Apple fixes Safari crash search bug

Image copyrightApple

Image captionThe Safari fault appears to be affecting a range of Apple's devices

Apple believes it has fixed a problem that caused its Safari web browser to crash when users carried out a search via its address bar.

The problem appears to have begun earlier in the day.

Users had complained that they had experienced the bug on both the firm's mobile devices and its Mac computers.

Apple recently updated its iOS and OS X operating systems, but users who had not installed the new versions had also reported the fault.

This would suggest that the immediate cause was a process happening at Apple's data centres. However, some experts have suggested that an additional flaw in Safari itself may have led to the program crashing as it was unable to handle the invalid input.

Apple has not provided a comment about the fault.

But the BBC understands that the fix may take some time to go through for everyone.

Users can, however, speed up the process by clicking on the "clear history and website data" in Safari's preferences.

The issue only impacted people whose "suggestions cache" had updated while they were using the phone between 09:00 GMT and 12:00 GMT.

As a result, Europe-based device owners were more likely to have been affected than those in Asia or the US.

Malicious link

Earlier in the week, it emerged that a web link had gone viral that forced Safari to crash.

The page the browser was sent to used JavaScript to put the software into a loop forcing it to fail.

Image copyrightTwitter

Image captionSafari users have complained about the problem on Twitter

However, the more recent problem appears to have been much more widespread, and was replicated by the BBC.

Apple revealed on Tuesday that there are about one billion of its core devices in use.

The vast majority of those may have been affected, although the number also includes its set-top TV boxes and smartwatches, which do not use the browser.

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Daimler CEO: Apple’s made more progress on automotive project than previously assumed

During a recent trip to Silicon Valley, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told German weekly Welt am Sonntag that Apple and Google have made more progress on automotive projects than he had assumed, Reuters reported Monday.

“Our impression was that these companies can do more and know more than we had previously assumed. At the same time they have more respect for our achievements than we thought,” the executive told the paper.

Zetsche and an entourage of senior managers met with around 70 companies in Silicon Valley though the report didn’t name them.

“There were concrete talks. I will not say anything about the content. It was not just about the fact that there is an innovative spirit in the Valley,” he was quoted as saying.

“We know that already. We wanted to see what drives it, and all the things that can be created from it.” Mercedes-Benz established a research and development center in Silicon Valley twenty years ago.

The facility was headed by Johann Jungwirth, the former President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz, who joined Apple as Director of Mac Systems Engineering in September 2014 before leaving for Volkswagen in November 2015.

Apple’s electric car vehicle, dubbed Project Titan, has been called Silicon Valley’s worst kept secret though the initiative may have suffered a setback as Apple’s long-time veteran and VP of Product Design Steve Zadesky is reportedly leaving the company. He was tasked with spearheading the Cupertino firm’s ambitious automobile efforts.

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