Just got an email this morning from Norton explaining about the update to iOS 14.4 coming out soon. Some on this site have suggested NOT installing it due to the expected EAS message. I would suggest you do your own research and make an informed decision as to if or when to install this update.
Here's what Norton has to say:
Update to iOS 14.4 immediately to address critical vulnerabilities
What is happening?
Apple released iOS 14.4 for iPhones and iPadOS 14.4 for iPads to address three critical vulnerabilities in its mobile operating systems that may already be actively targeted by hackers. The vulnerabilities target the kernel, the core of iOS, and WebKit, the web browser engine behind Safari.
You can read about the specifics of the vulnerabilities on Apple's Support site.
What should I do about it? If you have any of the following iOS or iPadOS devices: • iPhone 6s and later • iPad Air 2 and later • iPad Mini 4 and later • iPod Touch (7th generation)
You should update your operating system to iOS 14.4 or iPadOS 14.4 immediately by following Apple’s instructions for iPhones and iPads.
They certainly censor the App Store, but I don’t know if they censor texts. I thought that Tmobile or other carriers were caught censoring on their end though.
Does Apple secretly own Norton? Sorry, I've just grown so cynical to any information these days.
Not that I am aware, but do your own research. If possible, it might not be a bad idea to just stay off the phones for a couple of days and see if people who downloaded the update start to have problems.
What I'm starting to notice, and always notice when I don't do a software update on my Apple devices, is they immediately get buggy, lag and have inconsistencies. This is obviously done on purpose by Apple to force us to think if we just update our system it will fix everything.
I unknowingly got an update for my Apple Watch last night, it automatically did it while on the charger. I thought it was a Universal setting for all updates but I guess I needed to change the Apple settings separately.
That just doesn’t make any sense though. If you haven’t updated anything they can’t just introduce new bugs to software you already have installed. You don’t have to trust apple, but understand that the situation you are describing isn’t technically possible. You would need a “live” version of the OS like a developer build to receive pushes like that without a new installation.
What is (((clever))) of Apple is that those update will not install on older iPads and iPhones. So, if you want to update the OS you must have a new device. Same trick they pulled in 2014 when the MacBook Pro would not longer allow updated OS. I have several friends who own the older MacBook Pro and were frustrated -- until I showed them they could use Linux on them for faster, better operating.