOS 4.3.3 will:
- Prevent the location database from backing up in iTunes
- Reduce the number of entries in the database
- Let users turn off location services to stop the database from caching your location.
All three moves are important for those paranoid about security, but we have to say, this has all been blown way out of proportion.
Months ago the internet was aflutter over Apple creating a location aware application in the spirit of Foursquare or Gowalla. If there was ever any evidence needed to support the claim that people freak out when they’re told to, this may be it.
The obvious caveat here is that people would opt in for the location services in an app, and the iPhone is currently automagically snagging GPS info without asking for consent. I’ll concede the point to the pundits on this one — Apple should have let people know that they were being “followed.” That being said, Apple has admitted that the location aware snafu is a bug, and that they’re going to fix it, which is more than we can say about Google’s Android platform.
But, the reality of this situation is that the location co-ordinates are highly inaccurate, and could cache information from towers blocks away. It’s not exactly going to pinpointing your position down to a couple of feet, let alone inches.
Other rumored fixes
It’s also being stated that the patch will squash some battery bugs, which are really helpful, obviously.
But, what I really want to see is the iPad 2 camera quality addressed. The camera is absolute garbage. While detractors will point out that Apple can’t do much about the lens and sensors in the device, it should be noted that the company has tweaked the code for cameras in the iPhone in the past. A similar kind of love given to the iPad 2 could go a long way towards fixing my complaints.
Article Via The Apple Blog
Image Credit: m.grace
