Apple has made the GM (gold master), or final version of iPhone 3.0 available to developers via developer.apple.com in advance of June 17th public release.
Apple VP of iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, reminded developers to download it, test against it, and if their apps didn’t work, to get updates done and fast!
WARNING updated: yeah, we got the full text and it applies only as outlined in the comments below. Thanks everyone, we try to err on the side of caution. Luckily devs had access to correct info.
If you’re not a legit developer who needs this now, more than ever — stay away!
Apple VP of iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, announced during the WWDC Keynote that iPhone 3.0 (see our massive walkthrough) will be available for one and all, next Tuesday, June 17.
Ladies and gentlemen, set iTunes for download!
What a difference a year makes. 2008 saw the introduction of iPhone SDK, iPhone 2.0, App Store, MobileMe, and iPhone 3G, the latter two of which were announced at WWDC and prefaced a worldwide rollout that broke Apple’s conservative goal of shipping 10 million units.
We’ve seen iPhone 3.0, the changes to the SDK and App Store, and now on the eve of WWDC 2009 it’s time to think about what else we just might see one year later, and — according to Apple — lightyears ahead.
No one knows exactly what Apple is going to do. They make the cold war Kremlin seem positively chatty by comparison. That doesn’t mean we don’t have rough ideas. See, Apple likes their patterns. They like showing iPods off in the fall, for example, and they seem to like June for showing off the iPhone. So, based on WWDC 2008, the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview, and the more consistent rumors since then, we might be able to draw some educated guesses as to how WWDC 2009 might play out…
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Tomorrow is WWDC 2009. We’ll no doubt get a second preview of iPhone 3.0 and hopefully a release date to go along with it — if not the actual release itself.
We’ve done our best to cover iPhone 3.0, both through our massive and continuously updated iPhone 3.0 Beta Walkthrough, and our ongoing iPhone 3.0 blog posts. But what will that release — tomorrow, later this week, or later this “summer” — mean for current owners of the 2007 original iPhone 2G and the 2008 iPhone 3G, never mind the 2009 iPhone… whatever it ends up being called.
Let’s take a look!
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First year, Apple showed off the original iPhone (2G or 1,1) and iPhone OS 1.0 in January at Macworld 2007, gave us a release date at WWDC 2007, and shipped both together at the end of June. Second year, Apple showed off iPhone OS 2.0 in March at the SDK Event but didn’t introduce iPhone 3G (1,2) until WWDC 2008 in June, and announced the release date for both — the same release date for both — July 11.
This year Apple once again showed off iPhone OS 3.0 at March at the Sneak Preview event, and is rumored to be introducing iPhone v3 (2,1) at WWDC 2009 on June 8. If that comes to pass, we also expect them to announce the release date as they have in the past. But will it once again be the same release date for both?
Pros: Apple likes big events and big news. Nothing is bigger than simultaneous releases. Apple also seems to like to stick to their patterns, and for the last two years software and hardware releases were one and the same. 2007 saw iPhone 3G alongside iPhone 2.0, App Store, and MobileMe (yeah, we’ll get to that in the cons…)
Cons: That simultaneous release last year? iTunes went down. No one could activate. MobileMe’s lack of readiness caused months of bad PR. As big a news bomb as it was, it brought the negative every bit as much as the positive.
Frequent reader, Icebike, makes a great case for a staged released in our comments. It lets Apple control the roll-out, manage expectations, and better assure quality experiences for all involved.
But that simultaneous release is just so tempting, will Apple simply charge ahead with it anyway? Should they? Is the Circus Maximus worth the attention, good and bad?
As an iPhone user and potential 3.0 and next-gen iPhone user, what would you prefer Apple do?
Last week we posted on Google’s Latitude service coming to the iPhone by way of Safari. Of course, as Computerworld (via MacRumors) points out, for the location-tracking buddy service to work in the browser, the browser must support geo-location, and not just for Google.
According to BrowserSphere developers were told back in March that Safari would support the Geolocation JavaScript classes, which “work with the onboard location services to retrieve the current location of the device.”
So we guess IP addresses won’t be the only way for annoying web ads to try and localize us any more?
As we mentioned yesterday, Apple has begun load testing of their Push Notification Service. Certain developers have been given promo codes to a special version of AP News that, when installed, can be configured to utilize Push Notification. This means that screens we’ve seen previously via code digging can now be seen for real, and there are a few interesting things therein.
The setup seems not dissimilar to how GPS was handled on the iPhone 3G. A popup identifies the app and requests permission to send you Push Notifications, and you can choose “Don’t Allow” or “OK”. A Notifications panel in Settings lets you choose to globally turn the service On or Off, and lists the apps using the service so you can individually toggle Sounds, Alerts, and Badges On or Off as well for each one. (i.e. if you want Twitter to badge but not alert, IM to sound but not badge, etc. you can have it your way).
More screenshots after the jump, and check out our massive iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough for even more!
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Say you are having a hardware related issue on your iPhone, first place you would think to go is your local Apple store, right? Well not if you’re running iPhone 3.0 Beta it turns out, as MacRumors forums show you will politely get rejected and denied any sort of help.
TiPb has confirmed this is indeed true from speaking with a few Apple employees.
Now where does that leave someone who purchased the beta from a stranger on Graigslist? Not in a good place obviously since to get your issue taken care of or to have your phone replaced you must call a developer-only help line. Now if you are a bit more expierienced with the iPhone you can always try to downgrade back to the 2.2.1 software before going into the Apple Store but say your home button is not working, you are flat out of luck and you are now stuck with a official iPhone paper weight.
So with all that said, TiPb can not stress enough — and we’ve said it many times — do not purchase the 3.0 Beta from anyone.
This late into the beta cycle, in a few short months it will be released to the public anyway.
Business Insider rumormongers that Apple might be considering some limited form of multi-tasking, perhaps as early as iPhone 3.0, which would allow 3rd party apps to run as background tasks. They point to two possible models:
- Apple might allow users to select two apps that can run in the background.
- Apple might selectively allow some apps to run in the background. We assume that developers could apply for permission to run in the background, and that Apple might approve or deny them based on the resources they need and how well they behave with the operating system’s stability.
Daring Fireball steps up to throw a combo of water and fuel on that particular fire:
I heard something very similar from a decent (but second-hand) source back in January during Macworld Expo. What I heard then was that Apple was working on a vastly improved dock for your most-frequently used apps, and that there’d be one special icon position where you could put a third-party app to enable it to run in the background.
Gruber also rightly points out that the iPhone 3G’s 128MB of RAM is likely the constraining factor to current generation multitasking and that won’t change with the iPhone 3.0 firmware. If reports of at least 512MB of RAM in a 3rd generation iPhone are to be believed, however, this could be a much more compelling and powerful feature.
A dock that slides up like a slot-limited version of Google’s Android app shelf maybe? And one that grants background permission to anything placed inside it? Yes please.
