iPhone 3.0 beta 2 released, push notifications are a go

The rest of the mobile industry might be gearing up for CTIA to start, but Apple's phone elves are toiling away -- iPhone OS 3.0 beta 2's just been released to developers, along with the go-ahead to start developing for push notifications. Thankfully, beta 2 also apparently includes a number of stability and performance enhancements, which will hopefully make our tester phone tolerable again -- we've been restarting beta 1 basically every day since we sacrificed it to the hands-on gods. Devs and beta testers know what to do to snag the upgrade, let us know how it goes!

[John @ Mar 31st 2009 5:38PM]

overrated. no?

[Kamil @ Mar 31st 2009 5:40PM]

Apple

[The WC @ Mar 31st 2009 5:46PM]

Your mom's overrated!

...Dear lord, did I actually say that? I have officially become an internet troll.

[aaron @ Mar 31st 2009 5:59PM]

no.

[Sentax @ Mar 31st 2009 7:08PM]

I'm sorry.. but

"which will hopefully make our tester iphone tolerable again -- we've been restarting beta 1 basically every day since we sacrificed it" = blah, no worries, it's a beta

"which will hopefully make our tester winmo phone tolerable again -- we've been restarting beta 1 basically every day since we sacrificed it" = OMG it sucks! Post an article about it!

Had to, sorry..

[ashan @ Mar 31st 2009 7:26PM]

@Sentax

I don't get it. At all. The article is about the iPhone update, and it mentions the original beta being extremely buggy. I don't see any article about the buggy WinMo betas. It's like you're arguing against yourself.

[VanillaSpice @ Mar 31st 2009 9:24PM]

They are indeed arguing against themselves - they cannot argue with Engadget because Engadget has never actually said the words they put in its mouth. They have decided that Engadget is biased towards Apple, but because they cannot find any evidence of this (obviously, because it does not exist, because they are not biased), they make things up.

And distort everything. This minor article included plain vanilla info, plus a jibe at Apple, yet they still manage to see it as somehow being pro-Apple. Amazing level of self-delusion, really.

[CleverEndeavor @ Mar 31st 2009 9:34PM]

how is the picture related to push notification/push email?

[ashan @ Mar 31st 2009 10:41PM]

Still, somehow I got voted down. Go figure.

[Tim @ Mar 31st 2009 5:44PM]

Cant wait, whats the release for this?>

[Kelmon @ Apr 1st 2009 2:05AM]

Summer. You now know as much as everyone else.

[Jesse Southard @ Mar 31st 2009 5:43PM]

Is it on the torrent sites yet???

[Russ Matthews @ Mar 31st 2009 5:54PM]

Yes, I believe it is. But please do not try to install it. Seriously.

Unless you've paid your cash and registered with the Apple Developer Connection (a long process, can take several hours if your name/billing info isn't a precise match), it will brick your phone.

It calls the mothership to verify that your phone with your serial number is registered as a test unit on your account. And you can not downgrade (well you can but it's a pain in the neck and isn't straight forward).

So if you want it that badly, pay your $99 and do it right. Or wait until the final release.

[who? @ Mar 31st 2009 8:44PM]

@Russ Matthews

I agree. While it is possible to make it work (just don't sync while you have internet access), paying the $99 is the way to go, no doubt. If you can't afford that, then maybe you shouldn't be wasting your time downloading a new beta firmware version for your iPod/Phone!

Anyway, my iPod touch has the pointless store setting and voice memos app now... I feel so much better about this build. Oh, and you can pause w/BT headphones now, but still not use the next/back/play functions, and shake to shuffle just WILL NOT turn off! This is still better than the first build (except the shake to shuffle settings issue)

[b3media @ Apr 1st 2009 11:54AM]

@Russ.

It's simple to downgrade.

All I did was restored to a jailbroken 2.2.1 and it went without a hitch.

If you then don't want it jailbroken just restore to original 2.2.1.

[Momin @ Mar 31st 2009 5:43PM]

sweet!

[Bryant @ Mar 31st 2009 5:44PM]

"Apple's phone elves"

Don't you mean phony elves?

[gonintendo @ Mar 31st 2009 5:57PM]

No, those belong to Mapple.

[Dev 3 Tester @ Mar 31st 2009 5:46PM]

Hopefully this build will fix the issue, but for any other developers out there who've not figure this out, the BIGGEST secret to a stable 3.0 device is this:

Always restart the unit after syncing with iTunes.

If you do that, it's almost as stable as 2.x was.

[Givemelove @ Mar 31st 2009 5:54PM]

Anybody has some slots available in their dev program?

[MIA @ Apr 1st 2009 4:04PM]

My phone running beta 1 takes forever to syn to itunes. Like 20-30 minutes. Sometimes so long, i just cancel the sync and my itunes (which is synced, says there is no music). You think i will have problems when i install the beta 2???? Advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[Luke @ Mar 31st 2009 5:46PM]

probably june

[Me4u2 @ Mar 31st 2009 5:54PM]

Boooring!!!

[Kamil @ Mar 31st 2009 5:56PM]

LEAVE APPLE ALONE!!

[MrNuclear @ Mar 31st 2009 6:00PM]

Came here to say that? Your life must the thing that's 'boooring'.

[Decoy @ Mar 31st 2009 8:03PM]

You're lucky she even performs for you!

[Matt L @ Mar 31st 2009 5:56PM]

what is the new build number.

[Noah @ Mar 31st 2009 5:59PM]

Build 7A259g

[skant @ Mar 31st 2009 6:00PM]

"sacrificed it to the hands-on gods"


what?!

[Kamil @ Mar 31st 2009 6:05PM]

Apple >= God^2

[CancerJobs @ Mar 31st 2009 6:02PM]

wow apple figured out copy/paste - yeah! let's shoot our guns in the air like mexican new years! wtf

[redcard @ Mar 31st 2009 6:04PM]

@CancerJobs, good job on the copy/paste, shoulda been here a few weeks ago when it was announced. Day late, a dollar short. The story of your life, kid.

[CraigJ @ Mar 31st 2009 6:27PM]

Well, from his name he's obviously an Apple hating troll. Nice name BTW. You do know that karma is a bitch, right?

[Rickster @ Mar 31st 2009 11:17PM]

cancerjobs? Really?

You created an account specifically to bash, hate and hate some more on a 110 billion dollar market valued company? Really?
C'mon man, you know you want a macbook!

[huth.sebastian @ Mar 31st 2009 6:03PM]

cool. can't wait for push notification, AIM, skype, facebook (?).

[hovoooo @ Mar 31st 2009 6:03PM]

Anyone have a RS Download link for 7A259G?

[Christopher Rogers @ Mar 31st 2009 6:07PM]

Yea I am looking for the same thing. Looks like all the torrent sites don't have it yet. They only have the 1st version.

[a ham sandwich @ Mar 31st 2009 6:04PM]

can anybody comment on overall stability of this build over the former? i know the last one was pretty rocky and very much a "beta".

[Harkonian @ Mar 31st 2009 8:05PM]

The exchange email bug that prevented you from syncing to your corporate email was fixed.

[RauBurger @ Apr 1st 2009 6:51AM]

the music player stability seems to have been increased, but I'll need to do more testing of the other things also

[iGO @ Mar 31st 2009 6:05PM]

ALL FIXED!!!....Yahoooey.


Snappier than EVEH EVEH !!

[Zach @ Mar 31st 2009 6:13PM]

I must say, excited for these much needed improvements to the iphone.

[Baxter @ Mar 31st 2009 6:15PM]

Is this available to download anywhere on the torrent sites or rapid share yet? Im looking for the 1st gen ipod touch version.

[Jubei @ Mar 31st 2009 6:17PM]

As the headline "iPhone 3.0 beta 2 released, push notifications are a go" were read by the copy cats of the mobile industry pigs, a collective expression of disbelief on how quickly 3.0 is progressing showed on their faces. Their hopes for a delay was quickly squashed with that headline.

You can hear, smell (Ballmer) and see the fear from Palm, RIM and Microsoft (me too) with todays announcement.

[Dyranios @ Mar 31st 2009 6:24PM]

lol nah why would they care when their phones allow applications to run in the background?

[ashan @ Mar 31st 2009 7:38PM]

@Dyranios,

As these devices have allowed background tasks for a long time and yet iPhone is pulling more marketshare every quarter, your point is moot.

The fact that the iPhone does not allow 3rd parties to run background processes is not a technical weakness of the OS. Its a strategic platform decision that pays off to user experience by making iPhones seem to have much better batteries and be a viable mobile gaming machine. Bottom line is that next year the iPhone will have the biggest mobile gaming market in the world, and that's only possible because of this decision.

[Kelmon @ Apr 1st 2009 2:13AM]

@Dyranios

The thing is, the iPhone is clearly quite capable of running applications in the background since it does so already and it is running a UNIX OS. However, just because it is capable of doing so, and its competitors do so, does not necessarily mean that this is a "good idea". Rather, this is something that has come to mobile devices simply because their desktop cousins do and it simply does not work well. Done well you'll never notice that you are quitting an application when you leave it and you don't have to muck about with bloody Task Managers (my personal pet hate from Windows Mobile). There are some scenarios (such as the Skype application) where background applications make sense but they are definitely in the minority.

As the old wisdom goes, just because everyone else jumped off a cliff does not mean that you have to.

[JZ @ Apr 1st 2009 3:36AM]

No.. they won´t shiver a bit. Apple is a third way behind Nokia and RIM. So yes they increase their market share in 2008 by 6% though at their current pase it would take them atleast another 5 to 8 years not considering Nokia/RIM will try to hold Apple down. Further more especially for Nokia is the smartphone only a small market anyways, out of 1.4 billion mobiles they sold in 2008 a mere 61 million were smartphones.
Further more why would any producer especially for the business market worry for a mobile which needs 3 years to introduce copy/paste and still lacks most basic functions even dumbphones 10 years ago had. Also specifically for RIM their mobile is from the roots developed all around reliability and stability with a proper input, it´s something Apple can´t touch. No ICT department in their right mind will consider using iPhones since they lack control over it and can´t develop what their needs are.

That said, as a fun-phone its a nice thing and for sure it has shown the mobile market that there is more possible then they knew. I do hope though Apple develops faster what they lack and also will start listening to the users instead of calling it ´features´ to for example refuse to run multiple apps.

[poke @ Apr 1st 2009 4:35AM]

Stupid logic if I ever heard it.

So apple doesn't give you the option of running background apps so you say thank you??? They give the option of Apps sending you stupid pop ups even if you don't want them and you say thank you? this is better than backgrounding??

You say the Unix OS is capable of running this but apple choose not to implement it for 3rd party apps because of battery? How about giving me the option of running my phone how ever I want?? If I choose to run background apps and recharge my phone daily that should be my decision.

Didn't realise iphone users like their hands being held so much.

When your a fan of something the I guess you will always try and find a way to defend its limitations.

[Baxter @ Mar 31st 2009 6:21PM]

Whats the build number for ipod touch first generation?