Apple just released the third iOS 13 patch in a week

For those of you who just checked your iPhones or iPads and saw you have another software update available — no, you’re not going crazy. Apple today pushed out iOS 13.1.2, which will hopefully bring the number of bugs down to manageable levels.

iOS 13.1.2 is the latest in a line of rapid fire updates, iOS 13.1.1 having come out last Friday and iOS 13.1 having come out just three days before that. The update notes state iOS 13.1.2 fixes a few major bugs, including the flashlight or the camera not working. It also fixes a few issues with Shortcuts and a stalled iCloud progress bar (the iPadOS update released today fixes the same issues).

Honestly, if the camera bug were the only reason Apple pushed this update out so quickly after release, I think I’d understand the reasoning. The company’s put a lot of work into making the camera on the new iPhone 11 more appealing, so the camera just straight-up not working for whatever reason would be a big inconvenience to those who upgraded because of it.

iOS 13.1.1, Friday’s update, fixed a security issue that allowed third-party keyboards to operate as if they’d been given user permissions when they hadn’t been. That’s not a small flaw, as it could have allowed malicious actors to steal data, and it’s most likely the reason that update was hurried out. It also patched an issue whereby the iPhone’s battery would drain more quickly.

There’s nothing wrong with these patches — on the contrary, I’d rather have them in quick succession than not have them at all. Still, the fact that these updates are being pushed out, one right after the other rather than in a big lump a few weeks after the initial iOS 13 release, gives an impression of fire-fighting. For the sake of comparison, iOS 12.0.1, the first major update for the previous generation iOS, came out almost a month after iOS 12 was released.

I’ll be curious to see how many more updates are pushed out tout de suite in the next couple of weeks, if any at all.