Changes in 3.0 Beta 1

[Muero]

I think we should discuss the new things in the iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 1. I've noticed some things that I haven't seen noted anywhere else. Here's some to get us started:

• It used to be that you could get the Springboard "stuck" between two home screens by scrolling part way over and then tapping down on the dots that designate the different home screens. Now, this is not possible.
• Syncing with iTunes takes forever. Once it gets to actually transferring stuff, like photos and music, it's just like normal, but it stays on a generic "Syncing" status for a long time, seemingly not really doing anything.
• A long press on a hyperlink now brings up a new menu. Before, it just showed a portion of the link's URL. Now it shows the complete URL and four options: Open, Open in New Page, Copy, and Cancel. Finally we can open in a new page!
  
  
• Springboard icons "hidden" while jailbroken remain hidden after update to 3.0. I had hidden Stocks, because it couldn't really do much and I never used it. After updating to 3.0 it is still hidden, and can't even be found in Spotlight. I would guess that if I did a full restore it would bring it back, or if a 3.0 jailbreak were available I could "un-hide" it.
• A new user agent string for Mobile Safari. The old one was: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20
  I have highlighted the changed parts.
  
  
• New controls in iPod. Podcasts now have additional controls, including a "mail" button that I haven't been able to get to do anything. A circled 30 jumps back 30 seconds. Audio podcasts and audiobooks have a playback rate button (in the same place as the "random" button on the video podcast screenshot below) that can be set to 0.5x, 1x, or 2x.
  
  
• "Cracked" App Store apps no longer work. They still sync but don't launch.
• The OS is fairly slow and buggy. Quite often I can't get iPod to launch. Here, the add a bookmark screen isn't displayed properly:
  
  
• Another bug is that the blinking text cursor often disappears, but typing still works.

That's all I have for now. I wanted to try to put something up here about the new Autofill feature, but I can't use my iPhone because it's still syncing.

 

[Duvi]

Thanks for sharing...

Question... can you use MMS? I say this as I am able to with SwirlyMMS. (Which will be absolete as soon as 3.0 gets jailbroken! )

 

[JustinHorn]

Thanks for sharing...

Question... can you use MMS? I say this as I am able to with SwirlyMMS. (Which will be absolete as soon as 3.0 gets jailbroken! )

The built in MMS doesn't work yet, at least not for me in the US with ATT. I think ATT needs to update their system before it will work.

 

[Jeremy]

The built in MMS doesn't work yet, at least not for me in the US with ATT. I think ATT needs to update their system before it will work.

You would be correct. AT&T needs to do something on their side in order for it to work.

 

[JustinHorn]

Yeah, if you think about it, at least for inbound MMS they are caught at the ATT servers and then convert to SMS and Viewmypics.com. So I wonder if they can even enable this for some account or if we will have to wait for it to be public?

Has anyone been able to send a group SMS? I tried sending to just 2 people and it fails? Guess it's just a bug, but wanted to see if others had the same issue.

 

[Jeremy]

Group SMS works fine here.

 

[Shorty]

Nice Post, I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about the iPhone being slow/lagging...
Wonder how Apple are gonna fix that.

 

[JustinHorn]

Nice Post, I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about the iPhone being slow/lagging...
Wonder how Apple are gonna fix that.

With a beta 2, hopefully in the next few weeks.

 

[Shorty]

With a beta 2, hopefully in the next few weeks.

That's what we hope anyway!

 

[Muero]

• There is now a "Fraud Warning" under Settings --> Safari.
• Under Settings --> Safari is also where you'll find where to turn on AutoFill.
  
  
• AutoFill then has its own settings, where you choose a contact from which it will fill in forms in Safari. You can also turn on or off password login saving.
  
  
• When you sign into a web site, it will prompt you to save the password, just like in Firefox or non-mobile Safari.
  
  
• I tested out AutoFill by trying to add a shipping address on Amazon's website. I tapped the empty address field, and you can see the AutoFill button above the keyboard here. Then it automatically filled it in from the contact info (a fake one I created so my real info isn't revealed) and turned the fields yellow.
  
  
  
• Hyperlinked images bring up one more option compared to just hyperlinks. You can Open Link, Open Link in New Page, Save Image, or Copy. I'm not sure if Copy refers to the image or the hyperlink.
  
  

 

[Muero]

More details, including MMS messages!

• Features like copy/paste and long press on URL to bring up menu don't only work in built-in apps. For example, in Tweetie, I could use copy text from tweets, and copy embedded link URLs. I could also copy/paste text in editable text fields in Gas Cubby. Tweetie and Gas Cubby were the only two apps I tested this in, but I assume it will work in all (or at least most) others.
• There is an option under Settings --> Messages where you can choose to put the Subject field on text messages.
• Notice the new picture button when you compose a new SMS/MMS message. Pressing it brings up a menu where you choose to use an existing image or take a photo.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  You then take a picture or cancel.
  
  
  
  
  Then you can use the photo or re-take it.
  
  
  
  
  It puts a thumbnail of the image back into the message you're composing. You can add text to the message as well.
  
  
  
  
• As of now, iPhone users can't send MMS messages on AT&T. The progress bar fills about 90% before stopping. It eventually gives an error message and asks if you want to re-try to send or cancel.
  
  

 

[CarlyLyon]

another one is the battery representation settings can be changed to show % numbers...
pretty cool

 

[Muero]

another one is the battery representation settings can be changed to show % numbers...
pretty cool

I looked everywhere in Settings for that, but it's not there. Then I searched in Google, and found this thread at MacRumors. It looks like the numbers are only shown when upgrading from a device that had that applied to it when jailbroken. It's not a feature of 3.0.

 

[Jeremy]

I looked everywhere in Settings for that, but it's not there. Then I searched in Google, and found this thread at MacRumors. It looks like the numbers are only shown when upgrading from a device that had that applied to it when jailbroken. It's not a feature of 3.0.

Yes, that is a option that is in supreme settings (via jailbreak).

 

[Microcosmos]

Hey Muero, thanks for sharing this! Man I can't wait until 3.0 is out of beta, but this helps!

 

[JustinHorn]

Anyone notice the wifi picks up a lot more networks now? Or is this just me?

 

[Jeremy]

Anyone notice the wifi picks up a lot more networks now? Or is this just me?

Seems normal to me but I know what you mean - everything seems to be improved (except for the bugs) when you get a new OS and you're not sure if it new or not.

 

[JustinHorn]

Seems normal to me but I know what you mean - everything seems to be improved (except for the bugs) when you get a new OS and you're not sure if it new or not.

Well I brought it up because I was at a friends house and was holding his 16GB black 3G 2.2.1 right next to mine with 3.0 and I had probably 10 or so more wifi networks show up.

Also, I've always noticed the macbook seems to find a lot more wifi networks than my iPhone in the same area, but now I wonder if they did something.

 

[Jeremy]

Well I brought it up because I was at a friends house and was holding his 16GB black 3G 2.2.1 right next to mine with 3.0 and I had probably 10 or so more wifi networks show up.

Also, I've always noticed the macbook seems to find a lot more wifi networks than my iPhone in the same area, but now I wonder if they did something.

Interesting but I have not noticed anything to that extent.

 

[wolves]

These are all some great features! I can't wait until Apple releases the next beta with some bug fixes.