iOS 4.3 beta2

iOS 4.3 beta2

On 19th of January Apple has released a second beta release of the iOS version 4.3 for anyone with an active Apple Developer account.

Some of the new features include:

  • Tether 3G connection over WiFi (making iPhone a personal wireless router)
  • Picture Stream – a service allowing publishing of photos to MobileMe
  • Video Streaming
  • The side switch on iPad can be assigned either for mute (like on iPhone) or for orientation lock (like it used to be in iOS 3.x)

Previous beta release of 4.3 also contained four- and five-finger gestures for switching multitasked applications and closing the active one. This feature was for experimental use only and has been removed from beta2.

Now some sad information for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2gen users: there will be no iOS 4.3 for your device. iPhone 3G suffered poor performance when running iOS 4.0, it did improve a bit in 4.1 and subsequently 4.2.1, but it seems that Apple has decided that iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2gen don’t have enough juice to power iOS 4.3.

Yet Another iPhone Alarm Bug

Yet Another iPhone Alarm Bug

Last weekend we had witnessed yet another alarm clock bug in IOS (All devices running 4.2.1 were affected). On 1st and 2nd of January, single non-repeated alarms did not sound, as a result many iPhone owners were late for work, school, date, etc. Similar problem was reported after daylight saving time change last autumn, but it affected only repeated alarm events.

There is no official statement from Apple yet, but rumours say there will be no patch for this bug, moreover the problem should correct itself on the 3rd of January.

EDIT: Both repeated and one time alarms already work fine on 3rd of January (iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1)

Note to self: buy a simple alarm clock, and never be surprised again.

iOS 4.2.1 released, Field Test is back!

Last monday Apple has released new version of iOS 4.2.1 which is available for iPad’s, iPod touch 2gen and later, and iPhone’s 3G and later. This new software brings some minor changes listed below:

For iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

  • AirPlay (replacement of AirTunes, AirPlay will offer stream video, music, and photos over Wi-Fi)
  • AirPrint Wireless Printing with Print Center (select models)
  • Import .ics calendar files directly for events
  • Birthdays icon has been changed in calendar
  • Updated Carrier Settings (Orange Poland again shows as Orange instead of PL OPL)
  • New fonts for Notes in Settings (Helvetica and Chalkboard)
  • Added an indicator in the App Store which shows if an App supports Game Center
  • Support for CoreMIDI
  • YouTube voting
  • Minor improvements in UI graphics – new icons
  • New wallpapers
  • Fixes the alarm bug caused by daylight saving time changing, affected on a part of iPhone and iPod Touch owners located in Australia, New Zealand, and some European countries.
  • Improved iPhone 3G performance
  • Additions to multitasking tray: Volume controls & AirPlay controls
  • Assign different text tone alerts to each contact (iPhone only)
  • Restores full Field Test Mode