Apple Says iOS 8.0.2 Won't Break iPhonesApple Says iOS 8.0.2 Won't Break iPhones

6 Things Not To Do With iPhone 6

Apple released iOS 8.0.2 late Thursday for iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The new system software arrived about 30 hours after Apple yanked the iOS 8.0.1 update, which essentially rendered the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus useless. Apple says the latest operating system patch solves that and other problems.

Apple made iOS 8.0.1 available at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday. It pulled the software about an hour later after iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners reported losing cellular connectivity and Touch ID functionality post-update. Apple later posted instructions to help bricked iPhone owners revert to iOS 8.0 and said a new update would arrive soon. Apple delivered on that promise Thursday evening.

According to the iOS 8.0.2 changelog, the software patch "fixes an issue in iOS 8.0.1 that impacted cellular network connectivity and Touch ID on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus." (It took this writer several hours to restore functionality to an iPhone 6 Plus after the first update borked the phone.)

[More bad news for Apple fans? iOS In-App Browsing Poses Security Risk.]

The company indicated only 40,000 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets downloaded the iOS 8.0.1 update before it was pulled, according to Bloomberg. When you compare that to the 10 million devices Apple has sold since the September 19 debut, the number is indeed rather tiny. Bloomberg further reports the same Apple employee who gave Apple Maps the green light back in 2012 also gave the green light to iOS 8.0.1. If you recall, Apple Maps was generally regarded as a disaster at launch, with malformed maps and mislabeled points of interest. This employee runs a team of more than 100 engineers worldwide who are responsible for finding software bugs before they reach consumers. In the case of iOS 8.0.1, they failed.

"We apologize for inconveniencing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users who were impacted by the bug in iOS 8.0.1," Apple said in a statement.

Beyond the connectivity patch, iOS 8.0.2 includes a hefty number of other fixes for various parts of the operating system. Foremost, the update resolves an issue that prevented HealthKit apps from appearing in the App Store. With that fixed, iPhone owners can expect to see a wide range of new healthcare apps show up that are able to sync with the Apple Health app, which is part of the new operating system. HealthKit-compatible apps are able to provide the Apple Health app with a wide range of health-based data so iPhone users can see both a high-level and ground-level view of their health and fitness levels.

The software patch also fixes a problem that prevented apps from accessing photos in the Photo Library; improves the Reachability feature on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; prevents SMS/MMS messages from using cellular data; improves iCloud restore functionality; and solves a bug that blocked Safari from uploading photos and videos.

iOS 8.0.2 is small enough that it can be downloaded and installed over-the-air.

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