Apple Releases iOS 8.1.3 With Various Bug Fixes

Well, this is exciting, off to download the software. Will report back.

I have it installed, and don't notice much of a change at all.

This is a minor update to address a few bugs Apple thought worthy of fixing now instead of waiting for iOS 8.2 to be finalized. Therefore, any accessibility improvements that may be in this release will likely be little things, nothing significant.

I have the update installed on my iPad Air, and so far the iPad has behaved the same as under 8.1.2, which for me is good enough, since I don't have any real issues to speak of outside of Safari.

You would imagine considering they've been able to address the issues with Safari with latest mac update, according to some posters, the same would be possible for IOS.

Overall, I have seen a little improvement with the OS. A little peppier, not as sluggish or jerky.
All issues with Safari still exist, still lose focus. Still reloading and back page to refocus.

According to article im posting, iOS 8 received no accessibility fixes. However, Yosemite did receive some. Time to update: Yosemite 10.10.2 and iOS 8.1.3 are here | Macworld
http://www.macworld.com/article/2875962/time-to-update-yosemite-10-10-2-and-ios-8-1-3-are-here.html#tk.rss_all

Yosemite is definitely a significant update. Its been in the works for a few months now so its really polished. I'm thinking I should've waited to upgrade from mavericks now instead of at the very beginning.

Just a curious observation, in IOS Safari does seem to be slightly improved when going back with a 2 finger scrub, using actual back button produces huge crashes, as I've just experienced. This isn't scientific, but it has failed to crash 3 times now on the guardian's website when using a 2 finger scrub. Pages do seem to be loading quicker, and of course the back scrub will reappear.

Well, obviously as everyone has confirmed, Safari still crashing like a drunkard behind the wheel. Did get it to work properly with the scrub gesture 3 times, but the fourth time it reverted to usual behavior. They do seriously need to fix this and invest some time in doing so, as this is the only issue that really makes me want to hurl my phone out of the nearest window, everything else is generally good or just little things that can be successfully ignored.

Nevertheless, I'm very pleased that Yosemite is much improved for Mac users.

I just reported the following to Apple Accessibility

after upgrading to ios 8.1.3 on my 5th generation ipod touch I still have the
following issues.

When you activate any link on any web page in Safari when running Voiceover,
the moment you activate the Back button or use two–finger scrub, complete
instability occurs, it is not possible to flick through the content of the
page, no links or headings typically are being reported in the rotor, and the
page is generally just not navigable in any way.

Another Safari issue with Ios 8.1.3

With Ios 7 I could start flicking from the top of a webpage to the bottom
of the webpage. With Ios 8, this no longer seems to be the case. Almost all
of the time voiceover reads the status line at the bottom of the screen instead of continuing to the bottom of the webpage.
When using the rotor to select to navigate by headings or links, In most
cases, voiceover will not read all of the headings or links on the webpage.

I will also report this bug again, and in reality that's all we can do, but they must have received numerous reports and should therefore have dealt with the issue in a timely manner. It is truly shocking that both on the mac and on ios this behavior is consistently displayed in 2015. One thing that strikes me as strange is using the forward button works perfectly and I personally don't understand the instability when using the back button, it is not logical at all.

Have noticed this in the mail app. on the iPhone 5S. When trying to forward any email the focus of VoiceOver is not in the To: field of the email. By default it lands in the message body area. Which was not the case earlier.
Will report it to the accessibility team of apple.

This bug still exists. Has not been addressed by the new update to IOS. Forum post:
http://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ios-app-discussion/new-bug-discovery

When surfing a page on the web using Safari. I have gone into a dead lock where VoiceOVer does not respond and there is no indication or feedback of any activity in audio.

This has also happened on the Facebook app. The only solution being pressing the Home button as many times as you can till you hear VoiceOver speak. Then going to the task manager and killing the app. where VoiceOver hung.

I am unable to replicate this behaviour with voiceover hanging.

This is particularly true if the apps are located on the last row of the phone. Hope this gets fixed soon.

I have no issues moving apps around on ios especially the new one, but I have not yet tested the 5th row bug.

I have a jailbreak, and I'm wondering if I can update to the latest 8.1.3. Are there any special things that I need to do to update?

Hello Ken,

To the best of my knowledge, if you want to update from a jailbroken state to a non-jailbreak-compatible version, you'll need to reinstall the OS.

there's no jailbreak for 8.1.3?

Aware that we had this discussion in to infinity, Yet commenting on those people not experiencing any apparent accessibility related changes in IOS 8.13, I can only but echo the same sentiment and hope that especially the buggyness of the VoiceOver interface will be comprehensively addressed in IOS 8.2.
I for one find the instability of VoiceOver when trying to read notifications on the standby screen hugely annoying, and for the best of me I cannot understand why you will receive a notification and only the time gets announced to you, or half the telephone number of a message, before the screen locks again, or the stuttering that sometimes accompany the reading of the notifications that do get read out.
Then I do not even start to speak of the problem whereby one can still not move icons of apps in the bottom row of the screen, and the instability of VoiceOver when actually attempting the move with app icons not situated in the bottom row.
Then I also find Voiceover to restart once one try to enter the edit area of your status on Facebook.
And so on and so forth.
It is quite interesting to see how much my sighted wife loves her IPhone, and how much I want to hate mine. Yet, as it remains the primary device I have to use, and though these problems make for interesting circumnavigational footwork, and though they had become an integral part of everyday life, it still remains an inexcusable and questionable frustration to deal with in a high-end device the likes of Apple.

If we do take in to account that the launch of the new Apple devices had long past and keep in mind that this has been done without giving software development an apparent second thought, and even serious bugs were with great fanfair aloud on to the stage incorporated into these newly launched devices without giving programmers and beta testers enough chance to sort out the operating system before this launch occurred, one really cannot but laugh at the shameful wisdom of capitalist mankind that simply procure for the sake of cosmetic status and sometimes plain bragging rights, and asking oneself the age-old question of how much development of something like accessibility really means for certain brands and the people behind them, unfortunately just to conclude with the answer that its simply beautiful marketing décor for selling your brand to the masses taking things on face value whilst leaving the person in search of real accessible solutions scampering around for new challenges to alternative choices, if obviously it is in their ability to do so.

Nobody cells you a brand new vehicle with torned upholstery, or a steeringwheel that allows you to turn left when you indeed want to turn right, or do not allow you to turn at all, or a gear leaver that permits you to happily reverse in five gears and go forward in only one. Breaking things that previously worked fine ain't a recipe for brand loyalty or promoting technological enovation and progress.

In IOS 8.1.3. the typing of alpha and numeric in editing fields is prevented when Voice Over is turned on. Its impact has been seen with iPad, iPhone and iPod and with any Blue Tooth wireless keyboard - also Apple's own. It is also a problem seen before; it just has its reappearance with this update.
A temporary fix or detour is to switch Quick Nav off (left and right arrow keys pressed simultaneously) when in a typing field - and on again when doing Quick Nav navigation.

I hope we will see a fix from Apple sooner than later.