Apple releases iOS 11.2: Apple Cash Pay available in the US, bug fixes galore and a new horizontal bar to indicate Control Centre

Apple has released the second major update for the iOS 11. The iOS 11.2 brings new features like Apple Pay Cash and fast charging options on various Apple devices.

The over-the-air iOS 11.2 update is available on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The devices compatible with the update are iPhone 5s and later, iPad mini 2 and later, iPad air and later and 6th generation iPod touch. According to a report on MacRumors, the new Apple Pay Cash feature (only available in the US) is not working on few of the devices. The expected reason behind the non-functioning of the feature is activation. Apple might not have activated the feature yet. The report suggests that Apple is expected to activate the feature in the early week of 3 December.

Apple devices including iPhone X , iPhone 8 , iPhone 8 Plus have started supporting fast charging on the Qi-based wireless chargers. These devices will be charged with 7.5 Watt power as compared to the 5 Watt charging option available with the wired Apple charger.

A new horizontal bar is seen on the top right corner after the update. The horizontal bar is placed below the network and battery power display icons to make clear the location of the Control Centre. Users slide down from the status bar to get to the Control Centre.

It also shows two new pop-ups while dealing with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. These pop-up options ask you to temporarily or permanently disable the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This feature was not available earlier and reports suggest that disconnecting was temporary.

Apple has also improved the TV app by inserting a ‘Sports’ tab at the bottom of the app. The new Sports tab allows the users to customise the content based on their team preferences and current sports season. Apple has also fixed bugs spotted on various devices. The animation bug that caused numbers and animations to be ignored when entered in rapid succession has been fixed.

According to the report, the company has also redesigned the camera emoji and tweaked some other emojis available on the iOS. A new loading animation for the live photo effects, live water effect and three new Live Wallpapers has also been introduced on the iPhone X.

For iOS developers, Apple has introduced a new feature that allows them to offer discounted introductory pricing to the customers who chose the auto-renewable option for a subscription to their service on the App Store.

Some of the other bug fixes and improvements as mentioned on the Apple Support website are as follows:

Other improvements and fixes - Adds support for faster wireless charging on iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X with compatible third-party accessories - Introduces three new Live wallpapers for iPhone X - Improves video camera stabilization - Adds support in Podcasts to automatically advance to the next episode from the same show - Adds support in HealthKit for downhill snow sports distance as a data type - Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to appear to be checking for new messages even when a download is complete - Fixes an issue that could cause cleared Mail notifications from Exchange accounts to reappear - Improves stability in Calendar - Resolves an issue where Settings could open to a blank screen - Fixes an issue that could prevent swiping to Today View or Camera from the Lock Screen - Addresses an issue that could prevent Music controls from displaying on the Lock Screen - Fixes an issue that could cause app icons to be arranged incorrectly on the Home Screen - Addresses an issue that could prevent users from deleting recent photos when iCloud storage is exceeded - Addresses an issue where Find My iPhone sometimes wouldn’t display a map - Fixes an issue in Messages where the keyboard could overlap the most recent message - Fixes an issue in Calculator where typing numbers rapidly could lead to incorrect results - Addressed an issue where the keyboard could respond slowly - Adds support for real-time text (RTT) phone calls for the deaf and hard of hearing - Improves VoiceOver stability in Messages, Settings, App Store, and Music - Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from announcing incoming Notifications