So here it is:
- Restored and attempted to retrieve my settings from iCloud (game saves, address book, general settings) and it did it half-ass. Settings restored fine, but it attempted to redownload all my games. It kept failing by telling me it couldn't download the apps (and was seriously slowing down the phone). I plugged it into iTunes and it noticed my restored settings (as well as missing songs/games) and attempted to sync my music/games. It's as if they were "fighting" to win the sync race. It didn't work.
I got frustrated and restored again. This time I restored from my last 4.3.3 backup and it worked fine. I lost a couple of contacts and my progress in the two latest Angry Birds updates. Not a big deal, I'd rather lose two chapters than all of it. That took a lot of work getting 3 stars in all Angry Birds variations plus the achievements. Gamecenter still remembers the scores though on those missing Angry Birds chapters.
Rebooted after a full sync and the phone is fine.
Wi-Fi iTunes sync is enabled (hardwired iTunes for the first sync), but doesn't seem to work right. Still testing.
My bug report:
- Exchange not pulling GAL when using active sync. fixed and improved
- No limit option to store all emails using active sync missing. Beta 1 had only a 1 month max history option fixed
- Camera forgets flash/HDR/grid changes partially fixed
- Camera app keeps thumbnail of most recent photo from camera roll on bottom left hand corner when the camera roll is empty. NOT fixed
- Safari randomly erasing browsing history when typing in previously viewed sites in address bar. Usually after a freeze/force quit. still testing
- Poor battery life. still testing
I don't use bluetooth, so I can't answer any of those questions. All of my games that had no sound while in action (main menus did have sound) are working now. My local radio station's streaming app still crashes on boot. I am still testing other functionality. I don't deal with a lot of manipulating of contacts so I can't answer anything on that. Also, I don't do calendars so I can't answer those either. iTunes doesn't display photo size properly, it things it is under the catagory other. That's a publicly known bug straight from Apple though.
Observations
Overall performance seems to be slightly improved. The iCloud icon in settings has changed colors to the official color scheme. Stock wallpapers are now back, but no new ones. AT&T profile is now up from 10.0 in beta 1 to 10.2.2 and the baseband is up from 4.11.04 in beta 1 to 4.11.06.
There has also been a notification tweak on the lockscreen. A new notification now shows up as the size of the old notification pop-up. It's a curvier look and disappears after a few seconds. It used to show up the same size as all the notifications on the lockscreen. It also seems to resize itself based upon how many notifications you have. No, you still can't pull down notifications from the lockscreen and you can't delete individual notifications. Either the entire catagory or nothing.
Now back to my thoughts on iCloud. When beta 3 is released, I will sync to iCloud and then try to restore my settings from that. If that messes up, I'll go back to my most recent iTunes backup. What got me the most is that iTunes and iCloud aren't smart enough to understand that they can work together.
I would like to see iCloud be able to restore my settings after a restore (which it did), but know that it has missing apps/music and at least ask me if it wants to use iTunes to reload what's missing (while keeping in sync with game saves/app settings). Don't start loading my apps from iCloud automatically. In this beta stage, it severely slows down the phone where I can't even use it. Maybe it will get better and iCloud isn't 100% loaded with all apps that they have.
That's all I have so far. Anything new or any updates and I will post it.