In a comparatively unusual prevalence, Apple has made a brand new construct of its iOS 17.1 Launch Candidate (RC) accessible forward of the general public iOS 17.1 launch, which is predicted to land on October 24.
Normally, Apple solely sends out a single Launch Candidate on the finish of every iOS beta cycle to supply builders and public beta testers with an early look. That RC model is finally equivalent to what will get launched to the general public — therefore the title “Launch Candidate.”
Nevertheless, though every part ought to be absolutely baked by the point an RC replace is distributed out, typically the broader distribution or a Launch Candidate ends in the invention of a severe bug that requires Apple to make some changes earlier than the general public launch.
That’s what appears to have occurred on this case. Nevertheless, it’s doubtless the issue solely impacts the iPhone 15 lineup since these are the one fashions receiving the brand new iOS 17.1 RC construct, which now encompasses a construct variety of 21B77 — a minor increment from the 21B74 despatched out earlier this week.
It’s unclear what sort of downside was encountered, as the discharge notes for the brand new RC don’t present any perception; the replace options the identical notes because the prior 21B74 RC construct, which will likely be included within the remaining iOS 17.1 public launch subsequent week — no matter which construct it seems to be.
Whereas secondary RC builds typically occur, they’re fairly uncommon and normally imply that someone discovered a show-stopping downside with the primary RC that couldn’t anticipate a later patch launch — which, on this case, could be an iOS 17.1.1 replace.
Nonetheless, it’s additionally attainable Apple engineers discovered a minor situation that was simply tweaked earlier than the ultimate launch. Nonetheless, in precept, software program engineering groups are normally reluctant to make adjustments after an RC is distributed out since that creates the opportunity of different unintended unintended effects.
One concept is that the brand new iOS 17.1 “RC2” may repair the seemingly random in a single day shutdown issues that fairly just a few iPhone 15 customers have reported. Nevertheless, these don’t appear to be unique to the iPhone 15 fashions; I’ve encountered this downside on my iPhone 14 Professional Max (though not this week), and there have been different reviews of older iPhones shutting down on the iOS 17.1 betas.
The one different iPhone 15-specific adjustments included in iOS 17.1 are a reported repair for a “display burn-in” situation that appears restricted to the iPhone 15 Professional Max. The discharge notes for the primary iOS 17.1 RC construct famous that it “fixes a problem that will trigger show picture persistence.” Nevertheless, we haven’t seen any affirmation from builders or beta testers whether or not that’s truly the case, so maybe Apple nonetheless wanted to shine that final piece up.
It’s additionally attainable that iOS 17.1 RC launched a wholly new situation particular to the iPhone 15, wherein case it will make sense for the corporate’s software program engineers to roll again no matter is inflicting that situation earlier than the general public launch of iOS 17.1 creates a possible downside for thousands and thousands of iPhone 15 homeowners worldwide.
Both means, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know for positive what’s modified within the 21B77 RC or iPhone 15 customers, however all older iOS 17-compatible iPhones stay fortunately on the 21B74 construct. We’ll have to attend and see whether or not that’s what will get pushed out on Tuesday or if Apple distributes 21B77 or a later construct for all units simply to maintain issues constant.