Apple on Tuesday released a 1.1.4 firmware update for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Available through iTunes, the update is a beefy 165-MByte download, but incredibly, adds no significant new features.
According to iLounge, which examined the update closely and quizzed Apple about it, it’s nothing but bug fixes.
The update is probably laying the groundwork for the iPhone SDK, which Apple promised to release this month.
The 1.1.4 update presents no problem to jailbroken iPhones, TUAW reports — which will be a moot point if sanctioned applications will be released shortly. Who wants to hack their iPhone to load applications if there’s a nice SDK a way to load them through iTunes?
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
16 responses to “iPhone 1.1.4 Update is 165-MBytes of “Bug Fixes””
“Who wants to hack their iPhone to load applications if there’s a nice SDK a way to load them through iTunes?”
what about us in europe and asia and all the other people that doesent want to pay AT&T, what about us!
dont think that apple is going to let anyone make apps for the phone either.
Every iPhone update is this large. As I understand it, they just wipe the old OS and install an entirely new one.
you wrote: Who wants to hack their iPhone to load applications if there’s a nice SDK a way to load them through iTunes?
1.) iTunes works only if you have a PC or Mac connected to your iPhone via USB, which negates the idea of having a truly portable computer, where you can install new software from anywhere in the world, where you have an internet connection. Installer works great when you are travelling without your iPhone, iTunes only works at home :-(
2.) Given Apple´s track record in the past it might be, that only BIG developers will have access to the SDK, and possibly only in a very restricted way.
3.) There are less than 300 million people in the USA who are able to use an iPhone (on a really lame AT&T network), whereas there are billions of people worldwide with access to highly advanced GSM networks all over th e world, that have been waiting for years to finally buy a decent, user friendly mobile phone/portable PC. Nearly every traveller to the US currently takes a few iPhones to his home country. Apple won´t be able to stop this!
Was just about to post same thing. The title (and wording in article) makes it sound like 165MB was big for just bug fixes. But every update has been that size (give or take a MB or two). Each update is pretty much the whole OS and firmware again. Stop trying to be sensational.
“Who wants to hack their iPhone to load applications if there’s a nice SDK a way to load them through iTunes?” – People who want direct access to the file structure and load apps Apple will likely not sanction – (VoIP, tethering, direct song/ringtone swaping bewteen Touches/iPhones, adult content, etc.).
The release of the SDK will not supercede the need to jailbreak. It will simply be another way of getting applications onto the device. Freedom of choice is the key; apps released through Installer are designed with the user in mind, whilst paid-for SDK apps will be designed to make money. Thus there is a clear difference in the end result.
The bug fix includes a glitch that had caused the phone to drop calls on the AT&T network. Neither company wanted to promote this.
I don’t think Leander Kahney was really trying to be sensationalist. Probably just doesn’t know that much about the iPhone. I use an iPhone and didn’t realize they updated the entire system until the 1.1.3 update because the servers are blazingly fast and the download is so quick.