iPhone OS 3.0 beta 3 released

iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 3 was released today (April 14). No info on what this update has, so I'll let you know what's in it when I figure it out.

Update: The YouTube app is now fully functional. I didn't check whether it was fixed in beta 2, so it could have already been fixed.

iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 2 Released

iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 2 was released yesterday (March 31), but it's only bug fixes as far as I can tell. I'll report more info when I find out something.

UPDATE: The bug fixes in this release fixes the "battery leak" that causes the iPhone battery to drain much faster than normal. It also fixes bugs that causes crashes where the iPhone needs to be restarted. This makes the beta experience much more bearable.

Just In: iPhone 3.0 Beta

Hey guys, I just got the new beta OS, so I'm gonna tell you guys what's already included (including the unannounced features), and what's not yet implemented.

Here's what's already in:

• Spotlight - While at the first Home Screen page swipe left or  press the home button to get to the Spotlight page, or you can set the double-press of the home button to get to Spotlight in Settings 
• Search - you get the search bar at the top of Mail, iPod, Calendar (list-view), and Notes.
• SMS Update - SMS is now renamed to Messages.
• Landscape mode - Landscape mode is now available in Messages, Mail, Contacts, Notes, and Stock.
• Stocks Update - As promised, you now have news stories (related to the stock, when you press one of the stories, it opens the full story in Safari) or you can swipe the news feed to full daily stock info (Open, High, Low prices, etc.) or you can swipe to the old graph view. Landscape mode shows you a more detailed graph, and as demonstrated, putting a finger down will give you the price at that point on the graph, and two fingers gives you the change in price between those two points.
• App Store Update - When you look at the thumbnail screenshots, the thumbnails now cover 3/4 of the screen, and you swipe through them.
• Voice Memos - Yes, you can now record your voice, and it comes out in a nice and high-quality audio file. Currently you can only send it via email.
• vCard Contacts - there is now a Share Contact button in a contact view. Since you can't quite MMS it yet, you can email it to anyone.
• YouTube Update - You can now use your login in the YouTube app. Unfortunately, the app cann no longer connect to the YouTube server so you can't watch anything. There is an exception though, if you have any videos bookmarked, you can watch them. Everything else is disabled (this includes going to youtube.com on Safari).

We also got some bonus features:

• Recents Update - In the recent calls list, if you called or got called by a contact, it tells you which number of the contact was used (home, mobile, etc.) and if the call wasn't from a contact, it tells you where the call was from (city, province/state). Also, there is an icon indicating whether the call was incoming or outgoing. 
• Visual Voicemail Update - just like in the recent calls list, it tells you which number a contact used, or the location which a non-contact is from.

The stuff that is not yet in the beta is:

• MMS - does not yet work, and it has not yet been completely implemented. If you try to send a photo, MMS is not an option, but if you try to send a contact, MMS is an option, but it doesn't actually send it (at least not in my attempt). 
• Tethering

UPDATE: Apple reported that Tethering and MMS will be disabled during the beta period, and beta testers are not supposed to attempt to use those features either. :(

iPhone 3.0 OS Update

Give Apple a hand everybody. The iPhone 3.0 firmware gives us a bunch of new features, and a a couple of let downs. This update seems specifically targetted towards developers, which means better apps for everyone :D.

I'm gonna provide a summary for you guys from the live feed from Engadget, so if you guys wanna see the full thing, click on the link.

I'll start off with what we are told we won't get:

• No background processes :( - according to Apple, allowing background processes reduces the battery 80%, so it's not showing up anytime soon, but not to worry, Apple has figured out a way around it, so keep reading to find out.
• No bluetooth song sending/receiving
• that's about it for that...

Anyway, here are the big points from the new firmware:

• 1,000 new APIs
• In-App Purchases - this means you can buy extra features or game levels while inside an application with a "Buy" or "Cancel" dialog box you're used to seeing when you get a text message, but don't worry, this won't be included in free apps, so no "fine print"
• Peer-to-Peer Connectivity (Ad-Hoc mode, via Bluetooth) - this is something I've been waiting for, so you can play games with friends wirelessly without having to have wifi access point, it also uses Bonjour so no configuration to play with a friend
• The ability for apps to be able to interact directly to hardware accessories. They give the example of being able to control the volume on a speaker, or using a blood pressure pump and get a digital reading on-screen - I see unlimited potential in that. BTW, the connection can be made via Dock-connector or Bluetooth, so you can use wireless accessories too.
• Google Maps API - allows developers to embed Google Maps in an app, simply by calling an API. Wouldn't it be nice if you can use that inside a shopping mall, just get turn-by-turn directions straight to the nearest bathroom, sounds nice, huh?
• Speaking of turn-by-turn directions, that has been enabled for core location, yay! Unfortunately, due to licensing issues, you can't actually use Google's maps :(

Now here's a biggie:

•  PUSH - that's right, we finally get push notifications. Remember when I said that Apple makes up for the lack of background processes. Well according to Apple, background processes reduce battery 80%, but Push just reduces by about 20%. Push will allow you to use IM apps without them being open. You receive IM messages just like SMS messages. Looks nice!
  
• New Audio/Video Streaming API - this allows for features like In-Game Voice.
• COPY & PASTE  - Another biggie everyone's been waiting for. Easy to use interface, double tap on text, select the text you want and it prompts you to Cut, Copy, or Paste. It also comes with a new magnifying glass.
• LANDSCAPE MODE - Finally landscape mode comes to more native apps, including Mail, Notes, and SMS, nice! A few Blackberry users have been teasing me about this. I'm gonna have to kick 'em in the nuts after this! :P
• SMS Features - You can now forward and delete SMS messages, not that big of a deal to me, personally, but I know a lot of people have been waiting for this.
• MMS MESSAGING - YAY! We can now send picture messages, like I said in my previous post, it's been included in my plan, so I finally get to use it, YAY! And that's not even the best part. You can send and receive Contacts :D, Audio :D, Locations for Maps :D
• Voice Memos - here's another one that everyone says should have been included in 1.0, but now we have it. Looks like another icon on the homescreen.
• CalDAV - calendar syncing over servers, useful if you can use it
• Subscription Support - not much said here, except it's in .ics format, very convenient though
• Stocks update - allows for news stories and details at the bottom of the Stocks app, as well as landscape view 
• Search - allows you to search through mail, and it'll check the server if you can't find it on your phone; search in calendar for appointments; iPod for songs.
• Spotlight - another icon on your homescreen to search through the entire phone, looks nice
• There are many new features that are in the pictures, that weren't explicitly said, but must be mentioned such as Notes Sync, Shake to Shuffle, Stereo Bluetooth, Auto-Fill, Creating meeting invitations, live streaming, and many more :D

Now you must be wondering when it'll be out, well the developer beta is already out, but the official release was said to be "in the summer" ... such a long wait :(

I don't know how anyone will plan to live through the long wait, but I suggest hibernation.

Anyway, I'm gonna see if I can score the beta with my developer account ;)

Adios.

UPDATE: Apparently just having a developer account isn't enough for the beta, you have to be enroled in the Apple Developer Program to get access. Fortunately I'll be a member soon enough ;)

iPhone OS 3.0 Announcement

So what's new? iPhone 3.0 firmware update details are going to be announced tomorrow. 

Engagdet is gonna give us a live feed on the announcement (thanks to SR for the heads-up) so keep your browser on there and your finger on F5. Most important of all, keep wishing for best, for all our sakes.

Here's what's on my wishlist (take your bathroom break now, it's a long list ahead):

• Wireless Sync
• Tethering
  
• MMS (it's included in my plan :P)
• Push API
• Video recording (like the jailbreak apps do)
• RSS Reader (one that allows you to subscribe to feeds, not like the one in safari that only lets you read them.
• Support for HTTP mail (like Windows Live Mail for Hotmail)
• a native IM app
• App Folders on the Springboard
• Springboard themes
• Landscape mode Springboard (like the video in my last post)
• native iWork apps
• Removable USB disk usage (I forgot the actual term)
• File browsing
• More video codecs for the iPod app (I hate converting)
• Flash for Safari so we can stream videos from everywhere but without the ads, so like a little button on the area that you click to view the flash object to avoid ads and other similar things
• I don't really care about multitasking except IM apps (as requested above) and for when taking a call I want everything as I left it
• and some other fun stuff that only Apple would think of ;)

Are these possible? Yup. Are they likely to be in the next update? Not so much. Is this really too much to ask?.... Don't answer that.

Anyway that's my wishlist, what's on yours? (Post it in the comments) 

iPhone 4G, not just another iPhone

What's up viewers, I found this iPhone 4G video (yup, it's a fake, but it's nice fake, hence "not just another iPhone, 'cause it's not an iPhone). Anyway it has some nice features I would like to hope for, so check it out:

Now that you've seen the video, here are the features I like: landscape home screen, ability to change settings by clicking on the status bar icon, and, of course, the 5 mp camera. It would be nice if this "iPhone 4G" actually ran on a 4G network, unfortunately, there is no 4G for GSM :( oh well...

Hopefully someone from Apple saw this video and decides to put the software upgradeable features like landscape mode and the status icon settings change thingy in the next firmware update (not likely, but here's hoping) :D

App101: ShopShop

This App101 features ShopShop, a shopping list for the everyday consumer.

ShopShop is not just another app from the AppStore... o.k., technically it is another app from the AppStore, but unlike every other app its an app worth mentioning which is not like every other app from the AppStore, so there... yeah - and it's free, too ;)

Anyway, ShopShop isn't only for groceries as you may think, it's good for just about anything. The app allows you to make multiple lists, and you can name them, so you have them named for the store you need to buy your items from, or the day you go shopping, or the type of things you're shopping for, and as a bonus feature, it automatically sorts your lists alphabetically (whether you want to or not).

It's pretty good for adding items to the lists, too. When you add an item, you can enter a quantity and it shows up on the list (always a useful feature). When you add an item, anything you've ever entered before that is similar to what you're typing, but if something you previously entered was a one-time thing then you can delete it with just a swipe of your finger across the name. Easy, huh?

When you're done with the item, you can cross it off your list by just touching it, that's even easier to do that swiping. Talk about easy to use. And remember, you don't have to restrict yourself to a grocery list, you could use it as a to-do list if you wanted to, I mean, it's an app, it's not too picky, it just likes to be used.

The only problems I've found with this app is that an item is restricted to a single line, so if your item is more than a line, you've got to cut it down, or else the app does it for you. The other thing is that you can't set a price for the item, which many people probably wouldn't care about, but if there are many similar products on the shelf, the price would make a nice reference. That's my two-cents on it anyway.

Overall, I give it a 4/5 stars, 4 for usefulness, but it lost one for not being shiny enough :P

One more thing, if you have your own opinion, maybe a comparible, but better app, tell me in the comments, I just might give it a review, too.