back to article Apple embraces El Reg! iOS 11 is now biting the hand that types IT

Call it a bug, call it a spellcheck quirk, or call it a wonderful bit of wishful thinking; iPhone owners are all about the IT department these days. Thanks to an apparent error in the latest version of iOS, some Apple fans see the word "it" autocorrect to "I.T." when typing messages. Similarly, "is" is autocorrected to "I.S." …

  1. djstardust

    What do you expect?

    When Apple sold "niche" products they were high quality, beautiful and the OOBE was fantastic.

    Now they are just another high volume tech company like M$ who chase the dollar and don't give a shit about the consumer.

    Thing is that mugs keep going back for more. One of my mates had an iphone 6 and the motherboard died. It was out of the one year warranty and he didn't pay more for Apple care so they hit him £300 for a new board. He swore he would never ever darken their doorstep ever again ..... and now he's on Facebook asking mates whether he should get the 8 plus or the X.

    As long as people keep on drinking the Apple juice nothing will change.

    1. m0rt

      Re: What do you expect?

      As irritated as Apple gets me, I have to give them credit through gritted teeth over the security of their phones and patching/updates. It is still leagues ahead of everyone else I can see.

      BTW - I did get the BB Motion and I am very, very pleased with it.

    2. Blotto Silver badge

      Re: What do you expect?

      I don’t understand why people who don’t own Apple products, have no intention of purchasing, and have no direct experience of Apple stuff kick of so strongly about other people that do want to buy their kit.

      Considering Apples fortunes and strong sales in-spite of the higher than their competitors prices, they are doing something right in the eyes of the consumer and this period of success has been going on for over a decade, despite people with views like you continuously moaning about them.

      I would truly like to understand why all the hate.

      Is it the same kind of hate that people get when they see someone in a new German exec car, especially if that someone is young?

      I see a lot of similar hate in the Guardian comments section too, often from people with no experience in whatever they are complaining about too.

      1. fandom

        Re: What do you expect?

        "I don’t understand"

        It is actually very simple, there is a big subset of Apple owners who like to lord it over those who don't have and don't want any Apple kit.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: What do you expect?

          It is actually very simple, there is a big subset of Apple owners who like to lord it over those who don't have and don't want any Apple kit.

          I think that's a perception that generally exists only the mind of the person that use the non-apple kit. I've really never seen any apple owner do anything other that use their stuff for what the bought it for. Really the iPhone aura faded around 2012, people get into the iPhone world for peanuts with used phones, nobody thinks it's a big deal.

          1. lglethal Silver badge
            Go

            Re: What do you expect?

            Sorry Werdsmith, but i can speak from personal experience, about some of my colleagues and their disdainful attitude to anything not coming from the fruity factory.

            Which in it's own way is a little bit hilarious because these are the same people who will happily moan (read: continuously) about this and that failure or annoyance on their iphone/macbook but as soon as anyone starts talking about needing/wanting to buy a new phone or a new laptop, these are the same people that will declare that anyone who doesnt purchase an apple product is an idiot, and there is nothing they cant do which a PC/android user can do, and yadda yadda yadda.

            It is frigging annoying and does lead to a very strong perception that Apple users are strongly affected by the reality distortion field emanating from Cupertino. If you're lucky enough not to be afflicted with such Apple users I can only wish I was as lucky as you...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: What do you expect?

              I think the problem is that while those of us in the fruity world get annoyed with our products, as others do, we also see the malware, poor security and fragmentation aspects of Android and think "well, could be worse".

            2. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: What do you expect?

              Sorry Werdsmith, but i can speak from personal experience, about some of my colleagues and their disdainful attitude to anything not coming from the fruity factory.

              There really was no need to start your comment with an apology for the rest of it, but accepted anyway.

              And from personal experience I have met people with a disdainful attitude to everything coming from the fruity factory. Is it somehow OK for them to be like this because it aligns with your personal views?

              I think they are as bad as each other, but the exception not the rule.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: What do you expect?

                I am sorry, but you all buy phone and tablet cases with a cut-out on the back to show you are using an A#Thing; is that not waving it in our faces??

                And as someone who has had to suffer through my wife and mother owning A#Things, I am well aware of why Android is better.

                On a recent family trip, my mum was the only one who couldnt share photos via Bluetooth, because IOS Bluetooth wont connect to Android Bluetooth (or Windows Bluetooth), correctly.

                I suppose I could have set up a wifi hotspot on my netbook, and allowed her to connect via that, but I wanted her to understand WHY everyone else in the family had switched to Android.

                She still has an Air she uses for work related stuff, but her phone is now Android.

              2. fandom

                Re: What do you expect?

                "If you want to be disdainful about Apple users"

                Me? Why would I want to do that? After all I have a MacBook Air.

                Actually, I have barely used it in years and I should probably put it up for sale at eBay but why would I be disdainful about myself?

                By the way, have you read what you wrote? I doesn't look like it, but if you do you will notice that in the first one you said that Apple users don't lord it, that it was all our imagination, but in the following ones you openly admit it.

                And yet, despite your 180 degree turn around you still go around lording it over us.

                And that's the attitude that makes you laughable, if every Apple owner was like me nobody would bother.

          2. fandom

            Re: What do you expect?

            Werdsmith, you defenitely need to get out more.

            For example, I have a friend, who I love dearly as she is one of the most charming people you could ever hope to meet, but when someone metions a problem with their computers she automatically says in an annoying tone: "that doesn't happen with my mac"

            But really, don't take my word for it, check this comment by Lotaresco, in which he says that the only reason people don't buy mac kit is because they can't afford it.

            And he doesn't think twice about posting it in a tech forum where, more often than not, people earn good salaries. It was so stupid I couldn't avoid remembering it.

            So, you had never noticed? That's what happens when you live within the reality distorsion field.

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: What do you expect?

              Werdsmith, you defenitely need to get out more.

              Or maybe it's my choice of friends.

              Talking about reality distortion, depending on where your confirmation bias sits you won't have to look far to find supercilious and sanctimonious comments from both sides. You have the internet at your disposal and you can find stuff to backup whatever you want.

              I realise that there are sensitive souls out there walking around with their "please offend me" t-shirts on. But really it's no big deal. If you want to be disdainful about Apple users because it suits your emotional investment in another product, for every one of you there is one the same looking back down his nose in the opposite direction. There's no goodies and baddies here, no moral high ground, just a bunch of polarised twats.

      2. MrKrotos
        Facepalm

        Re: What do you expect?

        "Considering Apples fortunes and strong sales in-spite of the higher than their competitors prices, they are doing something right in the eyes of the consumer and this period of success has been going on for over a decade, despite people with views like you continuously moaning about them."

        Yes the "doing something right", just like Scientology :P

      3. Andrew Newstead

        Re: What do you expect?

        Tribalism. History is full of examples of humanities' tendency for forming antagonistic cliques around concepts or physical items claiming their superiority, this is just another one.

    3. DeeCee

      Re: What do you expect?

      the reason i got 8 plus is the retarded patching, security and tracking on android, now that microsoft killed off windows phone apple is the least bad option

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: What do you expect?

      "and now he's on Facebook asking mates whether he should get the 8 plus or the X."

      well, the 'on Facebook' part explains the rest

    5. unwarranted triumphalism

      Re: What do you expect?

      > don't give a shit about the consumer

      That's one thing that has stayed the same about crApple.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What do you expect?

      OP: "He swore he would never ever darken their doorstep ever again ..... and now he's on Facebook asking mates whether he should get the 8 plus or the X"

      There is a reason for that - you look around at the alternatives and decide that you don't really like them for whatever reason. Been there, done that. At times in my iPhone history the device has shit me to tears, however I really don't like Android. Can't get on with it and don't like how OS updates are handled in terms of arbitrary cut-offs by vendors to squeeze more coin out of you. At least Apple supports the handset for quite some time - my old 5 just went out of support after 4-5 years of ownership. Getting the Google reference implementation, which would have longer support, has then just cut down the choice of devices. I don't much trust Apple, but I do trust them more than Google.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El Reg embraces Apple!

    "Try as we might, however, El Reg was unable to duplicate the issue, ..."

    El Reg is good-hearted and unbiased enough to buy iPhones? Wow.

    Or should that be "unhinged enough" ?

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: El Reg embraces Apple!

      Or lack of equipment might explain why they couldn't replicate the issue?

  3. Sampler

    Apple

    I.T just works..

    1. MonkeyBob
      Stop

      Re: I.T just works..

      I bloody hope not, that's me out of a job

  4. ukgnome

    Tried it on an iPhone8 that's fully patched - and it doesn't I.T.

    is this one of those 4chan bits of BS?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think there might be a specific set of conditions required to trigger it. I never saw the autocorrect symbol bug until I sent out one quick text right before I upgraded from 11.1 to 11.1.1. It is almost as if my phone knew it was about to be upgraded and decided to let me see it so I felt included. I haven't see any corrections of it or is either.

      They must have made some changes to the autocorrect algorithm with iOS 11 that can cause it to screw up on very short words. Puzzling why it only affects a subset of people, but I guess that's why it wasn't caught in testing.

  5. lglethal Silver badge
    Joke

    I'd be more worried about the other bug

    I'd be more worried about the other bug that turns "is" into "I.S." - that's a really good way to end up on a US extraordinary rendition list. I dont think the CIA torture bastards would quite believe you if you just said you were trying to type "is"...

    1. Swarthy
      Headmaster

      Re: I'd be more worried about the other bug

      That depends on what your definition of I.S. is....

  6. Bronek Kozicki
    Terminator

    Here is my theory

    Apple implemented antonymous unsupervised neural net somewhere deep inside auto-correct and left it in learning mode. For some users, it will evolve into replacing good words with rubbish. For some, it will evolve into automatically adding rubbish words in the middle the sentence. Next, it will evolve from auto-correct to auto-type, automatically writing and sending messages without users' involvement.

    I suspect that some posts on El Reg forums could be the proof of it.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Here is my theory

      "I suspect that some posts on El Reg forums could be the proof of it."

      Are you telling us amanfrommars is really an iPhone?

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Here is my theory

      it would be funnier (and a whole lot creepier) if autocorrect were like Siri and is processed "in the cloud" [so they can see what you're typing, muahahahah!]

  7. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Another auto correct bug

    "I️ just typed “it” and tried going back to fix it but then I️ have to delete the whole word omFg I’m losing it"

    It appears this poor user's post had a comma, full stop or possibly a hyphen replaced with the random sequence "omFg". And for good measure had the final full stop erased!

    Perhaps iOs is replacing their 'auto-correct' and currently testing a replacement 'auto incorrect' feature?

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. Simon Harris
    IT Angle

    The IT Crowd connection.

    I want an autocorrect that corrects to 'leet speak' as per the second language subtitle option of Series 1, Episode 1 of the IT Crowd DVD.

  10. Fading
    Joke

    I cannot tell; suffice to say, one of the words Apple cannot hear!

    No, not "is"! You wouldn't get very far in life not saying "is"!

  11. russsh

    Why not just get a neural network to do the autocorrection - namely the brain of the recipient?

    It's normally easy enough to work out the meaning of mistyped words, but difficult to unravel once autocorrect has taken it even further from the intended original.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Correctly spelled sentences are easier to read than ones with a lot of errors.

      There's someone I interact with at work who has a sub-GCSE level of writing and it takes me approximately twice as long to read thing's they've written because I mentally have to translate it 'into English'.

      And trust me, you're much better off not having to read the first draft that my dyslexic brain comes out with.

      1. David Nash Silver badge
        Headmaster

        "There's someone I interact with at work who has a sub-GCSE level of writing and it takes me approximately twice as long to read thing's they've written because I mentally have to translate it 'into English'. "

        I have to do the same when I read "thing's" instead of "things".

        Apologies if that's the result of dyslexia (not sure if that condition affects apostrophes!) but I couldn't resist that. Your other apostrophes are fine!

  12. low_resolution_foxxes

    Last company workplace:

    40 engineers - 1 iPhone.

    8 marketing staff - 8 iPhones.

    Apple has poor value for what is becoming a commodity product. It is now 50% brand, 30% price exclusivity ("it's more expensive, it MUST be better"), 20% technology.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      "40 engineers - 1 iPhone. 8 marketing staff - 8 iPhones."

      THAT is a VERY interesting observation...

      /me wonders how many of those engineers had 'no smart phone' [just a dumb one that acts like a phone - yeah, that would be ME]

  13. jms222

    Some years back Apple products did indeed often "just work". Really. Now the reverse is true and of all the bugs I have gone to the trouble of reporting they have fixed only a couple.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Apple software quality is definitely dropping...

    Pretty much ever since bean counter Cook took over. He understands only as much about quality as might affect the bottom line - nothing more. iOS is turning into more and more of a mess.

  15. Elmer Phud

    Shirley . .

    . . . they've not been cutting corners

  16. Naselus

    Just waiting for the excuses to start

    'You're spelling it wrong'.

  17. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    "...perhaps you're typing I.T. wrong?"

    Missed opportunity for humour there -^ .

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