iOS 6 Beta 3 brings support for VIP inbox, Shared Photo Streams on iPhone 3GS

Not all iOS 6 featuresĀ are supported across every iOS device on Apple’s compatibility listĀ and that has been ticking some people off. Sometimes limited support stems from steep hardware requirements, but (too) often Apple is being accused of intentionally obsoleting older devices by going to great lengths to ensure certain software features are kept exclusive to the latest hardware (Siri, anyone?).

Luckily, with yesterday’s release of iOS 6 Beta 3 to registered developers, Cupertino added two features that previously were not supported on the iPhone 3GS, VIP Mail recipients and Shared Photo Streams

As noted today by a number of blogs, Apple’s iOS 6 page has removed Shared Photo Streams and VIP inbox from the list of iOS 6 features (irrationally) unsupported on the iPhone 3GS.

Previously, both Shared Photo Streams andĀ VIP inbox were listed as requiring the iPhone 4 or later and iPad 2 or later.

Here’s Shared Photo Streams in action.

[tube]Lye_cvYj8EU[/tube]

I’m so glad Apple changed its mind. There was absolutely noĀ excuseĀ for leaving the iPhone 3GS behind with Shared Photo Streams – it’s hardly a resource-intensive feature. More importantly, the lack of VIP inbox really crippled the iPhone 3GS in terms of one of the most useful nice-to-haves in iOS 6.

I just have one question: when will Offline Reading List in Safari be available on the iPhone 3GS?

It’s a very useful feature that lets me access my reading list when I’m offline. iOS 6 simply stores complete web pages on the device and I really can’t fathom why it requires the iPhone 4 or later and iPad 2 or later and won’t work on the iPhone 3GS.

Come on, Apple – you can do better than that!