iOS 13.0 Is Buggy; Wait for 13.1

Lauren Goode, writing for Wired:

iOS 13 holds a lot of promise. It introduces a Dark Mode, drastically overhauls the Photos app, includes a Street-View-like feature in Apple Maps, and officially introduces Apple Arcade, the new $5-per-month gaming portal.

Something atypical for Apple is iOS 13’s notably buggy rollout.

13.0 is really buggy — I’ve been using it on my iPhone 11 review units. I’d say don’t upgrade your iPhone to 13.0 — wait for 13.1. Which, according to Goode, may not be a long wait:

But if you can stand to wait five days, it might be worth it to wait for iOS 13.1, the next update to the iPhone’s OS that’s expected to drop on September 24, and should be more reliable. That’s when iPadOS, the retooled operating system for iPads, is coming out as well.

This is news to me — Apple has previously said 13.1 would ship on September 30. I don’t know why they moved this up, but if they’re really shipping it on Tuesday, just five days from now, I don’t understand why they’re releasing 13.0 at all. The iPhones 11 already have it installed, of course. But for upgrades I don’t see why Apple is releasing it.

Update: The second footnote on Apple’s iOS 13 features page confirms that 13.1 is coming September 24.

Update 2: Best theory I’ve seen so far as to why Apple is going ahead with a wide 13.0 release instead of just waiting until next week for 13.1 — Apple Watch Series 5 requires iOS 13 on the iPhone it’s paired with. So people getting new watches tomorrow need to update their iPhone to iOS 13 tomorrow. This raises the question of why Apple didn’t delay the release of the Series 5 watches until iOS 13.1 was out.

★ Thursday, 19 September 2019