We’ve been looking forward to Apple’s next big iOS bug fix release for many months. The wait continues, unfortunately. Apple, who seems to enjoy teasing its enthusiast community, has released iOS 7.0.6 via OTA update. It is not the update we were hoping for.

What’s in iOS 7.0.6?

So if you were hoping for fixes for the continuing crash problems in iOS, or perhaps fixes for some of the many bugs in iOS 7, you’ll be supremely disappointed in iOS 7.0.6. The only thing the Apple says is in this update is a fix for SSL connection verification.

• Data Security
• Available for: iPhone 4 and later, iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 and later
• Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS
• Description: Secure Transport failed to validate the authenticity of the connection. This issue was addressed by restoring missing validation steps.
• To put it into plain English, it allowed network snoopers to intercept SSL protected data.

The Wait for 7.1 Continues

While this is no doubt an important update, and security-wise it seems like a pretty big bug fix, it is a bit disappointing that this isn’t the 7.1 update. After all, it’s getting close to March. iOS 7 was released in October, and this will be the first major update. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to release several smaller updates that actually fixed some of the bugs users are experiencing? Instead it seems that most of the small releases up until now have all been for under the hood fixes, and a few small UI tweaks.

There are several things we’re waiting for. First has to be a fix for the constant re-springs that a ton of users are experiencing. We’re also waiting for several fixes to the way the iOS 7 user interface functions.

The iPad has been especially buggy, with multitasking not working most of the time, apps crashing all over the place, and several minor UI inconsistencies, all adding up to a really poor experience. Here’s hoping that iOS 7 brings some relief for these bugs.

It seems we’re destined to wait until at least mid-March before iOS 7.1 comes out. According to iMore, the update is still on track for a March release.

Bottom Line

The wait for iOS 7.1 has seemed unbearable this go-round. Perhaps it’s that iOS 7 has been unusually buggy. iOS 7 was completely redesigned, so it was thought when it first came out that Apple would release quick updates in order to polish the several areas that were less than perfect.

They have released several updates to iOS 7 since October, and each time users waited by their phones, drooling with anticipation, hoping for that one bug fix that they really desired. Every time, they were disappointed because the release was just another minor under the hood tweak.