Apple iOS 15.6.1
Apple has just released a wholly unexpected update to iOS 15, just a matter of days before iOS 16 goes live. It’s unprecedented in the scheme of late releases. Here’s what’s in it.
Make Forbes your destination for all-things iOS. Read full details of what’s in the release from me the moment it lands. Kate O’Flaherty looks at the security considerations of each new release. And then read Gordon Kelly’s analysis of whether you ought to install or wait.
Which iPhones can run iOS 15.6.1?
If you have a device that runs iOS 14, you’re sorted. Impressively, Apple has ensured that every iOS 14-capable iPhone runs iOS 15, too. That’s quite the achievement, stretching back across every device released in the last six years. In other words, every iPhone from the iPhone 6s onwards and includes all three generations of iPhone SE. This won’t apply with iOS 16, by the way, which is for iPhones from iPhone 8 onwards.
For iPads, you’re good to go with iPadOS 15.6.1 if you have any iPad Pro, any iPad Air from iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4 or newer and iPad from the fifth generation onwards.
How to get it
Updating is easy-peasy: open the Settings app on the device and then choose General, then Software Update. Once you’ve clicked on Download and Install, it’ll do everything for you. Within a few minutes, it’ll be good to go—this is not a huge update.
What’s in the release
This is a surprise update, with most analysts believing that last month’s iOS 15.6 would be the last before the move to iOS 16 in September.
Which tells you that this update must be all about fixes and security changes, not new features. Indeed, in the last few minutes, Apple has refreshed its page of security updates details, indicating what iOS 15.6.1 is all about.
There are two items on the menu, called Kernel and WebKit respectively. The first is an application that may be able to “execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.”
The second concerns: “Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution.”
Both, Apple says, have been addressed.
Is this the last iOS 15 update? I would think so, but never say never.
