Apple intends to fix the “screen of death” that has afflicted iOS 7 users.
If your iPhone battery has ever run low—let’s be honest, of course it has—you may have experienced the frustration of the phone suddenly crashing, snapping to a blank white or black screen, which is neither on nor off, with an Apple logo. Users have dubbed this screen the “white (or black) screen of death”—depending on the color of your iPhone—and it has been a pain for many iOS 7 users since Apple’s most recent mobile operating system was released last September.
According to a Mashable report, Apple is working on a fix for the screen of death bug in an upcoming software update to iOS 7. Users in Apple’s support forums have been reporting the bug since shortly after iOS 7 launched.
Apple did not specify a timeline for the next major iOS 7 update, and would not confirm that the fix would be installed as part of the forthcoming iOS 7.1 rollout or a standalone release to the existing version of iOS 7. Apple has issued four software updates to iOS 7 users since the redesigned operating system was launched with the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c last year (the most current version is iOS 7.0.4).
See also: When iOS 7 Attacks: Help For iPhone 4 And 4S Owners
iOS 7.1 is currently in its fourth beta and is expected to hit the public domain within the next couple of months. According to documentation in Apple’s iOS developer portal, iOS 7.1 will include significant updates to its Maps app, the core media player that could include remote playback options and in-car playback—also known as iOS In The Car—as well as minor design adjustments throughout the user interface.
Users with older iPhones, such as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, reported significant performance issues after downloading iOS 7 last year including battery drain, crashes and general slowness. Users were forced to live with these issues when Apple made it impossible for users to downgrade their devices from iOS 7 back to iOS 6.