iPhone Software 3.0 beta 3 delivers gradual improvements
Apple on Tuesday evening made available to iPhone developers a third beta of iPhone Software 3.0 showing some early signs of optimizations and carrying with it an updated version of the iPhone SDK 3.0.
iPhone Software 3.0
Available in four distinct distributions -- iPhone, iPhone 3G, first-gen iPod touch, and second-gen iPod touch -- the third beta of iPhone OS 3.0 carries build number 7A280f and arrives exactly two weeks after the second beta.
People familiar with the software in the brief time that its been available have been reporting speed optimizations during keyboard input and use of the included App Store application.
Spotlight also reportedly saves its last search results and offers options for excluding applications from searches, though it's unclear if these two findings are new to beta 3.
iPhone SDK 3.0
Arriving in tandem with iPhone Software 3.0 beta 3 was a similarly labeled beta of iPhone SDK 3.0 carrying build number 9M2728. Among the changes included with the new build is an updated beta of the Xcode IDE that showcases a new Overview toolbar and a "completely revamped" assistant interface for creating new projects, targets and files.
Meanwhile, updates to Interface Builder introduce new drag-and-drop capabilities for repairing objects and reordering files in document outline view, as well as a new string table interface that simplifies the process of making textual changes across multiple documents.
Apple did warn developers that an issue with beta 3 of iPhone Software 3.0 will prevent them from running iPhone apps that have been compiled for earlier version of the iPhone software, but said it hopes to resolve the issue with the release of the next beta.
iPhone Software 3.0
Available in four distinct distributions -- iPhone, iPhone 3G, first-gen iPod touch, and second-gen iPod touch -- the third beta of iPhone OS 3.0 carries build number 7A280f and arrives exactly two weeks after the second beta.
People familiar with the software in the brief time that its been available have been reporting speed optimizations during keyboard input and use of the included App Store application.
Spotlight also reportedly saves its last search results and offers options for excluding applications from searches, though it's unclear if these two findings are new to beta 3.
iPhone SDK 3.0
Arriving in tandem with iPhone Software 3.0 beta 3 was a similarly labeled beta of iPhone SDK 3.0 carrying build number 9M2728. Among the changes included with the new build is an updated beta of the Xcode IDE that showcases a new Overview toolbar and a "completely revamped" assistant interface for creating new projects, targets and files.
Meanwhile, updates to Interface Builder introduce new drag-and-drop capabilities for repairing objects and reordering files in document outline view, as well as a new string table interface that simplifies the process of making textual changes across multiple documents.
Apple did warn developers that an issue with beta 3 of iPhone Software 3.0 will prevent them from running iPhone apps that have been compiled for earlier version of the iPhone software, but said it hopes to resolve the issue with the release of the next beta.
Comments
Does the YouTube app work in Beta 3. It stopped working in my Beta 2.
Yep. It seems they fixed the problem.
Yep. It seems they fixed the problem.
Sweet! I hope I don't need SDK 3.0 Beta 3 to install it. I'm using my cellular card and it will tkae many hours.
Something I noticed in the v3.0 betas that I find really nice and won't make any spec sheet is the way Maps work. When I used to readjust my location when using the GPS I would want it to recalculate form my Current Location. With v2.x it would have the street of the last calculation from the previous Current Location. This was fixed by removing the name and timing 'c' to bring up current location as an option. In v3.0 it automatically has Current Location in there. Not a big deal, but something that saved me a couple small steps.
Also, the iPod app now has an option in AudioBooks to jump back 30 seconds at a time. It's where the Genius button is on music tracks. And when you get a call that is not in your phonebook it shows you the city and state that area is for, though it seems to only appear in your recent/missed calles and voicemail list, not when the call is coming in. I hope that add it to the latter.
(I think these are v3.0 features and not from v2.x or earlier. If they are, please excuse my lackluster observation skills)
hey Solipsism, you asked about Snow Leopard and why iPhone 3.0 isn't based on it in another thread. Did you get my response?
I did not.
Did you still want to know?
Yes I do. Thanks.
Breaking News: Solipsism and PG4G create AppleInsider chat client.
I've seen it asked multiple times and its really a rather stupid question lol
Apple built the iPhone OS picking and choosing from the features they had developed over the past decade into Mac OS X. Some elements were completely redone for iPhone, some were tweaked, very few ported intact.
The iPhone OS has been described as leopard based. This is incorrect. It doesn't include the full feature-set of Leopard, including Garbage Collection. It's OS X based, not any particular OS.
With Mac OS X Snow Leopard, however, if you examine its improvements, they are in the area of multithreading and mutlicores as well as OpenCL for GPU use as a CPU. How do these features apply to iPhone?
iPhone OS doesn't run on multicores at the current stage, and multithreading is currently handled quite nicely with NSOperation. Nothing too complex should need to tax the CPU.
OpenCL? iPhone's graphics core powers every bit of the iPhone's Core Animation, which at the current time is a larger percentage of the overall system than it is on the Mac. Every view is Core Animation-based. That means the graphics need to stay graphics for the current stage.
They evidently didn't see the need to port anything major across from Snow Leopard as it's changes are mostly high-performance based improvements.
Does this make sense?
The saddest part is that I actually remember you asking that. And I was interested!
Apple did warn developers that an issue with beta 3 of iPhone Software 3.0 will prevent them from running iPhone apps that have been compiled for earlier version of the iPhone software, but said it hopes to resolve the issue with the release of the next beta.
Can you please clarify what you mean by this?
With Mac OS X Snow Leopard, however, if you examine its improvements, they are in the area of multithreading and mutlicores as well as OpenCL for GPU use as a CPU. How do these features apply to iPhone?
This was the reason I was curious. It might be a clue of Apple moving to a multicore ARM and it might also be a clue to Apple using OpenCL to leverage some unused processing power when needed. Perhaps, as you state, these technologies are really only beneficial on a larger scale.
Does this make sense?
To put it bluntly, yes it does. (I see you edited your original post)
PS: I don't think it's fair to call the question stupid. Ignorant in regards to the core OS, but if I wasn't ignorant about the subject I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.
The iPhone OS has been described as leopard based. This is incorrect.
iphone's 2.x xnu version was kept in sync with Leopard's. What version of xnu is in 3.0? Run uname -a on a jailbroken 3.0 install.
Leopard's garbage collection isn't there because it runs the garbage collector on the second core... Maybe when multi core Cortex CPUs come to the iPhone...
Perhaps, as you state, these technologies are really only beneficial on a larger scale.
For instance, Apple wasn't interested in porting the Nitro/"Squirrelfish Extreme" JIT to ARM, because they believed the RAM overhead would be greater than the performance benefits. However another team has ported it and it only uses 3.3% more memory for a 13% performance boost.
Apple did warn developers that an issue with beta 3 of iPhone Software 3.0 will prevent them from running iPhone apps that have been compiled for earlier version of the iPhone software, but said it hopes to resolve the issue with the release of the next beta.
I am not really sure what the OP was meaning by this notice. The release and install advisory for Beta 3.0 v.3 states:
This seed requires both the target SDK and testing device be set to iPhone OS 3.0 beta. Applications targeting iPhone OS releases prior to 3.0 beta cannot be tested in this seed.
However, having just updated my iPhone I can attest that my currently installed applications all run just fine. Facebook, NYTimes, Gas Cubby, TextTwist Turbo, etc.
Can someone else clarify as to the meaning behind the original statement?
I am not really sure what the OP was meaning by this notice. The release and install advisory for Beta 3.0 v.3 states:
However, having just updated my iPhone I can attest that my currently installed applications all run just fine. Facebook, NYTimes, Gas Cubby, TextTwist Turbo, etc.
Can someone else clarify as to the meaning behind the original statement?
Yea, I'm a bit confused. I thought all my apps from the App Store (obviously Apps built for an earier version than the iPhone 3.0 Beta 3) would stop working, but they all seem to be working fine.
iphone's 2.x xnu version was kept in sync with Leopard's. What version of xnu is in 3.0? Run uname -a on a jailbroken 3.0 install.
Leopard's garbage collection isn't there because it runs the garbage collector on the second core... Maybe when multi core Cortex CPUs come to the iPhone...
According to the Apple engineers I've spoken with around 90% of it is like leopard - they were pretty on par - still, some other smaller parts were left behind.
They did say that there were multiple reasons for no garbage collection right now, not just the second core.
Sweet! I hope I don't need SDK 3.0 Beta 3 to install it. I'm using my cellular card and it will tkae many hours.
You don't have to. You can download the OS and upgrade using iTunes. I did that while waiting for the SDK to download (I was downloading at 2.5MB/s). I remember back in 1990s when 9.6K was rocket fast LOL.
Can someone else clarify as to the meaning behind the original statement?
To put it simply: some apps won't work until the developer updates them.
I've had acouple that quite on me with the new version. My preferred movie theater app, Now Playing, has worked with any of the 3.0 betas.
You don't have to. You can download the OS and upgrade using iTunes. I did that while waiting for the SDK to download (I was downloading at 2.5MB/s). I remember back in 1990s when 9.6K was rocket fast LOL.
I didn't know that you could use iTunes to install the IPSW. I used SDK v3.0 Beta 2, it worked fine.