Unable to open links in Safari, Mail or Messages on iOS 9.3
bencollier.net
bencollier.net
The combination of a lack of an official response from Apple yet, the fact that this was apparently found by beta users (not that the issue is related to 9.3 directly, but it was reported as a beta issue by some), and the inability to change default browser leaving my phone in a pretty broken state has got me seriously considering a switch to Android though, where at least such a bug could probably be worked around through changing defaults or worst case flashing a new ROM.
The iOS 9.3 release suggests Apple's QA process is rather lacking and incidents like this won't help confidence in their devices - it's okay for users who know how to work around it and understand what is going on, but my parents would probably think the whole internet was broken!
Rant over, glad to see this on HN as it has been p*ing me off for a few days :)
You can say that again. My battery runs down far more every day than it did before, my email doesn't fetch on schedule or push anymore, and things crash that never crashed before. 9.3 has been a mess so far.
It baffles me that Apple let this bug go live when it was reported multiple times during betas. And the impossibility of avoiding the issue by using a different browser only adds to injury.
This issue alone has made me want to switch to Android and I'd never thought I would say that.
PS. Sony also does a hell of a good job :)
Sometimes, an update can be broken, and Apple better be fast at fixing it. It doesn't change a thing on the fact that Apple must continue forcing users to update as soon as possible their devices.
I was at the mechanic the other day, and this loud-mouthed boor bragged about never doing updates. The kind of guy whom would surf for porn on iOS 6 Mobile Safari and wonder why his contacts complain about X-rated spam.
For users like that, Apple has to just force people to update without their permission some number of years out because they won't do so willingly. Maybe enterprise-provisioned should have a greater exclusion, but not much more.
Because PEBKAC.
I get prompted to log in to iTunes or iCloud literally 5 or 6 times just opening the Music app, navigating to a playlist, and clicking on a song. It's infuriating.
General > Accessibility > 3D Touch
For folks reverting iOS, it seems like it's probably a preference thing (sans that bookings app.)
How? I thought Apple didn't allow that. I'd like to go back to 9.1 if possible
Thing to note is that I didn't have the bug in 9.2.1 so I assume that something else changes within the upgrade process (i'm no iOS expert plainly) whether it be firmware of whatever, which doesn't get downgraded.
I find it somewhat questionable that I can revert to a previous version and still have that the problem the upgrade caused. I'm guessing this is my lack of understanding about mobile devices though. The whole process made me feel rather impotent compared to troubleshooting a PC or similar.
edit: (I should point out that I had to go to a laptop to post this comment, since the reply link still won't work on the iphone!)
Therefore if you've not got booking.com's app installed, you should be okay (for now). Needless to say the fact that a third party app can break such a core OS feature rather shatters iOS's reputation for security above all else...
Seems odd that they wouldn't test this particular case (or put a predefined limit on it). This seems like exactly the kind of thing someone would do without thinking about it too hard (I'll just write a script and....) and cause an issue.
I'd really like to have more control over the feature anyway. I want to redirect Twitter links to a 3rd party app and turn off these links for Amazon and a few other apps.
At the end of the day, it represents app(s) breaking the phone in very fundamental ways, in spite of the sandboxing iOS enforces (obviously this is a different vector in reality, but from a layman's point of view the end result is the same), in a way more severe than any Android app (which arguably have a reputation of being "less secure") has broken that OS as far as I am aware.
This stability/security was one of the reasons I've stuck with iOS for so long, but this particular issue has forced me to reevaluate my thinking somewhat, as I'm sure it will for many others.
Now the inability to click links on my phone would drive me NUTS. Seems to me like a case of 'someone did something crazy, Apple wasn't ready, these things happen'. But I may have had a different tune if it hit me.
There are some annoying bugs I hit from time to time (especially involving CarPlay), but they haven't driven me off yet.
Huh? That's never happened to me, for one, and I update as soon as there's an update, ever seens iOS app updates were a thing...
I did report this as a bug to Apple, who requested a device log of some kind when it next happens, but it's hard to reproduce manually.
After I installed the 9.3 update, the crashes stopped. Maybe the firmware update and device reset clears that database.
Or it could be completely unrelated. Whichever, that's my anecdote.
The fact that this kind of bug would have a lower impact on Android (i.e. wouldn't disable major functionality due to the ability to switch out default apps), along with a general sense that Apple's software quality and support is becoming less reliably good (I would certainly have expected a quicker official response to this issue) and a slight feeing that Android is creeping ahead of iOS in terms of interesting new functionality is making me seriously consider the switch (partially as a kind of "protest" move, partially because I'm really annoyed about a major part of my phone breaking randomly, and partially because I'm curious to try it out), which I definitely wasn't seriously giving any thought to before this. Could work out to be a good thing in the end ;)
I mostly use google apps and them games and other apps that have android versions.
I'm concerned that hands free calling, which I love from my Honda, may not work. If it does not then I will return the nexus and go back to iphone but will be very unhappy.
I have multiple tablets (for work evals) and love both the ipad pro and several android tables I have. But I still have things about the ipad pro that bug me. Stop trying to upsell me icloud services.
Also the camera in the 6P is excellent which is a lovely surprise for a Nexus! It holds up well, better in some situations, to the brand new S7 Edge camera in my experience (my father has the S7 Edge so this was actual personal experience).
Wonder if anyone has a copy of the old booking.com association file (the one that caused problems) - would be interesting to look at.
I really have to wonder what has happened to Apple's Quality Control. More money, more bugs?
https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=268394&action=diff
[iOS] Revert overflow:hidden on the body affecting viewport scale (r186786)
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=152803
Reviewed by NOBODY (OOPS!).
Bug was reported on 6th January, broke thousands of websites, was patched shortly thereafter - and deployed 3 months later.
Three months to fix a major regression snafu. Apple Safari support sucks.
The response time here might not be great, but the patch author and reviewer are both experts in this area. I wouldn't consider this patch evidence of declining software quality--it's just a simple bug.
Hope this helps.
Notice the review line
It's hardly "just reverting a change that was found to be bad". The impact was huge!
Still no change, https links to other sites dead in Safari, or the right click on the same link makes Safari blocks.
So if you have chance to upgrade to the newer 9.3, better wait, until some newer version than 13E237 appears?
I believe that in "Privacy / Diagnostics & Usage / .. Data / stacks + MobileSafari...." should theoretically contain the stack of the killed Safari at that moment and be sent to Apple?
(Anyway, before I've upgraded to 13E237 I've already deleted booking.com and yelp apps. I've also then installed the new version of booking.com app and then deleted it, all with the suggested "Airplane" mode. Didn't work)
Edit: the 13E237 is apparently
http://9to5mac.com/2016/03/28/apple-re-releases-ios-9-3-for-...
"for users affected by an activation bug"
not for this now.
Updtae: this is likely due to third party apps (in my case Booking.com). But uninstalling doesn't seem to help. Also I couldn't read the article since safari can only visit URLs that I explicitly type in
So it looks like it probably does affect Cordova apps.
edit To clarify, you need to use an association file on your website that references your app. What triggers the bug seems to be unknown, but appears to involve shared credentials.
https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=268394&action=diff
Which is why I'm hear to tell Apple: fix your freakibg regressions in Safari quickly. There is absolutely no reason why the browsers rendering engine can only be updated every three months!
Sort it out Apple. You force all web apps to use your engine and prevent effective completion in this space: fine. But you now face the burden on ensuring you prevent and fix your bugs quickly!
Example: a few months ago Safari had a bug where it was still using apple's old WWDR certificate, preventing anyone from packaging their safari extensions. The fix came out months later in the next OS release.
That clear enough for you now?
Sorry :-(
Thousands and thousands of pages broke. They fixed it three months later.
Basically, Apple Safari support sucks. Why the hell is their web page renderer only updated in minor releases of iOS?
1. https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=268394&action=diff
Each of those are entirely relevant in their context. It's hardly spam.
If you want, I'll find more regressions, it won't be hard. Apple are utterly useless when it comes to Safari rendering regressions.
(were you the one downvoting, incidentally? And what do you mean by the "third at the bottom of the page"? The comments shift around in ordering you know)
The commenter meant that the referenced comment was the third such comment you've made in relation to this bug. IOW, you're sounding like a broken record. I tend to agree with this assessment. You made your point, move on.
And before you ask, meh, maybe I down voted you, maybe I didn't. That's not what you should be focusing on.
This bug was so bad that if Apple hadn't fixed the issue in iOS 9.3 then I would have asked for a refund on every single one of my devices and returned them. Under Australian law they'd have to.