All Articles Tagged beta 4

Did iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 refresh the dictionary behind predictive text? Based on a few emails we’ve gotten it looks like Apple might just have altered — hopefully expanded and improved — the engine that tries to make multi-touch typing just automagically work.

Let us know if you’ve seen anything different in beta 4.

[Thanks Adam!]

We’ve mentioned previously how iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 enabled an App Store tab in Preferences for managing and switching between iTunes Accounts. Looks like this feature is also available directly from the App Store application itself.

Scroll down to the bottom of a main page (i.e. before you’ve selected a specific app to look at) and you’ll find a button containing your account user ID.

Tap on the button and you’ll be given options to View Account, Sign Out, or Cancel.

Much more convenient than having to exit, launch Settings, navigate, switch accounts, go back…

Thanks Apple! More screenshots after the break…

(And thanks Roberto for the tip!)

Read the rest of this entry »

A minor tweak in iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 changes the language for the — still-unannounced by Apple — “Find My iPhone” feature from simply saying it uses your MobileMe account at me.com, to saying it uses a MobileMe Web application.

The assumption has always been that this feature would let you track a lost iPhone (or perhaps the child for whom you bought it), web application sounds — at least to us — a tad more substantial in terms of implementation.

Since Apple will have to build out MobileMe to support this, and since we’re speculating anyway, we’re also still hoping a revamped MobileMe in general might make a guest appearance at WWDC (where Phil Schiller introduced it last year). With note sync finally available, adding it to MobileMe seems an obvious move. Tasks/Todo sync, as well as Photo Sync (currently photos can be shared and stored, but sync only to iPhoto web albums, not to the iPhone) and perhaps — some of the other improvements we’ve dreamt of?

/Tangent

(Thanks to Cody for the tip!)

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We mentioned the new Store Setting tab just a short time ago. daveizzle on Twitter made the observation that this functionality makes it seem like you could theoretically sign into one account, download apps, sign out, sign into another account, and download apps from that account as well, all onto the same iPhone or iPod touch. Boom. Support for multiple iTunes accounts right on the device.

Why would that be interesting? Say your spouse had already bought a $9.99 app. App Store lets the same account re-download that app to the iPhone without a second charge, so it becomes a way to “share” applications (as long as you trust the person enough to put your iTunes password into their device). Another scenario would be a UK users wanting to download a US-only app. They could log into a US account, download the region-restricted app, then log out and log back into their own, local account.

Note: This has been possible all along via syncing from iTunes. Any apps downloaded from any account would transfer over to the iPhone. This merely extends the purchase and/or download process to the iPhone, further releasing iTunes tethered hold.

(Of course, since you can’t re-download music for free, and you can’t download movie or TV show videos directly to the iPhone, this pertains only to App Store content — likely to prevent Big Media heads from ’sploding).

UPDATE 2: Andrew points out in the comments that this may be the result of devs using Xcode to install Beta 4 rather than iTunes 8.2, which is required. We have no way of testing this, but if you are having trouble, and using Xcode, try switching to iTunes 8.2 and installing that way.

UPDATE: Devs responding to @theiphoneblog via Twitter are reporting that, for them at least, the PSOD is temporary and/or goes away after a reboot. Let us know how it’s working for you.

ORIGINAL: Some of the comments in our recent iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 release post, purportedly from registered developers, suggest that at least a few installations are failing with the dreaded “pink screen of death”.

The PSOD was seen last year when, during the 2.0 Beta cycle, Apple was tardy with Beta 3 and the previous beta timed out. We’re not certain what’s going on this time. Developers and their iPhones have to be registered with Apple in order to properly activate. If the procedure Apple is using to verify registration has changed, or is otherwise failing for a percentage of developers, that could be annoying at the least, show-stopper at worst.

If repeated attempts are succeeding for you, or if you’ve found out anything else that’s getting things working, please drop a note in our comments or direct your fellow registered developers to the proper trouble-shooting resources.

No sooner has iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 been released, then our tip-lines have been filling up with finds. So far the big news looks to be that that mysterious “Store” tap, icon-less and empty in previous betas, now sports user info.

Also, the camera is now polite enough to ask if you like the photo you just took and want to save it, or if you don’t and want a chance to re-take it. Note: we’re not sure about this change yet, it may only be implemented for MMS, and may have been around in previous betas (lots of maybes, we know, we’re trying to sort through everything as efficiently as possible.) If it is system wide, some of us will lament the loss of our ability to rapidly snap photo after photo without the interruption of requesters…

(Thanks Andrew and anons!)

Like clockwork, Apple has released iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 along with iPhone SDK 3.0 Beta 4 to developers. This marks the 3rd consecutive alternate-Tuesday update following the original Beta 1 release. Beta 2 and Beta 3 were both heavily scoured by code-divers who discovered several new, as-year unannounced features (see our updated iPhone 3.0 walkthrough for more!).

Will Beta 4 be any different? We certainly hope not!

Note: We’ve gotten reports that developers must install the iTunes 8.2 pre-release before attempting to install iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 4.

Also remember iPhone 3.0 is a real Beta intended for developers and testers, not for daily use on a primary phone. If you don’t need the beta, don’t install the beta, and for Jobsake don’t buy it off of eBay. Yikes!

(Thanks Danny, Andrew, and all those who sent this in!)

No reports of Pink Screens of Death this time, but Apple has released the fourth version of their SDK (5A258f), which weighs in at a beefy 1.15GB (200+MB for firmware) and according to TAUW (via Apple Developer Connection) sports:

Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool.

In addition, code-signing is now enforced, Audio Toolbox was big-upped, NSXML parser was introduced, fonts were given some pro love, and — teasingly — the UIApplication delegate class is now rumored to have Springboard Icon badging and some way to get and release “active status”. TAUW speculates this may allow some form of background functionality for Apps! (Wishful thinking?)

Go get ‘em developers. Especially you deep-code-digging developers who find all sorts of goodies hidden in the strings.