Apple brings App Store recommendations with iPhone OS 3.1

[AppleInsider]

Apple Wednesday released a new version of its iPhone operating system, fixing bugs and bringing new features, including a "Genius" recommendation system for the App Store.

The update, iPhone OS 3.1, is available today as a free download from iTunes. For iPhone users, the version number is 3.1, while for iPod touch users it is labeled 3.1.1. The new Genius feature will recommend new applications to users based on software they already have installed.

In July, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said that the company was working on a fix for the App Store to make it easier to find new content. With tens of thousands of offerings available, it has become difficult for some to find what they are looking for.

The new software update also adds ringtones from record labels, directly into the iTunes application on the phone.

The update is also available for iPod touch users. Those who have paid to upgrade to 3.0 will receive the 3.1 update for free. For those who have an iPod touch but have not yet upgraded to 3.0, Apple also reduced the price to $4.95.

Apple also announced Wednesday that the company has sold 20 million iPod touches, and there are more than 75,000 applications available for download in the App Store. To date, more than 1.8 billion applications have been downloaded on the iPhone and iPod touch.



The complete list of fixes in iPhone OS 3.1 are as follows:

Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
iTunes U content organization
Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
Option to "Save as new clip" when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode via MobileMe
Use Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets
Paste phone numbers into the keypad
Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[al_bundy]

and i left my iphone sync cable at home today by accident

[IYFCalvin]

I just tried to get the iPhone 3.1 update and iTunes says that my Version 3.0.1 is the "current" version available... 3/1 not up yet.

[saarek]

No iTunes or iPhone update, lol Apple has a funny idea of "available now"

[jeffmac7101]

Been clicking "Update" every couple of minutes and finally got the 3.1.

[15inchbrich]

Downloading 3.1 Now.... hopefully there are no reactivation problems after the install....

[vassillios]

weak. how about fixing safari on my iPhone 3G?

[malax]

The 3.1 iPod touch upgrade price is just $4.95, down from $9.95 yesterday.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/software-update.html

[melgross]

The story should be fixed to say "sold 30 million iPhones", not iPods.

[noexpectations]

......very slow...says another 60 minutes left.

[markb]

Downloading it now!

Best feature in 3.1:

Voice Control now enabled in Bluetooth headsets.

[MacTel]

Those wiz-bang features are nice, but please fix the iPhone OS for syncing with Exchange especially on iPhone which the OS was named after. Calendar appointments are real problem especially when they are removed by the iPhone OS and therefore out of Outlook.

Also, what about the augmented reality stuff that was rumored for release in 3.1? No luck eh?

[super8sean]

When you guys download it please let us know whats different

[sandau]

Originally Posted by super8sean

When you guys download it please let us know whats different

it's teh snappier.

[ghostface147]

Dammit! It just placed my phone in recovery mode. No biggie, just a simple restore.

[timesgoingfast]

Ok so now you can edit video clips and save both versions ..... why the flip can you not do the same with voice memos.. or at least chapters so i don't have to spend ages looking for a section of interest ... come on apple it so simple!

[Akac]

Originally Posted by MacTel

Also, what about the augmented reality stuff that was rumored for release in 3.1? No luck eh?

That's developer stuff - not user-facing.

[lewisburgess]

Since upgrading my iPhone 3G to OS3.1, I've noticed it's noticeably slower, even flipping between pages on the homescreen. I expect the iTunes and App Stores to be busy and therefore slow, but it seems to be the whole phone, even after a reboot.

Anyone else?

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by lewisburgess

Since upgrading my iPhone 3G to OS3.1, I've noticed it's noticeably slower, even flipping between pages on the homescreen. I expect the iTunes and App Stores to be busy and therefore slow, but it seems to be the whole phone, even after a reboot.

Anyone else?

Nope, not mine. Speed is the same.

Best new feature for me is the ability to organize home screens from within iTunes.

[pylon]

Best new feature for me is the ability to organize home screens from within iTunes.

Worst new feature on my iPod Touch 8G after updating- none of my apps work now: Cocktail Compass (Portland and Seattle), Flashlight, Speed Test, Guitar Tuner, Flixster

[ltcommander.data]

Any difference in gaming performance? The leaked release notes of early iPhone OS 3.1 builds mentioned more extensions and refinements for OpenGL ES. It'd be interesting to see if there are any readily apparent benefits and whether they are confined to newer OpenGL ES 2.0 models or everything.

[nitro]

Originally Posted by ltcommander.data

Any difference in gaming performance? T .

yep i played simcity , sandstorm and cricket game...works lot better. so far

[NonVendorFan]

The only benefit for Touch users seem to be voice controls through Bluetooth.

My question is of what? Are they going to say dial Joe and Their Touch automatically becomes a Phone?

Why is Apple asking them to pay for Bug Fixes and a means of selling more songs in iTunes?

I have an iPhone 3G upgraded and don't see any difference at all.

Apple is charging for a Service Pack and that's why most sites are saying to not upgrade.

Today's even was a complete failure and shows why Steve Jobs needs to leave Apple.

There were holes left in product lineups. They give a camera to a sub standard iPod and Screwed the Touch users that wanted an upgrade.

iTunes 9 is still slow as always and 3.1 is a bug fix mostly for iPhone users.

EPIC FAIL on the entire event today!

[Logisticaldron]

. . . .. . . .

[NonVendorFan]

It's obvious Apple doesn't get networking yet.

I've tried six times to copy my 3,200+ songs from my "iTunes Home PC Box" to my Dell laptop XPS and it failed every time after about 400 songs/videos.

I could live with that but when I tried to copy again & again I realized i had 6 copies of the same song on my notebook.

So I tried copying by song name letter A first, then B songs, I got to C and iTunes just quit copying.

I thought that after years of leaving Apple on my computers and only having an iPhone it would be easy.

Apple Home Share Sucks Bad on the PC. I'm deleting my entire iTunes library on my notebook again and using Vista to copy my music to my notebook.

The only good thing is my phone can now synch with more than 1 computer.

This is why Apple will NEVER make it in the corporate world. This "upgrade" was to fix bugs with a couple features.

Today was a complete failure on the new hardware releases and 3.1 sucks as bad as 3.0 and keeps shutting my WiFi down on my iPhone.

I've had to enter my Router Key everytime I turn the phone on again.

[Logisticaldron]

Originally Posted by NonVendorFan

Why is Apple asking them to pay for Bug Fixes and a means of selling more songs in iTunes

They aren’t. It’s a point update so it’s free for those who are already on 3.0. If you are still on 1.x or 2.x there is a charge of $4.95 for the update for Touch users.

[NonVendorFan]

Originally Posted by Logisticaldron

They aren’t. It’s a point update so it’s free for those who are already on 3.0. If you are still on 1.x or 2.x there is a charge of $4.95 for the update for Touch users.

So for those Touch users that didn't upgrade they get 3.1 for $4.95 but for those that did pay 9.95 + 4.95 (for a service pack) so almost $15.

What's wrong with the math Apple?

[Logisticaldron]

Originally Posted by NonVendorFan

So for those Touch users that didn't upgrade they get 3.1 for $4.95 but for those that did pay 9.95 + 4.95 (for a service pack) so almost $15.

What's wrong with the math Apple?

You mean the Touch they bought on v1.x a couple years ago? And now a year later they have to pay $4.95 to get the next MAJOR update from 2.x to 3.x? How many other PMPs get such rich updates year after year that their player is still eligible for? It’s really impossible to take you seriously when you refer to the iPhone OS X update from 2.x to 3.x as a service pack. Why don’t you check out this site for a list of the major changes… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_..._the_iPhone_OS

[NonVendorFan]

Originally Posted by Logisticaldron

You mean the Touch they bought on v1.x a couple years ago? And now a year later they have to pay $4.95 to get the next MAJOR update from 2.x to 3.x? How many other PMPs get such rich updates year after year that their player is still eligible for?

I wouldn't call either 3.0 or 3.1 an upgrade. I'd call it a headache. Bluetooth, WiFi, Dropped calls on 3G that don't switch to Edge (like advertised), GPS sucks, Battery life sucks. I could go on but you get the point.

But you probably won't because you seem to be Steve's new Cheerleader.

Edit. And tell that to the people that paid for the 3.0 full price upgrade. And everyone but Apple supports more than 2 years of upgrades. OSX has been with me for 6 years and my POS home computer is able to upgrade to Windows 7. Both of my other computers Desktop and Notebook run Vista SP2 and they are flawless except for what Apple has done with this upgrade.

[Logisticaldron]

Originally Posted by NonVendorFan

I wouldn't call either 3.0 or 3.1 an upgrade. I'd call it a headache. Bluetooth, WiFi, Dropped calls on 3G that don't switch to Edge (like advertised), GPS sucks, Battery life sucks. I could go on but you get the point.

But you probably won't because you seem to be Steve's new Cheerleader.

You do understand that major upgrades also result in more potential bugs that are more difficult to track down. We have free point updates to deal with these eventualities, but that is neither here nor there since your comment, which was originally stating that Touch users were being charged for teh point update which you then listed half your items that can’t possibly affect Touch users, despite that you seem to be the only one who has all these problems at once. My iPhone has been working great on 3.0. I’m not even upgrading to 3.1 unless I can get tethering with it.

So again, how are all those changes merely a service pack? Vista over XP wasn’t just a service pack. It was a boondoggle but there were plenty of changes from one version to the other that make it more than a bug of fixes as proof by the link I supplied. Perhaps a little objectivity would do you some good.

[NonVendorFan]

Originally Posted by Logisticaldron

You do understand that major upgrades also result in more potential bugs that are more difficult to track down. We have free point updates to deal with these eventualities, but that is neither here nor there since your comment, which was originally stating that Touch users were being charged for teh point update which you then listed half your items that can’t possibly affect Touch users, despite that you seem to be the only one who has all these problems at once. My iPhone has been working great on 3.0. I’m not even upgrading to 3.1 unless I can get tethering with it.

So again, how are all those changes merely a service pack? Vista over XP wasn’t just a service pack. It was a boondoggle but there were plenty of changes from one version to the other that make it more than a bug of fixes as proof by the link I supplied. Perhaps a little objectivity would do you some good.

At least my computers are work horses and Fast as heck.

Deal with OSX Snow Kitty. My only problem is waiting for AT&T contract to expire so I can get on an Android phone. Their App Store topped 10,000 this week. And they aren't all Fart Apps and Apple won't reject them.

Steve should have left the company because if today was Steve's comeback it was pathetic.

Last years garbage with more storage. Cool.

[Logisticaldron]

Originally Posted by NonVendorFan

At least my computers are work horses and Fast as heck.

Deal with OSX Snow Kitty. My only problem is waiting for AT&T contract to expire so I can get on an Android phone. Their App Store topped 10,000 this week. And they aren't all Fart Apps and Apple won't reject them.

Steve should have left the company because if today was Steve's comeback it was pathetic.

Last years garbage with more storage. Cool.

Hyperbole, much? So there are 75K fart apps and Apple has rejected everything else? interesting comment. If i didn’t experience people like you on forums I’d never know people like you existed. I guess we run in different crowds in non-virtual worlds.

Go ahead and knock yourself out, but you may want to hold off on the HTC G1 Android as it may not be able to get any more rich updates, despite having been out for less than a year.

[hiimamac]

Originally Posted by Logisticaldron

Hyperbole, much? So there are 75K fart apps and Apple has rejected everything else? interesting comment. If i didn’t experience people like you on forums I’d never know people like you existed. I guess we run in different crowds in non-virtual worlds.

Go ahead and knock yourself out, but you may want to hold off on the HTC G1 Android as it may not be able to get any more rich updates, despite having been out for less than a year.

when Tom Tom came out at $100 I was like WHAT????

I've been on AT&T for 7 years or so and had an iPhone over 1 year.
About a week ago I jail broke it. At first, I was like oh no, I'm not going to get this. But I did.

I know have Tom Tom, other Gps, free teethering, video on a 3G, numerous camera apps, MMS, Gv mobile, a scroller that scrolls to the bottom of Safari or quickly to any apps page, quick swipe calling, and the irony was most of these apps were turned down. Plus I have manybcool themes and five rows of icons per page, not to mention memory freeing app. For fun I kisted on craigs list and got a few offers for $500

wonder how much a loaded 3gs jail broken would for?
Lol

ps until you hear from cyndia or icy, I would not update if jail broken. It will only take them a week or so to update.

Peace.

[SGSStateStudent]

Originally Posted by melgross

The story should be fixed to say "sold 30 million iPhones", not iPods.

Does this 30 million include the iPod Touch? If so, how many iPhones have been sold so far?

[hdasmith]

Can someone help me please? I've got an iPhone, but I'm away from home for the next 2 and a bit weeks, so can't plug my iPhone into the computer (iMac G5) it syncs with. The computer I'm using now has iTunes 9 installed on Win XP. Can I update my phone on this computer without loosing everything, or do I have to wait. I never realised until now, just how annoying it was not to be able to sync with multiple computers.

[SGSStateStudent]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Snip!!

The complete list of fixes in iPhone OS 3.1 are as follows:

*Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos

Good move. 5/5

*iTunes U content organization

OK. We didn't ask for it. 4/5

*Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store

Quite unneccessary. 2.5/5

*Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store

Allows more convenience. 4/5

*Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll

Yes! 5/5

*Option to "Save as new clip" when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS

Yes! 5/5

*Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on

Glad to see that they are still looking into iPhone 3G owners needs. 5/5

*Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode via MobileMe

That's a neat and useful addition. 5/5

*Use Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets

Ok. Kind of a patch to make up for the first "left-out item" for voice control. 3/5

*Paste phone numbers into the keypad

Yes! 4/5

*Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS

I believe you don't have to use it many times. 2.5/5

*Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari. (anti-phishing)

This is useful. 5/5

*Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling.

Better organization abilties. 4/5

*Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

Should have been done for 3.0. Useful, and not too late, still. 4/5

Overall rating IMO for OS 3.1: 90%.
Conclusion: Most stuff should have been in there in 3.0 but seeing them now is not too late. Most are security and bug fixes. However, I feel that 3.* software should be more optimized more for the classic iPhone and 3G owners ( although I use a 3GS and have owned every single iPhone model with the most capacity. ). This way, it is more unified too.

[johnmcboston]

I have a mixed opinion on the way iPhone apps are handled. They get an 11 our of 10 for being able to re-organize the phone screen icons in itunes. It always seems to screw up when I try to drag them around on the phone itself...

But I was hoping for better app organization in itunes. Previously you saw icons alphabetically. Now you can also see them organized by Genre. When you mouse past a genre icon you see the app icons pop up (like event previews in iphoto). Essentially you're suck in 'icon' view. I'd love to see a column view - so I can just see the names if I want, and would be able to sort by size/date added, etc.

In the icon view you also cannot:
- do a 'get into' to see the app version and maybe the developer URL.
- quickly click somewhere (icon, menu) and be taken to that application in the itunes store. Now you have to copy the app name, go into the store, paste the name in the search window, scroll through results until you find the app, then click on it. ugh.

[dfiler]

Originally Posted by MacTel

Those wiz-bang features are nice, but please fix the iPhone OS for syncing with Exchange especially on iPhone which the OS was named after. Calendar appointments are real problem especially when they are removed by the iPhone OS and therefore out of Outlook.

Hmmm, maybe I should consider myself lucky then. I rely heavily on calendar syncing with an exchange server and have never had a problem. Changes are always synced correctly and instantaneously.

Another possibility is that it isn't luck, and instead is dependent on proper patching of the exchange server software. I'm glad some of our admins out at headquarters are iPhone users. They've ensured that everything works flawlessly.

Then again, it could just be luck.

[cima113]

Originally Posted by NonVendorFan

This is why Apple will NEVER make it in the corporate world. This "upgrade" was to fix bugs with a couple features.

Apple doesn't want the corporate world and has never alluded to doing so.

By the way I transferred nearly 1500 songs so far without issue. Perhaps your issue is operator error, not Apples.

[dfiler]

Originally Posted by cima113

Apple doesn't want the corporate world and has never alluded to doing so.

It might be more accurate to say that the corporate world hasn't historically been a priority for Apple. After all, Apple has made products directly targeted at the enterprise market, Xserve, Xraid, etc. It is just that these just haven't been a major focus. There's a significant difference between that and "not wanting" a market.

As for the iPhone for enterprise use:
iPhone OS Enterprise Deployment Guide (91 page pdf from Apple)
And other random iPhone/Enterprise info:
iPhone Enterprise Support Page