iOS 9.1 update release around the corner

Apple’s iOS 9 was launched when the company unveiled its new flagship smartphones for the year, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Since the release in September, iOS 9 has been updated to iOS 9.0.2, with an expected iOS 9.1 update. While the new flagship phones aren’t really in need of iOS 9.1, iPhones released earlier are desperate for it.

Apple made iOS 9 rather good, filled with optimizations and tweaks that make the user experience more intuitive and easy use – and for some reason, emojis. But the problem is, as usual, that the company first designed the OS for their new devices, leaving the leftover tweaks, that needed to be made in order for iOS 9 to work on the iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 families of devices and their tablet siblings, last.

As such, the new OS has a few bugs and issues on older devices, which will mostly be fixed once the iOS 9.1 update is released to the public. The new version of the OS has been available for quite some time now, but only in its preview version recommended for developers. Since the update is downloadable by everyone, those who have tried it are pretty happy with the new build, even though the change log is minor.

More importantly, the iOS 9.1 update is close to its release as the final beta of the software has already been released. Apple takes its time with updates that aren’t concerned with security issues, but iOS 9.1 seems to be almost done. If we consider that the Apple TV is going to on sale on November 1, it’s entirely possible that iOS 9.1 would start its rollout before Halloween, October 31. Also, people are going to need iOS 9.1 to get the new Apple TV working, therefore it’s sensible to have the OS ready for Monday’s shopping spree. Apple doesn’t usually release updates on the weekend, so it’s likely that we’ll be getting the public release Friday, October 29 at the very latest.

Although a festive Halloween release would have been nice, that’s probably not going to happen, especially since the new emoji pack has nothing to do with the holiday. Take this with a grain of salt, but anything is possible. Since the iOS 9.1 update seems to be pretty much complete, it could even be released tomorrow. Which is why you should back up your data and keep a charger around, if you’re excited.

The iOS 9.1 update will fix some of the bugs that users had with the previous version, it will add Apple TV enhancements as well as third-party support for Live Photos. The iPad Pro is going to see a couple of new stylus-oriented tweaks, but nothing new this time. The update is more of an incremental one that tries optimizing the software to work with older devices, hopefully.