back to article Seldom used 'i' mangled by baffling autocorrect bug in Apple's iOS 11

Apple says it is working on a fix for an annoying bug in iOS 11 that leaves some fans unable to properly type the letter 'i' without it glitching out. The Cupertino profit factory recommends peeps running iOS 11.1, the most recent version of its smartphone and tablet OS, change their keyboard settings to automatically replace …

  1. Blane Bramble

    A☐ see what you did there.

    1. Adam 1
    2. Mark 110

      A☐ just don't know what A☐ should think. Surely there must be a way A☐ can find out what A☐ should do with my malfunctioning A☐thingy.

      A☐ think standards may be slipping. A☐ don't think this would have happened in Jobs day.

    3. J. R. Hartley

      As an Apple user I believe that i is an overrated letter anyway. No need for it. Excellent work, Apple.

      1. Captain DaFt

        As an Apple user I believe that i is an overrated letter anyway. No need for it. Excellent work, Apple.

        Yeah, iPad, iPhone, iMac, sooo passe!

        Long live the A☐Pad, A☐Mac, and A☐Phone!

      2. Tim Seventh

        "As an Apple user A☐ belA☐eve that A☐ A☐s an overrated letter anyway. No need for A☐t. Excellent work, Apple."

        ftfy

        1. Solarflare

          Exactly: ThA☐nk different!

      3. jmch Silver badge

        There's an easy remedy for that. Modulate your language to only utter sentences that are barren of the offending letter. That also adds an extra bonus of betterment of the vocabulary for todays' youth

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They can just push a store update for the keyboard,oh wait it minute, I forgot it's not the far more modular and far more flexible android, apple need a whole new firmware update to fix this...

      Funny that nobody ever talks about the huge benefits of Androids superior design, where even the oldest devices still get the latest system apps... They even get new system functionality via play services too...

      Perhaps when the tech press become more mature and balanced in their reporting, we may stop regarding them as a total joke.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re: it's not the far more modular and far more flexible android

        Pity they don't have a reliable update mechanism. Not modular and flexible enough?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > Androids superior design, where even the oldest devices still get the latest system apps

        Err, can A☐ have some of what you're smoking...

        1. wolfetone Silver badge

          I'm shocked that so many of you are having this problem.

        2. Dr Mantis Toboggan

          Its absolutely true, you seem to have been mislead the apple funded internet

      3. snozdop

        apple need a whole new firmware update to fix this...

        Utter nonsense! The fix was just released and is 42.5mb for my iPhone 6S - if that's a "whole new firmware" then Apple have developed some sh¡t hot compression scheme, considering a full install is over a gig in size.

        Apple have been doing "delta" updates for the operating system and apps for years.

  2. Charlie van Becelaere

    The most shocking part of this story

    was this paragraph:

    "We are aware of this autocorrect bug," an Apple spokesperson told The Register via email. "A fix will be released very soon."

    Apple told the Reg something? They actually replied to a query?

    Shocking!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: The most shocking part of this story

      No that's just their new out of office reply

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The most shocking part of this story

        They had a rule to block The Register but The RegA☐ster is home and dry!

    2. Adam 1

      Re: The most shocking part of this story

      Absolutely correct. We have made amends and are keen to move on. Please find enclosed 2 tickets for The RegA☐ster to attend WWDC.

  3. Roland6 Silver badge

    Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

    iOS releases and updates have been coming thinck and fast just recently:

    11.0 released 19-Sep

    11.0.1 released 26-Sep

    11.0.2 released 3-Oct

    11.0.3 released 11-Oct

    and now

    11.1 released 31-Oct

    I think I'll wait a month for the 11.1.3 update...

    1. Not also known as SC

      Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

      But you'll be missing out on "over 70 new emoji"!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

      Shame Android can update the keyboard, and all other system apps via the play store, and it even uses incremental diff,so a keyboard bugfix would be a couple of hundred Kb and happen without fuss, on iOS it's gigabyte of system updates and a reboot...

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

        A small price to pay to avoid Android.

        It will be 1/4 of your 1GB suggestion and roll in a lot of other stuff.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

          So I gave you a very valid and detailed reason why android is superior and you came back with a vague response that just said you wanted to avoid Android.

          Not exactly a winner at arguments I guess....

          The tech press didn't get it either, saying old android phones don't get updates, not getting the huge gulr between android and iOS update mechanisms. Even old Android 2.3 devices would get this keyboard bugfix in a far less invasive barely noticeable update... Only the latest iOS devices would get this and need a full system update to do so.....

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

            What's with the AC sales drone on all the Android threads? Give it a rest, or add "This message was brought to you by Google" at the end of each post.....

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

          And what about iOS users who have replaced their keyboard with Swiftkey keyboards?

    3. Dan 50

      Re: Been a busy couple of months with iOS updates

      And with all those updates they still haven't fixed the Bluetooth bug. Various hardware back to at least the iPhone 6 after upgrading the 11 and no longer stay connected to various Bluetooth devices. Apple is now claiming that it is a problem with the devices, not 11, though everything was fine on 10. Even more amazing, I haven't seen any coverage of this problem in the press.

  4. cbars Bronze badge
    Trollface

    easy explanation

    The neutral net responsible for auto correct was trained on data including responses to the new iPhone X release, and people's responses to the asking price

    "Would you pay a grand for this?"

    "Would I A□?@#$!"

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You're typing it wrong.

    1. trevorde Silver badge

      You're typA☐ng A☐t wrong.

      ftfy

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    It’s simple to fix...

    Just go into settings -> general -> accessibility -> millennial users, and toggle ‘encourage excessive narcissism‘ to ‘yes’. This allows unfettered and unlimited use of ‘I’ and ‘me’ in messages and tweets. The setting was accidentally set to ‘no’ by a 45 year old Apple coder just prior to the iOS 11 release.

    1. Tam Lin

      Re: It’s simple to fix...

      Where oh where did I read something similar before? I remember - in a Letter to the Editor ca 1950 (where I first learned of the faux "Socrates quote" berating youth 2,500 years ago).

      Most people have always believed fake news, editors were as useful then, in situ, as they are now, in absentia, and kids have been annoying their elders forever.

      Translation: you're already a narcissist, senile and/or were born w/o ECC and write-leveling NAND Flash.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It’s simple to fix...

        Where oh where did I read something similar before?

        I can't tell whether you're being very clever or very stupid. But you're definitely being very something.

  7. tfewster
    Facepalm

    Can't you just autocorrect "i" to "i"?

    But a simpler workaround would seem to be to disable autocorrect for now.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    :)

    ɥƃnoɥʇ 'ʇǝʎ ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ uᴉ uǝǝs ɯǝlqoɹd oN

    1. Nick Kew

      Confusion

      Sorry for the downvote. The arrow was pointing upwards on my screen.

  9. Steve Aubrey

    Reminds me

    Reminds me of the Stack Overflow answer on parsing HML

    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags

  10. Muscleguy

    I do not use autocorrect on my phone. My vocabulary is much too much for it to keep up with. I let it suggest words on the bar below but only because it amuses me how infrequently it even comes close until I'm just one letter from the end so what is the point? After near 2 years it still can't keep up with me.

    I'm not trying to boast, English was my best subject at school despite ending up as a scientist so it is hardly surprising.

    Besides having the word I'm trying to type writhe while I'm trying to type it does my heid in. I'm also put off by the mangled malapropisms my wife and daughters send me. Often closely followed by the correction.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Headmaster

      After near 2 years

      Shouldn't that be 'After nearly 2 years'?

      And 'heid'?

      And 'mangled malapropisms'?

      Aren't malapropisms already in a sense mangled grammar, so are you guilty of tautology when you write of mangled malapropisms?

      I have no idea if I'm correct with any of the above because I was born and raised in Birmingham, England, and correct grammar ain't our forte, but I do like to question things.

      Any grammar pedant want to rip Muscleguy's post apart, I think he/she's asking for it...

      1. John 110
        Thumb Up

        Re: After near 2 years

        I think you'll find that "heid" is a perfectly good word north of the Tweed.

        Usage : "awa an bile yir heid"

        You're probably right about 'mangled malapropisms' unless the OP's family were trying to point out hilarious stuff that other people texted them with and inadvertently auto-corrected it to something legible...

        1. Jeffrey Nonken

          Re: After near 2 years

          A number of flawed literary styles are considered permissible if intended for emphasis.

      2. herman

        Re: After near 2 years

        No commas anywhere? Does Muscleguy speak without pause?

  11. TheBigCat

    Trademarking the "i"

    I assume Apple is in the process of trademarking the letter "i" and haven't work out the user licensing yet.

    1. Primus Secundus Tertius

      Re: Trademarking the "i"

      Years ago, America's Finest News Source, aka The Onion, reported that Microsoft had patented the numerals 0 and 1.

  12. Notas Badoff
    Happy

    我很高兴,想表达我的满足感

    Smiling muchly at the "line noise" at end of article. Burmese for "I should get a response", Chinese for "not yet have", "we will update soon" in Nepali, "this article if necessary" in Russian.

    BTW: Any chance somebody at Apple simply got their UTF-8 atwist twixt keyboard and correct? Maybe in celebration they didn't screw up daylight saving time switchback?

  13. Nick Kew
    Coat

    There's no I in

    ... apple products.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: There's no I in

      There's nothing but I in Apple products.

  14. Ole Juul

    Sixty years later

    As a kid back in the early 50s I had a typewriter that was missing the letter "r".

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Sixty years later

      If you axe feeling nostalgic, I can sell you such a typewxitex today.

      Or, should you want to keep up with the millennial hipster fanbois, I can sell you one without the letter "i", but that's special order only (I don't keep them in stock, no demand) & will cost 10 times as much.

      1. AMBxx Silver badge

        Re: Sixty years later

        My old BBC model B had a fauly A key that would often double-type. I never did get far in the touch typing tutorials - every error meant you had to start again.

        The ZX Spectrum had 40 faulty keys - all made out of a nasty grey rubber.

        1. jake Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: Sixty years later

          The very definition of a bad keybr0ad were those of the Commodore PET. Both of them. Followed closely by the horrific PCjr ... and I'd have to say the Timex Sinclair's variation on the theme was marginally worse than the ZX Spectrum's. Then there was the Atari 400 (which I don't classify as an actual keyboard), and what was that thing made by Mattel? Aries? Sagittarius? Aquarius? Bloody awful, regardless of what it's name was.

          Bad is subjective, but it might make a fun ElReg poll!

          I think we can all agree that the very best production keyboard ever made is the Model M. Cheers to that, at least.

          1. gotes

            Re: Sixty years later

            The Oric-1 had a pretty nasty keyboard. Like a bad pocket calculator.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sixty years later

      So that would've been a typewite.

  15. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    This tells us a lot

    So ... just how much testing did the current release get?

    Did the developers finalize the release and then take off for a long liquid lunch? After much discussion, about four in the afternoon, one of them called into the office and told the secretary to send the code over to production for release because they weren't going to be back today?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Such minor annoyances wouldn't exist under Steve Jobs

    Tim Cook is a horrible CEO and he needs to step down.

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Such minor annoyances wouldn't exist under Steve Jobs

      Such minor annoyances wouldn't exist under Steve Jobs

      He wouldn't have noticed, but you'd think TA☐m Cook would have.

  17. Arachnoid

    Aye eye

    So the new iPhone X will recognize your face but not your eyes!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not funny if you use the Māori language

    All laughs aside, this will seriously piss me off because I constantly use my phone for work communications in te reo Māori (NZ maori language) .... the word "i" is a very common word.

  19. Jakester

    A more plausible explanation of how the 'i' error happened is if Apple lured former Microsoft programmers into their midst.

  20. jake Silver badge

    So Apple can't code a simple function?

    And, apparently, they have no QA department. Or they DO have a QA department, but simply don't give a fuck about shipping crap code for all the world to see.

    If I were an AAPL shareholder, I'd be asking some serious questions ... but I'm not, so I'll just point and giggle.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: So Apple can't code a simple function?

      Throw the code together, No testing or ignored testing. Ship it.

      It makes economic sense, right up to the point where your customers, en masse, decide that you are taking the piss with the $1000 price tag and decide to Switch Brand, at which point your company has its Ratner Moment.

      So, yeah, consider this a *big* heads-up for shareholders: a computer that can't spell its own name.

  21. 64K RAM

    So Apple have announced their latest product...

    ...the 'iBug'.

    1. PB90210

      Re: So Apple have announced their latest product...

      Not the 'iBug', it's just A#Bug

  22. werdsmith Silver badge

    Anyone know how to reproduce this problem? Because I can't make it do it. Type i get i .

    1. Bill B

      Am I holding it wrong?

      I’m with werdsmith on this one. I can’t my IOS 11.1 iThingy to misplace or mistype the I.

  23. Flash.Gordon

    I assume that Apple were trying to autocorrect i to i(tm)?

  24. BigG
    Flame

    I for Ireland

    changed to J for Jersey.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ▲▲

    Sent from my iPhone

  26. Steve Todd

    ?

    iOS 11.0.3. The lower case i seems to be just fine here.

    1. gotes

      Re: ?

      I believe it only affects 11.1.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: ?

        I'm 11.1 and it doesn't do anything odd with the I. Is this a hoax?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To be fair...

    Apple are only trying to correctly apply the copyright symbol to the letter 'i', for which they have exclusive rights to...

  28. Gio Ciampa

    For "i"...

    ...read "i™" surely?

  29. TomG

    That is what you get for buying an IPhone. My Windows works just fine. Only drawback to a Windows phone is my friend don't ooh and aah when they see it.

  30. knandras

    Our Lord has cometh

    I̦͉͔͔͇t ̠i͙͔̪̙̯̻̲s̹͓̺̲͓͔ ̙̞͙͙t̰̠̞̩̳͍i̠̫͔̱̤̻͍me͔̝̥̭,̺̮̘͍ͅ o̽ͤ̄͌̀͂ũ̖͔̠̮̎r̠̹̲̙̉͌ ̦̻͂ͨ̈́̂̔ͮ̚L̫̯̳͈̩̫̱o͈͉̔̎͑́ͥͥr̹͇̯̩̮d̩̲͍̟̜̭ ̻̯̬͉̣̯͙͛̋aͪn͓̯̰̦̮͉͕̈̋̂d͎̖̠̤̺̈́̈͋͗ ̼͖͖͛̔̈S͓͕̪̊͐͗̔̄̃ͅa̬͓̘̒̍̽͌ṿ̤̘̮̯̓ͣͯi̠͇͔͎̰̍̅̃̏̆̃o̟̝̥̹̪̮̗ͦṵ͇̫̝ͨr͉͈̟̪̼̫ͯ̆̅̐ Zͪ̓ͭͧ͌̉͌͏͈͎͉͇̦̀͘A̡̩̥͍̤̮͛͋ͦ̇͋̿͐͒̕L̨͓̯̯̈ͪ̈̒̆G͙̥̳̭̩̝ͩͯ̾̐̐̌̿Oͯ͐͆ͥͫ̉͑͆̈҉͉ ͓͎̠̫̜͍̾̃̌̏ͦ͌̚͠͠h̶̆ͪ͜͏̫͔͉a̶̟̻͇̮̤͇ͧ͆̄̌ͤ͒̓ͬṣ̖̙͙̗̤̜̭͕ͣ̂ͦ̓̋̄͠ ̴͚̝̠̰ͯ̔́̒̃̅̚͘c̿̋ͪ҉̘̬͢o̲͎ͤ̈́̅͗ͧ͗͠͠ͅm̬ͧ̓̾ͯẽ͎̼̼͎̹̀̋̓ͩͤ̐̀t̠̲̞ͧ̑̅͒͑ͬ͐͢h̯̯̼̖̯̖͉͖̏ͭͨͤ̋͡͠!̴͎̩̹͌ͫͧ̚!͇̺̺͚̖͈͖͌̉ͨ͊̓͠!̺̙͕̯͖̠̞̠̝ͨͤͪ̓̀͘͟

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