About the Security Content of iOS 12.5.6 | Hacker News Reader

About the Security Content of iOS 12.5.6

support.apple.com

23 pointsjudge20209 comments

Feel free to correct me if I interpreting this wrong, but I believe this is an area that Android is better in.

iOS 12.5.6 patches notes indicate this is merely an update to WebKit. The latest Android Webview, which coincidentally also released today, supports way back to Android 6.0. It is half the download size, gets day-1 patches, and doesn’t require a OS level reboot to install.

To further put this into context: the Nexus 5 (2013) still supports the latest web browser security patches. Same as iOS 12.5.6 running on an iPhone 5s (2013). But unlike the iPhone it didn’t forego a year of browser updates to accumulate security vulnerabilities.

This update supports all the way back to the iPhone 5s, which was released in 2013.

Also worth noting that the most recently sold device (correct me if I'm wrong) that this release is supporting is the 6th gen iPod Touch, which was discontinued in May 2019. That's over 3 years of security updates at the worst case.

This is wonderful to see.

I often see apologists claim that supporting old products is SO MUCH WORK and companies can't afford the developer time and money to support them, as if supporting an older device requires several full time people to do nothing but constantly pore over source trees in a never ending loop.

Apple did something similar when they had Airport updates for devices going back to the Airport Express from 2008.

Kudos for not cutting people off after three years, like Google does with Android.

Patches like this are released for Android all the way back to version 6, which goes back for longer than iOS 12 support.

You're comparing a modular OS against one that needs a full update for a browser patch and it's not the same thing.

Pity that OEMs don't deliver them to our devices, regardless of what is on the AOSP source code repository, including Google themselves after 4 years.

What are you talking about? The WebView patches (and Mainline/Apex and other services) are being delivered to all devices.

No they aren't, only since Android 10 and later, and only the APEX modules marked as updatable via Play Store, and for everything else, those lucky owners of flagship phones might get a couple of additional updates.

Lets not mix up Google's marketing with what happens on the field.

WebView is not an APEX module, it predates them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com