Apple Previews iOS 11.3…. Which Includes The “Batterygate” Fix & More Security For HomeKit

A press release hit the wires today from Apple which announced the first beta of iOS 11.3. Now there’s a bunch of things that jumped out at me. The first item that caught my attention was this:

iOS 11.3 adds new features to show battery health and recommend if a battery needs to be serviced. These can be found in Settings -> Battery and are available for iPhone 6 and later.
Additionally, users can now see if the power management feature that dynamically manages maximum performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns, first introduced in iOS 10.2.1, is on and can choose to turn it off. This feature can be found in Settings -> Battery and is available for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
These features will be coming in a later iOS 11.3 beta release.
This is something that Apple promised when “Batterygate” really got hot and they had to apologize for it. It will be interesting to see what that looks like. And it will be interesting to see if it quiets everything related to “Batterygate” down. The second thing that got my attention was this:
HomeKit software authentication provides a great new way for developers to add HomeKit support to existing accessories while protecting privacy and security.
This is likely a response to the HomeKit vulnerability that was discovered a few weeks ago. That suggests to me that Apple did a rethink of how HomeKit worked to avoid that situation from happening again.
Other things that jumped out at me were the fact that you will soon be able to see your medical records if your health provider supports that, Advanced Mobile Location which will send your exact location to first responders will be included, better quality AR, and Business Chat which allows iOS users to have a conversation with a service representative, schedule an appointment or make purchases using Apple Pay in the Messages app. iOS 11.3 is coming this spring, but if you’re a developer you can get a first look at it today.

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