Month: March 2009

So it's been a few days. We've been blogging and testing like mad, but we have not really found much else. We've just found a few small tweaks in stuff (we'll be posting underneath now). Remember this is still a beta, so any juicy undocumented features is likely to be hidden until the release. So here we go:

New Safari features in Settings such as AutoFill (remembers passwords and usernames), and Fraud Warning (warns when you are in a fraudulent site). Shake to Shuffle added. Not working great in this beta but it's there. The Stocks icon has been slightly tweaked. Nothing much really. Maps features that iPhone users got in 2.2.1 have been added for the iPod Touch (such as street view, etc.) Locate Me for the iPod Touch seems improved and more accurate. Push Notification (at least for Mobile Me) is working pretty well. Most 2.x apps appear to work AppStore now installs app from the second page on. You can move the apps to the first page manually though. MobileMe now has a "Locate my Device" option. Still not available on me.com Mail now has "Load Remote Image" option to prevent spam (shout-out to the readers in the comments for clearing that up). Restrictions have been updated and now block "Current Location" and allows setting what content is appropriate. SpotLight is working quite well. A bit laggy once in a while but works pretty well. The AppStore screenshot browsing method has changed a bit. Emoji can still be enabled. The 9 page limit is still there.

It seems there is a hidden easter egg in iPhone 3.0. Upload Video:

What are you? In the past days we have reported speed stats, features, screenshots, and impressions on iPhone 3.0. We tested it on an iPod Touch. But something weird has occurred. And I'm pretty sure Apple is aware of it.

Remember that they said MMS and stereo BlueTooth would not be added to the first generation iPhone due to hardware limitations? Here's what I say. If you have a first generation iPhone or iPod Touch, 3.0 is bad news for you.

But we also ran this on an iPhone 3G. And it's completely the opposite of our impressions on 3.0 on the first gen iPod Touch. Though we were not able to run speed tests, or spend much time with it, it is running very well. In fact, the owner of the iPhone 3G said "it's running better than with any other 2.0 firmware I've had installed". And though he only gave us a short time to play with it, it's running much smoother than on our old iPod.

Basically, scratch out all our complains and bug reports. Boot Time is much better than the iPod Touch (first gen). It's only a few seconds slower than 2.2.1 boot time. Copy and Paste although working OK on the iPod is running much smoother on the iPhone 3G. The "Shake to Shuffle" feature we reported was not working well on the old iPod is working OK on the 3G. What's more, the owner of the phone told us he has yet to have had his phone freeze or reboot (well, he said App Store crashed once). So... this has us puzzled. Basically it seems Apple is pushing the limit on hardware and the old devices can't really keep up.

So what does this mean? It's good news for iPhone 3G and 2G iPod Touch owners. Not so good for owners of the old devices. 3.0 is supposed to come out in the summer, so Apple can still improve this. But for now, that's what's going on.

I decided to run some tests to see how iPhone 3.0 stood against current 2.2.1. Let me tell you... it's not looking too good for 3.0!

Safari is slightly slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 Syncing takes longer than on 2.2.1. Keeps saying "Syncing iPod" for a long time. A really long time. Most 2.0 apps work well on 3.0. TTR2 however does not. Loading of App Store is slightly slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 Loading of individual app description is a bit slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 App Store crashes. Not a lot but not a bit! I sent an email to my MobileMe account. With Push turned on, on 3.0 it took 8 seconds for it to tell me I had a new email. 2.2.1 did this while fetching in 7 seconds. Although some are buggy, 3D apps seems to have very slightly improved graphics. App Install time on 3.0: about 30 sec ; on 2.2.1: about 17 sec Reboot time: on 3.0: 1 minute; on 2.2.1: 45 sec Emoji can still be enabled at least through Typing Genius.

These are just some random stats we ran. If you want a test run for a specific function, please request it by leaving a comment below. I'm sure these issues will be fixed in the next beta or in the official release. This beta is mainly for devs to get their apps working on 3.0.

It's been pretty crazy for us since iPhone 3.0 was unveiled yesterday and we've been blogging and testing like mad men! But hey, we're not complaining; it's all we love...

We've written several posts about the new iPhone 3.0 within the last 24 hours and I thought it would be nice to do a little recap of everything that's been said. This post is aimed at making it easier for you to browse through what we wrote about 3.0 so you can access the information you're looking for more quickly.

iPhone 3.0 roundup: a summary of the most important new features of OS 3.0 (MMS, copy/paste, push notifications, etc...) iPhone 3.0 let downs: 3.0 sure is great, but it's still missing a lot of features that most smartphones already have iPhone 3.0 event video: the full video of the event iPhone 3.0 jailbreak: believe it or not but firmware 3.0 can be jailbroken undocumented iPhone 3.0 features: some new features that haven't been documented, and some that have exclusive iPhone 3.0 hands on: we got our hands on 3.0, and we're sharing it with you... screenshots included! iPhone 3.0 speed test: see how the beta 3.0 compares to 2.2.1

We're most likely gonna write a little more about 3.0 within the next few days and we'll update this post as the news come.

Blogs everywhere are reporting new features of iPhone 3.0. What they have not mentioned are the improvements to Safari options. Apple has added stuff people have wanted for a while in Safari, such as:

Autofill - "Automatically fill out web forms using your contact info or previous names and passwords" Fraud Warning - "Warn when visiting fraudulent websites"

Other stuff in 3.0 include:

Shake to Shuffle - Which appears to only work when you already are in shuffle 9 page limit is still present Current iTunes sucks with the newest firmware; slow sync. So expect an update. Most 2.x apps appear to work Minor tweak on the App Store app (apparently the screenshots are now in the page, and you scroll though them like in OS X. We'll post a screenshot when we get it) iPod Touch now has Street View. All the other stuff Apple mentioned (they told us a lot this time around) Push Notification (at least for Mobile Me) is working pretty well.

Stay tuned for more info.

UPDATE:

There are more posts with info but since this is the one for undocumented features I'll post some stuff here. There's the easter egg (there's a seperate post for that). Now:

The Stocks icon has been slightly tweaked. If you look at the current one in the bottom it's light and has the months. In the new it's complete in the bottom (still lighter) and has no months showing. Maps for the iPod Touch has all the stuff the iPhone users got in 2.2.1. But also "Locate Me" has improved but is unstable. It puts a pin and a circle around it showing my possible location. The first time the pin landed RIGHT where I was. The second time around the pin landed in the street next to me. So it's close....