Reminders/Locations Services/Restrictions bug in iOS 5
Here's an odd (and rather interesting) bug in the way that Reminders, Locations Services and Restrictions interact in iOS 5 on the iPhone and iPad.
First, some background. Apple has set two levels of security in iOS. The first is the pincode which you need to access the handset, and the second is the Restrictions menu that allows you to add a second (different) pincode layer to controlling what people can and can't do with the OS. This is a handy layer of protection if you ever hand your phone to someone to do something like take a call, or if your phone is found by someone in an unlocked state.
One feature that I have enabled in Restrictions is 'Don't Allow Changes' for Location. What this does is prevent anyone who might come across my iPhone or iPad in an unlocked state from disabling features such as Find My iPhone.
Handy feature, you agree? I've recommended several times in the past that users turn this on for added security.
OK, you keeping up? Good. But here's where it gets a little complicated.
New in iOS 5 is an app called Reminders. A cool feature of Reminders is that is allows you to geofence a location and set reminders when you arrive at, or leave a specified location.
A neat idea. But there's a problem. If you have set a restriction on Location, you have no access to the geofence feature in Reminders. It's totally disabled.
Switch off the restriction, and the option reappears and I can set my geofence reminder.
The problem here seems to be that there's no separate entry for the Reminders app in Restrictions > Locations like there is for other apps that are location-aware. For example, the Cameraapp which can use Location Services to record where you took a photo.
For the Camera app, setting the Location restriction prevents anyone changing whether it can use location information or not, rather than disabling the feature altogether.
This should be an easy thing for Apple to fix, but I'm told that it's not fixed in the upcoming iOS 5.0.1 release expected shortly.
[Credit for this bug goes to Kathie Kingsley-Hughes (@Vexentrix)... well spotted!]