# iOS 10.3 update



## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I was going to wait quite a while before installing the latest update to iOS, but I only waited a few days. The tech sites I trust reported no problems, so I downloaded and installed it, mostly for the security updates.

The update also contains a conversion to a new file system (the first in several decades for Apple), so it take a bit longer for the installation process than is usual. The new system includes optimization for solid-state drives, something that didn't exist when the previous file system was created. Two things I noticed right away: there _seems_ to be a bit more free space available, and some programs load more quickly. Neither of these is a huge difference, and I have no numbers to back up the impression.

No changes to any of Apple's apps that I could see. I keep hoping for improvements to Apple's ereader app for no other reason than competition (since I don't use it), but no such luck. It still has just about as few actual reading features as Amazon's app.

There is one new feature of the Settings menu, though. You can now get a list of the apps that are going to be deprecated from iOS 11, which will coming probably later this year. These affected older 32-bit apps will not work in iOS 11, and will disappear from the app store. It will only support 64-bit apps. You may have seen the "This app may slow your system down and won't work in a future update to iOS" message. This is what that means.

I have 37 (out of 200 or so on my iPhone) apps that will not work on the "future update". Only two really concern me: Bento (the excellent database I've been using for years to keep track of my books), and Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide (which was killed off several years ago after Maltin became dissatisfied with the developer's update performance). I've found a barely adequate replacement for the database, but nothing for the movie guide. Neither of these apps were ever available for Android, unfortunately. Nor were satisfactory alternatives.

In summary, I can report that the update went well for me, and it added several useful features.

Mike


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

Thanks for posting this. I haven't done the update yet, but plan to do it soon. I'm glad to hear you're not having any problems with it.  (I usually wait a bit with the iOS updates to see if any issues surface.) Your comments were helpful so I know what to expect.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

For those who did download 10.3 fairly early, there is an iOS 10.3.1 update. It is minor, and I understand it fixes a wifi issue some people were having.


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## Gretchen Craig (May 6, 2017)

Thanks for this.


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## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

Mike D. aka jmiked said:


> There is one new feature of the Settings menu, though. You can now get a list of the apps that are going to be deprecated from iOS 11, which will coming probably later this year. These affected older 32-bit apps will not work in iOS 11, and will disappear from the app store. It will only support 64-bit apps. You may have seen the "This app may slow your system down and won't work in a future update to iOS" message. This is what that means.
> 
> Mike


Where do you find this list of affected older apps? I've been getting this message on some of my older games and I have combed through the settings menus on my updated phone and ipad and can't find any list on either one.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

The list of apps is in Settings > General > About > Applications.

I never would have found this myself, one of the hosts of a tech show I watch gave the details.

I'm still annoyed that Apple is going to prevent these apps from running. They don't appear to slow the device down, I think they just want to get rid of support for older apps for philosophical reasons.

I'll still have them available on my iPad 3, as it can't even run iOS 10, much less iOS 11.


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## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

Thanks for the information. 

Interestingly, on my first generation ipad mini it tells me how many applications I have, but nothing else. I suspect it's old enough it won't get the next update. It is already very slow and crashes a lot.

My phone, a 6s, has the list of apps that will be out of date. For me it's several games, a couple of them won't load right and are already unplayable. I'm sad to see a couple of them go. They are favorites because they are simple.


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

10.3.2 came out yesterday. Mostly security enhancements, I believe.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Speaking of security enhancements, it appears that Apple will be requiring two-factor authentication on all accounts as of June 15th. I already have it on my main account, but I may as well go ahead and turn it on for the other one. It's a very minor nuisance to set up initially, but worth it since it means that even if some bad guy gets your username and password, they still can't log into your account. I have it on my main Google account also.


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

Mike D. aka jmiked said:


> The list of apps is in Settings > General > About > Applications.
> 
> I never would have found this myself, one of the hosts of a tech show I watch gave the details.
> 
> ...


Apple announced they were dropping 32bit support over a year ago.

In my case, there are only 3 apps affected:
- Google Earth. I think Google has announced a new version is in development. I do hope so.
- Dragon Dictation. Nuance has not updated the app since 2013, and it is not very slick. I think they will just let it die as they'd rather you paid for a $15/mo subscription with Dragon Anywhere app. My wife uses it on her iPad 3, which will continue to work, but I would like to some day bequeath my iPad Air to her and so we'll have to find something else.
- New Kind of Science from Wolfram publishing. It is basically a PDF inside an app container. Cost $9.99, and it kinda sucks - no bookmarking, annotation, save reading position etc. Why not publish to iBooks, or (with about 3 clicks) to Kindle Store? Obviously they can't be bothered. It's too bad but I'll probably never actually find the time to develop the brain chops to read it, and I have print copy which was $3 used if it should come to that.

I had some other apps that I never used and just removed them. So for me there is minimal downside.

For the most part the only apps that will die are those which are not popular and which developer has no incentive to maintain.

It makes sense that iOS 11 will be the delimiting release, rather than some 10.x, but I think Apple has not communicated this.

Most of the benefits will be realized by Apple (update/restore will be easier to roll out) and app developers (once they drop support for 32 bit devices). Maybe system image will be some MBs smaller so there is more user storage.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Mike D. aka jmiked said:


> Speaking of security enhancements, it appears that Apple will be requiring two-factor authentication on all accounts as of June 15th. I already have it on my main account, but I may as well go ahead and turn it on for the other one. It's a very minor nuisance to set up initially, but worth it since it means that even if some bad guy gets your username and password, they still can't log into your account. I have it on my main Google account also.


Yeah, I have it on my Google account...have been putting off adding it to my Apple account. Guess I'll have to!

Betsy


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

Two factor authentication sounds like a pain in the butt:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915

Or maybe I'm just old. 
Either way, I'm going to avoid using it for as long as I can.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

hamerfan said:


> Two factor authentication sounds like a pain in the butt:


Probably not as much as having your identity hijacked and having thousands of dollars in bogus charges on your credit card.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

On the other hand, having just got a notification from Apple that someone had tried to reset my password on one of my two Apple accounts, I can't recommend Apple's two-factor authentication scheme. It's way too complex. It took the better part of 90 minutes to get everything reset. At several points, I was reduced to guessing what they wanted me to type into a field. There's a place where they give you a long code to type in, but if you type it in as shown, it won't work. You have to leave out the dashes. But they don't tell you that. And then on older systems, when you type in your new password, you have to type in a code after the password (only the first time). But do you leave a space between them or not? They don't tell you. I got it working, but I couldn't tell you if you have to include the space or not.

Gmail's solution is much more straight-forward. So what if Google scans all your messages, calendar, and contacts looking for ways to sell you stuff. You don't have anything to hide, do you?


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## MattHogan (Mar 15, 2017)

I have recently updated my iOS 10.3.2. After updating to this version. There are some problems occured to my mobile. My battery was not stable and I am facing some issues during net usage.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Matt, what model of phone do you have? Have you logged onto the Apple support forums? They are usually very helpful.


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