The most notable software releases from Cupertino

Nov 22, 2014 12:43 GMT  ·  By

Apple this week rolled out an unusually large amount of updates for this time of the year, targeting both customers and developers alike. In the paragraphs to follow, we’ll be taking you on a fast-forward journey of this week’s updates, so keep an eye out for anything you might have missed from Monday ‘till Friday.

The week started off with Apple rolling out two highly anticipated maintenance updates for OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. The rollout was widely reported as it promised to address numerous reported flaws.

iOS 8.1.1 and OS X 10.10.1

Despite people ranting on forums reporting tons of different issues with their iDevices under iOS 8, Apple this time around settled with only a few tweaks for old-generation hardware.

The release notes said that iOS 8.1.1 included “bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements for iPad 2 and iPhone 4s.” A bunch of security bugs were squashed as well.

As it soon turned out, not everyone got good functionality out of this release, and Apple may soon be prompted to roll out yet another update before the matter intensifies. Thousands of upset customers are complaining on the company’s forums about ongoing Wi-Fi connectivity issues, as well as crashing and rebooting bugs.

On the desktop front, OS X 10.10.1 reportedly improves Wi-Fi connections (though not successfully for some users), improves reliability when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server as well as mail fetching and delivery when using certain email service providers, and fixes problems associated with connecting to remote computers using Back to My Mac. 10.10.1 includes a few security fixes itself.

Apple TV 7.0.2: maintenance

Black box owners got this update around the same time (the evening of November 17 around these parts). Apple delivered “general performance and stability improvements” and listed a few security flaws that the update took care of. As usual, there are not too many problems in this department for owners of the $99 / €99 black box.

To download and apply the software, customers must select Settings > General > Update Software. When the download message appears, users must click Download and Install to start the process, and then allow the box to reboot.

iOS 8.2 beta for developers

Despite people continuing to report problems in iOS 8, Apple geared this beta towards WatchKit and Apple Watch development.

“With this software, you can develop apps for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 8. It now includes WatchKit, a framework for developing Apple Watch apps. You can test your apps using the included iOS Simulator,” the company said in the release notes.

Apple now offers Xcode 6.2 beta, which includes the iOS 8.2 SDK with WatchKit, and iOS 8.2 beta as free downloads to all registrants of the iOS Developer Program. If you’re the code-savvy type, visit the iOS dev center to grab them and start making your first Apple Watch app.

OS X 10.10.2 enters testing

Back on the desktop front again, on November 20 Apple started offering OS X 10.10.2 to Mac Developer Program members with the mentioning that “Opening documents from iCloud Drive might fail. Move files out of iCloud Drive to open them.” In a strange move, no focus areas are offered.

However, we can expect the forthcoming betas to include a list of areas where customers are currently reporting their most burning issues.

OS X Server 4.0.2 Developer Preview

Last but certainly not least, developers are also greeted by a new preview of OS X Server this week. It’s a minor update that has the following focus areas listed for testers: “Upgrade and migration from OS X Snow Leopard and higher systems; Remote administration of OS X Server 4.0.2; Number of Xsan clients supported is on par with Xsan 3.”

You can learn more about each update in the related links.