Apple releases iPhone OS 3.1 Beta
Apple has recently pushed out its iPhone 3.1 software with the accompanying SDK for developers. The update improves video editing, app integration and extra speed boosts as well as some minor tweaks.
Users will find that the beta updates gives the iPhone OS 3.1 tactile feedback (a vibrate function) when icons are moved, Bluetooth compatible voice control, paste capabilities when utilizing the dialer application, which will now also convert alphanumeric numbers into regular numbers after they are pasted, and a “Save a Copy” option to the video editing feature. The new update also delivers an update to the modem firmware (version 5.08.01).
Developers will notice improvements to Quartz and OpenGL. The OpenGL update will allow for games with more elaborate graphics to be played aside from applications. Video editing will be available to third party applications via a Video Editor Controller API.
However, this update seems to hit on the majority of initial user complaints and issues. It has yet to be determined when the update will be released in its final version to the general public.
What’s new features in iPhone OS 3.1 Beta?
- Video editing on iPhone 3GS wont overwrite the clip over the original when you are editing a clip.
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iPhone vibrates when moving icons
- “Fraud Protection” toggle has been added to settings under Safari.
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iPhone boot time is now faster.
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Voice Control now works over Bluetooth.
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New APIs to enable third party apps to access videos and edit them.
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Updated AT&T profile to 4.2
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Updated modem firmware to 5.08.01
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Improvements to OpenGL and Quartz.
iPhone SDK 3.1 beta and iPhone OS 3.1 beta are now posted to the iPhone Dev Center. These versions are for development and testing only and should be installed on devices dedicated to iPhone OS 3.1 beta software development. Please read the iPhone OS Pre-Install Advisory and the iPhone SDK 3.1 beta release notes before downloading and installing.
Microsoft Releases Bing.com-For iPhone
Microsoft releases its new search engine called Bing.com that intends to replace the Live.com search and challenges the leading position of Google.
Microsoft’s new search engine is pretty good. The interface is simple with an awesome image as the background, which will change daily. The search is very fast and the search results are much better that in Live.com. I especially found the image search useful. The image search results can be filtered by size, layout, color, style (photograph / illustration) and people.
The index size of Bing is relatively smaller than that of Google. I still feel more satisfied for the search result returned by Google, just based on a few test searches. One thing you and I may concern is whether Bing.com works on iPhone. I launched mobile Safari on iPhone and type in www.bing.com. Bing! It directs me to Live Search. Obviously, bing.com is still not iPhone (or even mobile) ready. Anyway, it’s good to see an early start of Bing and you can head to bing.com to test it out.
