iPhone OS 3.1 beta 2 released (update: disables tethering, enables AR?)

Unless you have a developer account with Apple, don't bother plugging your iPhone into iTunes -- we promise you're not going to have access to it -- but devs can now get their grubby paws on beta 2 of iPhone OS 3.1. We'll let you know if we see anything crazy, like usable Gmail, true background applications, or a notification UI that doesn't make you want to throw the phone against a very hard surface at high velocity.

Update: Looks like Apple has closed the door on hacks that enable tethering in this release -- at least for AT&T according to early reports.

Update 2: We've just been informed that beta 2 also introduces what appears to be a public API for manipulating live video. Devs are still testing the capabilities but it could open the door for augmented reality applications like Layar to come to the iPhone 3GS.

[B3astofthe3ast @ Jul 14th 2009 8:07PM]

Nice commentary, engadget.

[Chris Ziegler @ Jul 14th 2009 8:10PM]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, so I'm tentatively going to say "thank you."

[MRCUR @ Jul 14th 2009 8:18PM]

+1 - I'm not being sarcastic.

[CLmaster @ Jul 14th 2009 9:11PM]

+1. We aren't being sarcastic at all.....

[sacapuntas @ Jul 14th 2009 8:52PM]

ambiguity FTW!

[B3astofthe3ast @ Jul 14th 2009 9:03PM]

I wasn't being sarcastic, I lol'd at the comments, and at the fact that they were anti-apple.

[Levi @ Jul 14th 2009 9:18PM]

yeah. If anyone cries "bias!!" after that post, they are obviously trolling.

[VanillaSpice @ Jul 15th 2009 12:44AM]

Unlikely, Levi - Engadget have said far more critical things of Apple in the past and it didn't stop the "bias" trolls then.

They don't yell "bias" because they have genuinely come to the opinion that Engadget is biased towards Apple; no, they yell "bias" in a sad attempt to cast doubt on any positive thing that Engadget have said about Apple or one of their products, despite Engadget saying those things because it was their honest opinion, and despite Engagdet never having feared saying anything negative or positive about ANY company.

[Chris Ziegler @ Jul 15th 2009 12:49AM]

You guys are all awesome -- but you, VanillaSpice, in particular have earned a special place in my heart with that comment.

[VanillaSpice @ Jul 15th 2009 1:30AM]

Thanks, Chris! It's nice in here, very warm and red.

[ronapollo @ Jul 14th 2009 8:10PM]

It looks like you can sync wirelessly ?

[ronapollo @ Jul 14th 2009 8:12PM]

NVM it seems its just for developer Instruments

[chumanfu @ Jul 14th 2009 8:59PM]

if only i can get mine to sync up regularly... stupid 3.1 ruining my iphone

[derX @ Jul 14th 2009 8:10PM]

At this point, I don't give a damn about GMail access or background apps or any of that. I would just like for my phone to last for more than 8 hours without having to turn off 3G, decreasing the screen brightness from default, and turning off push.

[Yash @ Jul 14th 2009 8:12PM]

haha yea, agreed.

[Anthony @ Jul 14th 2009 8:13PM]

That sucks, the iPod touch battery lasts a lot longer.

[Quantumphysics @ Jul 14th 2009 8:14PM]

How about they simply fix the lag that iPhone 3G gets using 3.0.

I wnted copy/paste, but, not at the loss of smoothness. Unless you have a 3GS, 3.0 runs like crap.

[Brandon L @ Jul 14th 2009 8:14PM]

Unless you want a Palm Pre (or any other smartphone with a removable battery) and a upgraded battery (along with the added thickness that comes along with it), I don't think you're going to get that really from a modern smartphone.

[derX @ Jul 14th 2009 8:20PM]

@Brandon L

I don't see why battery decreased battery life is a product of its not being removable. In fact, I would hope that a manufacturer would aim to increase battery life especially because the battery is not removable.

[Aman B. @ Jul 14th 2009 8:43PM]

Re: Quantumphysics
Quantumphysics @ Jul 14th 2009 8:14PM

How about they simply fix the lag that iPhone 3G gets using 3.0.

I wnted copy/paste, but, not at the loss of smoothness. Unless you have a 3GS, 3.0 runs like crap.

I totally agree with you its even worse on the 2G iPhone, apple really knows how to make its users upgrade to the new iPhone model. FYI if you haven't upgraded to 3.0 Please don't your phone will run much fast on 2.x

[Jordan @ Jul 14th 2009 8:50PM]

Couldn't agree with you guys more. Since 3.0 my email constantly gets stuck in an endless updating loop forcing me to either restart my phone or have a dead battery in no time. Copy/Paste is subpar. I mean the phone always needed it, but I find the way they implemented it to be hard to select the parts that you want to select.

I would like to see them give you the option to have landscape texting and the such for each individual app. I may be the only one in the world who hates landscape texting, but it really annoys me.

I've also found that in general apps launch slower and take longer to load. I know it's the first release of 3.0, and the problems they are experiencing with it are no where near what they were with 2.0, but they already had the backbone of the operating system working good - how'd they mess it up so much?

If their reasons for not having true multitasking is because of battery life, which I still don't buy that excuse, then they might as well implement it. I don't see how I could charge my phone more as it is now.

[Levi @ Jul 14th 2009 9:20PM]

To the dudes having trouble with 3.0 - I am too, and I have heard that restoring the phone through iTunes fixes it. I haven't tried it because I'm lazy, but I have heard it works from multiple people. Today mine got hung up on Safari for almost 30 seconds, it was ridiculous.

derX, sry for hijacking your post.

[WindowsFTW @ Jul 14th 2009 9:37PM]

Yeah,

3.0 is nothing but a big bag of hurt.

I cant wait until I get rid of this thing and go with a true smartphone (come on Tegra based WM7 devices)

[SteveH @ Jul 14th 2009 9:49PM]

@Jordan

What other way would you do copy/paste on the iphone? All you have to do is hold your finger down for a couple seconds then hit select and arrange the sliders. It it quick, easy and should be extremely intuitive for the average user. Its also nice being able to just copy a chunk of a webpage and pasting it into an email.

[Jordan @ Jul 14th 2009 10:03PM]

I'm not arguing with just holding down and the menu to copy/paste comes up, that's fine. My problem is with actually selecting the text I want to select. It seems like it has a mind of it's own. I'm not sure how else they would do it given the way they've modeled their phone, but I just don't find it very easy to use.

[yakapo @ Jul 14th 2009 10:20PM]

I was having the same problems. My 3gs would lose 20% of it's battery just sitting on my desk in about 1.5 hours. After reading tons of posts on the apple care forums I found a guy who claimed he could use his phone 8 hours w/ only about 10% loss. I swapped my phone out. It's way better now. Loses about 3% per 90 min sitting at my desk. Lasts more than a day in typical use.

[Quix @ Jul 14th 2009 11:28PM]

"I cant wait until I get rid of this thing and go with a true smartphone" - WindowsFTW

Spare us the horse crap - we know you don't own an iPhone.

Astroturf Different.

[henry @ Jul 14th 2009 8:14PM]

Iphone is the best period.

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jul 14th 2009 8:15PM]

gtfo.

[Absolute92 @ Jul 14th 2009 8:16PM]

little do you know

[RioRyan @ Jul 14th 2009 8:17PM]

I know the iPhone can do a lot, but I'm pretty sure that a period is the best period.

[Warren @ Jul 14th 2009 8:17PM]

I think the iPhone would win over more women than the Pre with its 'mirrored back', if you got one along with your period. Therefore...making it the best period.

[derX @ Jul 14th 2009 8:24PM]

Please, don't take the flame bait. It's obvious this is just an immature, annoying person trying to infect the internet.

Please show you're above it (kinda like Catherine Tate's Lauren Cooper).

[GeekGirl @ Jul 14th 2009 8:50PM]

Best for now :)

[johnny @ Jul 14th 2009 9:40PM]

The majority of the people do think iphone is the best. Have you seen one online review who rates a blackberry or pre better than iphone? Most people rate the iphone the best, sorry its just a fact. its an opinion to think its the best but its most peoples opinion as well!

[NohOne - The official hater and psychopath @ Jul 14th 2009 10:17PM]

Yes, it is the best. I just tried installing this update on my Touch Gen 2 (I don't install beta on my iPhone) and it was so great, it decided to lock up with error 2005. Restored, copied from backup, tried again and got error 2005 again.

Wow this is great! And all I wanted to do is see if they fixed the Wi-Fi bug.

[crow610 @ Jul 14th 2009 8:13PM]

Changes can be seen here:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/prerelease/library/releasenotes/General/iPhoneSeedAPIDiffs/index.html

[Warren @ Jul 14th 2009 8:14PM]

And for those of us who DON'T have a developer login...

[RioRyan @ Jul 14th 2009 8:16PM]

"To continue, you must be registered as a developer with Apple."

Would you mind maybe, copy and pasting it somewhere more accessible? Or just copy the stuff we care about and put it in a post?
That'd be nice :)

[crow610 @ Jul 14th 2009 8:18PM]

sorry..i'm with stupid

iPhone OS 3.1 beta 1 to beta 2 API Differences(copied from site)
AVFoundation
No changes
AddressBook
No changes
AddressBookUI
No changes
AudioToolbox
No changes
AudioUnit
No changes
CFNetwork
No changes
CoreAudio
No changes
CoreData
No changes
CoreFoundation
No changes
CoreGraphics
No changes
CoreLocation
No changes
ExternalAccessory
No changes
Foundation
No changes
GameKit
No changes
MapKit
No changes
MediaPlayer
No changes
MessageUI
No changes
MobileCoreServices
No changes
OpenAL
No changes
OpenGLES
No changes
QuartzCore
No changes
Security
No changes
StoreKit
No changes
SystemConfiguration
No changes
UIKit
UIImagePickerController.h
Added UIImagePickerController.cameraOverlayView
Added UIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform
Added UIImagePickerController.showsCameraControls
Added -[UIImagePickerController takePicture]
UIVideoEditorController.h
Removed -[UIVideoEditorControllerDelegate videoEditorController:didFinishEditingAtPath:]
Added -[UIVideoEditorControllerDelegate videoEditorController:didFailWithError:]
Added -[UIVideoEditorControllerDelegate videoEditorController:didSaveEditedVideoToPath:]

[y3k.nik @ Jul 14th 2009 8:41PM]

For some reason I find it ironic to read Ryan ask for copy and paste from apples website.

[Mark E @ Jul 14th 2009 9:01PM]

hehe, copy paste. how ironic

[Cold Bitter Truth @ Jul 14th 2009 11:54PM]

Wow, looks like they went all out with those "No changes" Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, but it looks like maybe 2 or 3 things in that big long list got changed a few things got added, which only applies to the camera for pictures/video.

I'm actually very happy with my 3G S. I have not had any problems. I don't really miss the swappable batteries because I am always near a computer so I can always charge my phone through out the day. Since it came out, I don't think I have ever been below 35% on my 3G S. While my iPod Touch 2g definitely last hours and hours and hours on end, it's not an issue really with the 3G S. My only complaint is that my FM Transmitter / Charger does not work with the 3G S, nor does my projection clock / dock. I ditched the projection clock for a Sony alarm clock that sounds pretty good.

I find it ironic that my FM remote MADE BY APPLE does not work with the 3G S. That's almost as bad as my Microsoft Fingerprint Reader not working under Vista 64.

[Yash @ Jul 14th 2009 8:16PM]

UIImagePickerController.h
UIVideoEditorController.h

only two things changed, for those who aren't developers.

[ronapollo @ Jul 14th 2009 8:17PM]

As of iPhone OS SDK 3.1, it is now possible to connect to your developer devices from Instruments (on your Leopard or Snow Leopard OS X machine) using Wi-Fi rather than the USB tether. The Wi-Fi connection is 100% fully featured and supports all of the instrumentation you would normally get over the tether. It is intended for use by developers who need to attach other USB devices to their iPhone OS–based device while doing their performance analysis. The feature may also be used in situations where having the USB tether is simply impractical or inconvenient.

If you do not need to attach other USB devices, the USB connection is still preferred for general usage. The Wi-Fi connection is slower than the USB connection and requires more power from the device to accommodate the heavy Wi-Fi traffic that can come from Instruments. As a result, using the Wi-Fi connection will drain the device's battery more rapidly than other scenarios. In addition, you cannot install applications on your device from Xcode over Wi-Fi, nor can you debug them over Wi-Fi using Xcode. You must still use the USB tether to connect to the device using Xcode.

To use this Instruments feature, both your Macintosh computer and your iPhone OS device must have Wi-Fi enabled and must be connected to the same Wi-Fi access point. This access point must be enabled for Bonjour services. Once these conditions are met, you may establish a Wi-Fi connection using the steps described in the following sections.

[Henry @ Jul 14th 2009 8:22PM]

The iphone 3GS is the best. Period. just jailbreak it Download insomnia for multitasking, buy yourself a battery case and it'll last you all day. Quit .whinning, eventually they'll improve the other areas, like flash, battery life and screen resolution.

[Orbital @ Jul 14th 2009 9:37PM]

I don't want to use a phone that needs to be hacked all to hell just to be slightly usable.

[johnny @ Jul 14th 2009 9:41PM]

Orbital -your an idiot. slightly useable? stupid as dirt

[Cold Bitter Truth @ Jul 15th 2009 12:09AM]

wow Orbital... I've had to do some type of hack on my last 3 phones just to do things that they should already be doing.

while I have no desire to jailbreak my iPhone.. it is far more usable than my Samsung Instinct, my old Samsung A90 and my Motorola Q9C. Sprint did a lot of stupid shit and you had to do some hacks to do things like answer calls while in a data connection. Without hacks, phone calls went directly to voicemail, but simple little changes, you could answer calls while using the web browser. I left Sprint for the 3G S and it's been fracking fantastic. I know a lot of people hate AT&T but apparently they have never been on Sprint. I was with Sprint for 9 years and I am so glad to be done with them.

iPhone is an amazing little device. I am by no means an Apple fanboy, but I can see how easy it would be to fall that way. I'm writing this from my Ubuntu PC and my other 3 machines are running Vista and Win7. The only Apple products I have are my iPhone, iPod Touch which I need to make up for the failures of the Instinct and a 5g video iPod.

[CharlieX @ Jul 14th 2009 8:28PM]

laggy ass 3.0.

A ploy to make us buy a 3GS? Screw that.

I hate 3.0. All I do it press buttons, turn away for several moments and do something else, and then see if the stupid thing has responded yet.