ios7.1 - How is iBeacon support REALLY changed in iOS 7.1?

Question

I've seen claims on the net that the newly released iOS 7.1's iBeacon support.

Specifically:

1. The system is supposed to still notify your app about didEnterRegion/didExitRegion events, even if the user explicitly kills your app.
2. didEnterRegion/didExitRegion notifications are supposed to be faster from the background and/or with the device locked.

I have not been able to confirm either of these claims with my own testing. In fact, I seem to be less likely to get didEnterRegion/didExitRegion notifications from a locked device. (more accurately I seem to get didEnterRegion notices, but not didExitRegion notices). That could be because Apple made me remove my BLE background mode entries in my info.plist - I'm not completely sure. I'm still trying to sort this out.

Answer 1

I had trouble setting up my tests at first, but I have witnessed background region entry callbacks after killing an app in iOS 7.1 on both iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s models. See comments below for testing details and instructions to reproduce.

I have also done tests on background detection times on an iPhone 4S, and I still see delays of 15 minutes on iOS 7.1. My full test results and methodology are described here.

Finally, I have also done some tests on the fluctuations on the "accuracy" (distance in meters) measurement on the same device before and after the upgrade to iOS 7.1. I do not see an obvious difference in the noise on the estimate. The graphs below show results before and after the upgrade, with an iBeacon 0.5 meters away for 60 seconds then moved to 3 meters away for 60 seconds. In both cases, the transmitter was a properly calibrated iPhone 4S w/ iOS 7.1 and the receiver was an iPhone 5S.

iOS 7.0.6 Estimated distance

iOS 7.1 Estimated distance