iOS 7.1 'should ship any day now': John Gruber

iOS 7.1, the much-awaited first major update to iOS 7, could ship any day now, according to noted Apple pundit John Gruber.

Apple is hosting the first-ever iTunes music festival in the US along the sidelines of the South by Southwest (SXSW), a popular conference that is held every year in Texas. Apple announced that the music festival will be streamed live via Apple's iTunes store as well as through a dedicated iTunes festival app.

The festival app, which hasn't been released yet, will require iOS 7.1 to run, says Gruber. With SXSW set to start on Friday, the app, and hence the update, should arrive soon. Gruber wrote on his website Daring Fireball:

Apple's first iTunes Festival in the U.S. starts a week from today at SXSW in Austin. Apple is going to stream the performances to iOS devices using an app, but I've heard from a little birdie that the app requires iOS 7.1 (which explains why the app isn't out yet). That means iOS 7.1 should ship any day now.

iOS 7.1 is expected to bring in support for CarPlay, the newly unveiled feature that allows users to plug their phones into compatible vehicles in order to control entertainment, navigation, and call-handling features via voice commands and steering-mounted controls.

The update is also expected to bring updated icons, a new animation for "Slide to Unlock", improvements to various native apps including Calendar and Siri, and various other visual and functional enhancements.

Apple recently released the iOS 7.0.6 update to fix a critical bug in the SSL implementation of iOS 7.