Apple released iOS 11.2.6 Monday, an update that fixes a couple of recently discovered bugs. The most prominent is the Telugu text bug, in which an Indian character could cause your iOS device to crash. The other affects the ability to connect to external accessories.
Apple’s patch notes for iOS 11.2.6
iOS 11.2.6 includes bug fixes for your iPhone or iPad. This update:
- Fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash
- Fixes an issue where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
The update is a 41.5MB download as an over-the-air (OTA) update on iPhone X.
So, Bryan, here’s a question…
Today Apple, with an instal base numbered in the millions, rolled out bug fixes for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS, all of which addressed the Telugu text bug.
How many people, amongst that instal base, had heard of Telugu prior to last week?
It would be easy to dismiss all of this activity as much ado about nothing. I’ll wager, not many, and even fewer that it is a Dravidian language, one of the six named classical languages of India (though by no means confined to that country), is spoken in south eastern India, is likely the third most widely spoken language in that country by some estimated 74 million people (and hence a non-trivial fraction of a emerging market), and thus worthy of Apple’s focus.
All of this should help an Western-centric readership appreciate how much a global enterprise Apple have become, and whose centre of market mass is shifting inexorably Eastward.