
Apple Releases iOS 11.4 with Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 - runesoerensen
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/29/apple-releases-ios-11-4/
======
Lio
I really wish Apple would add a convenient way to undo autocorrect mistakes in
iOS.

The undo button that used to be part of the landscape keyboard seems to have
been removed.

Shake to undo is, IMHO, a terrible idea. I have to change my grip to use it,
never know if it's available until I try to use it and don't know how hard
should I shake my phone to use it.

Backspace on its own is not great either. Quite often I'll delete the bogus
"autocorrected" text and it will then put the "correction" back in again on
the next space.

When there are whole websites devoted to laughing at people embarrassed
mistakes caused by autocorrect it's probably a sign that people would
appreciated something better.

~~~
trevyn
I turned autocorrect off years ago. You adapt pretty quickly to typing with
sufficient precision.

~~~
arvinsim
Same here. I highly prefer what-you-type-is-what-you-get paired with manual
autocorrect than autocorrect.

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larrysalibra
Anyone have details about how Messages in iCloud works? Is it end-to-end
encrypted?

~~~
shurcooL
Some additional questions about it on my mind:

• Does "Messages in iCloud" work for syncing regular SMS messages too, or does
it only include iMessages?

• It looks like there's no corresponding macOS update today to add Messages in
iCloud support, is there? Should we expect it to be bundled into the next
minor macOS patch, or is it more likely to be pushed into macOS 10.14?

~~~
newscracker
> Does "Messages in iCloud" work for syncing regular SMS messages too, or does
> it only include iMessages?

It works for all messages, that is, SMS and iMessages. You turn it on in the
iCloud account settings and it uploads everything. The device needs to be
connected to mains power though. Otherwise it pauses the sync process until
you do. The upload/download progress is shown at the bottom of the screen in
the Messages app.

~~~
miles
Any chance of auto-reply (not just "Do Not Disturb while driving") at long
last? I've had to keep an old jailbroken 4s around with iBlackList on it in
order to auto-reply to SMS and iMessage texts[1], as scripting in Messages for
macOS is just so buggy.

[0] [http://www.iblacklist.com.br](http://www.iblacklist.com.br) [1]
[https://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/201307210700_iphone_text_auto...](https://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/201307210700_iphone_text_auto_reply.html)

~~~
newscracker
Not from Apple with so much flexibility. But there could be third party apps
that use Apple's CallKit SDK to provide something similar for calls.

I'd also suggest sending feedback to Apple periodically at
[https://www.apple.com/feedback](https://www.apple.com/feedback) even if it
seems like the feedback is never taken into account for changes or new
features.

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jhenkens
Maybe it's just fond memories from a long-ago era, but didn't the original
Airport Express have multi-room audio? I remember it working quite well.

How is this a feature, 15 years later?

~~~
narrowtux
That's possible because your computer sends airplay streams to all airport
expresses at the same time.

However, you can't really do that with a phone, since it eats battery and
needs a stable wifi connection.

AirPlay 2 solves that by allowing the phone to buffer minutes of audio to one
speaker, which then distributes that buffer to the rest of the speakers.

~~~
dbbk
And the other protocols, like Spotify Connect, Chromecast etc, just send the
URL of the stream and make the speakers themselves handle it. It's such a
better approach that I'm baffled AirPlay 2 still has not adopted it.

~~~
millstone
How does this work if the stream isn't a URL? I often use AirPlay with files
on my password-protected SMB share.

~~~
dbbk
It could fallback to the current behaviour just fine.

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0x0
The security page just says "iOS 11.4: Details available soon"
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201222](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT201222) \- is that normal, or is there a particularly nasty security bug
fixed here that they want to keep on the down-low until enough people have
patched?

~~~
gepeto42
There is always a delay. Usually the e-mail distribution goes out an hour or
two after the update itself is released, and the support page gets updated a
little bit after that.

~~~
0x0
I do remember a slight delay, but I don't recall them adding an actual entry
early with a placeholder "available soon"? Maybe I'm just misremembering.

~~~
gepeto42
I have seen this many times.

~~~
0x0
I guess we'll be getting macOS 10.13.5 at a later date, together with these
advisories then.

Edit: looks like 11.4 fixes another root exploit with details "probably next
week" (is that an estimate for 10.13.5 then?) -
[https://twitter.com/i41nbeer/status/1001548232613421057](https://twitter.com/i41nbeer/status/1001548232613421057)

~~~
gepeto42
You're right, I think the last time the delay was this long was exactly that.
Better (?) than the times Apple self-dropped 0day on themselves by disclosing
Safari bugs that were not fixed on the other platforms I guess.

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joezydeco
iMessage web interface on iCloud.com? Pleeeeease?

~~~
saagarjha
Not likely, unless I'm understanding how this is supposed to work. The keys to
decrypt iMessage are stored on individual devices, so even if you had access
to the messages being stored in iCloud, you wouldn't be able to read them.

~~~
andromeduck
A copy of your device key is also stored with server side encryption if iCloud
backup is enabled.

~~~
saagarjha
That's true. But iCloud Messages does not _inherently_ allow for escrowing of
keys with Apple.

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overcast
Been using iCloud messages since their first beta release. Seriously a godsend
to keep everything in sync. Soooo ready for the macOS support. Drives me nuts
having the same message everywhere, I have to delete multiple times.

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karmajunkie
Anybody know if this addresses the battery issues that have been reported with
11.3.1?

~~~
thebruce87m
I hope to find that out too.

I managed to characterise the phenomenon a little. If the battery is draining
faster than normal then the “Standby” and “Usage” numbers under the battery
settings page will be in lockstep, even when the screen is off. If you use the
double-click-home task manager to swipe away all your “running” apps, then
battery life will return to normal and the Standby time will be much larger
than the Usage time at the end of the day.

