Features Added in iOS 13.1: Personal Automations, Driving ETA, and More

Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/09/24/features-added-in-ios-13-1-personal-automations-driving-eta-and-more/

iOS 13.1 is here to fix numerous bugs in the short-lived iOS 13.0 and to provide some features that were missing from iOS 13’s initial release. Alas, there are still more features that Apple has pushed off to a future iOS update.

updated from 12.x to 13.1. took way longer than expected. there were some weird resets of options: my smtp connection failed and had to be deleted and reconfigured; the bluetooth connection to my petrol donkey was turned down to zero and it just randomly failed.

also updated the watch to 6.0. was really chuffed to be able to delete a bunch of unwanted apps and really disappointed to discover a bunch more that can’t be deleted were added. “find people”? really apple? i can see someone may be interested but allow those who definitely aren’t to be rid of the thing.

i get why the browser is embedded in the operating system. but many other apps; why?

I have taken the plunge and am in the middle of updating from 12 to 13.1. I am doing this from iTunes (after backing up the iPhone) and it is interesting that iTunes needed a quick update before it could do this (to version 12.9.5.5). Before the iTunes update it said that 13.0 was available for the iPhone (so I nearly cancelled the iOS update!) but after the iTunes update it said 13.1 would be installed.
I won’t be updating Reminders as my Macs will be running Mojave indefinitely.
Update: All seems to have gone well other than I needed to restart the iPhone to connect to Telstra (“No service” message after the update). The Reminder upgrade path was a bit confusing - there is a message spruiking the benefits of the new Reminders app with the only option to “Continue” - fortunately after that the option to “Upgrade later” appears (when you scroll to the bottom of the screen) so I was able to opt out of the upgrade.
Upgrading to Watch 6 was a concern - it indicated 20 hours remaining so I will try later (Apple servers must be busy now that the business day has started in Australia).

A reader provided this tip for sharing a single pair of AirPods as well:

To adjust volume to make one AirPod louder than the other…use the balance control in the accessibility settings. Play some music in background and tweak the balance to one side to make that ear louder while adjusting overall volume until you find the right balance for both you and your wife. Then just switch to a movie to enjoy!

Has Apple ever created a fix to allow the user to cancel the automatic startup of music whenever the phone is giving driving directions?

I’ve done all the iOS 13 updates — just did 13.1.2 — and found a bug that still not fixed. I download a weekly EPUB file and it’s not working. Get a strange-looking message asking if I want to download it and then it does not open in Books and never does download. AND I bought a Take Control book today and it did the same thing. Never could download it to Books. Finally had to download a PDF.

I see that 13.1.2 is now available for my iPad.Maybe I’ll wait for 13.1.4 or 5 next week! slight_smile: