Apple has just released the third beta of iOS 5 to registered developers, known as Build 9A5259f. We’re downloading and installing now, but in the mean time, if you’re a registered developer, get downloading at the iOS Dev Center.
Noticed anything new in Beta 3? Drop us a line in the comments below! Here are the release notes.
Electrical fault or bug? We’d be willing to guess the former, but an iOS developer testing his software running iOS 5 Beta 2 says that the latest developer preview caused his iPhone 4 cable to erupt into flame.
Apple’s developer betas of future versions of iOS are just that, betas, which means that there’s all sorts of problems that can come up when you install one. Total device meltdown, though? That’s the sort of thing that ought to be ironed out in alpha, yet that’s just what at least one iOS 5 Beta user is reporting after installing the dev preview on his iPad: massive, device crippling overheating issues. And Apple says it’s a known issue.
Google’s just launched their biggest attack against Facebook yet with Google+, a new social networking service that emphasizes the sharing of content and updates to groups of people instead of Facebook’s universal wall spooge approach. But is Google+ destined to be just another wanna-be failure like Buzz and Orkut, or could it instead finally lead to Apple and Facebook to put their differences aside and strike a deal for iOS 6?
Wondering what’s changed in the latest developer preview of iOS 5? Although there’s always countless tweaks to be found in every beta of a major new iOS release, here are twelve of the bigger changes that have caught our eye so far.
Come iOS 5, Apple might finally win the war against jailbreakers. Even if the Dev Team prevails, though, Apple still might succeed in limiting jailbreaking to tethered exploits only, as well as finally axe the ability for users to downgrade to older versions of iOS.
Apple released its iOS 5 beta 2 firmware late last week, and in addition to modifying push notifications and activating Wi-Fi syncing, it has also killed one of the most popular and user friendly unlock tools for the iPhone 4.
Shortly after Apple released the first beta of iOS 5 earlier this month, some users went hunting through its internals and found references to the next-generation iPad and iPhone. However, there was one thing missing — and that was any mention of a new iPod touch.
The news led some to believe that Apple may delay the launch of the fifth-generation device until 2012, but it seems those first perusing the iOS 5 files just didn’t look hard enough.
We love Jan Michael Cart’s incredible iOS concept videos. We still wish Apple would bring his dashboard and voice recognition concepts to iOS 5.
Perhaps Cart’s latest idea is the one most closely in reach: he envisions cross-platform text chat between iOS and OS X computers, and foresees Apple releasing their new iMessage client on the Mac App Store.
An Apple patented granted yesterday for the company’s original iPhone contains within one of its illustrations a small piece of information that could confirm the company is willing to open up Notification Center widgets in iOS 5 to third-party developers.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjg8tmGC3O8&feature=player_embedded
Since iOS 5 was released two weeks ago, jailbreak tweak developers have been hard at work creating third-party widgets that can be integrated into the new Notification Center. The latest is called WeeTranslate, and offers a quick and easy way to access Google Translate on your iPhone.
This post has been updated with a note from the author at the end.
Apple released the first beta of iOS 5 after WWDC two weeks ago, and I’ve been using it on my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 ever since.
Is iOS 5 Beta 1 stable enough to use full-time? A lot of people have asked us this, and after trying for a few weeks, I can respond pretty authoritatively: not by half. Here’s our list of at least nine things that Apple needs to fix before iOS 5 beta is usable full time.
When can you expect iOS 5 to drop on your iPhone? September’s a given, but the latest rumor gives an exact date that all the ripples of the iCloud will come to your device… along with the iPhone 5.
Noterize, the popular note-taking app for the iPad mysteriously vanished from the App Store recently, with no indication of the reason for its disappearance. However, news that a takeover by voice technology company Nuance may be to blame, and could spell exciting things to come for voice recognition in iOS 5.
As we await the launch of iOS 5, jailbreak developers are creating new tweaks for the existing iOS 4 software that aims to provide us with a taste of the goodies we’ll be getting our hands on this fall. The latest is CameraLock — a great little utility that introduces a camera button to your lock screen.
In iOS 5, Apple has fixed a long standing issue that prevented home screen web apps from running as fast as they would within Mobile Safari.
Evidence within the iOS 5 Beta suggests that Apple’s planning a future iPad with a Retina Display, but before we all get excited and take this as confirmation that the iPad 3 will pack a 2048 x 1536 display, let’s remember that we’ve heard all of this before.
Here is a photo of a new week view in the native iOS 5 calendar app. That app now features a scrolling landscape view of the users calendar, but the view changes depending on whether or not you are using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.
For those on an iPhone or an iPad, the “iPod” app has been replaced with “Music”, just like on the iPod Touch. With the app comes a few new tweaks and changes.Most notable is this: if you tap and hold on a song, you’ll get some more information about it.
Right now, this functionality doesn’t do much besides show information that’s already shown, like title, album and artist. But imagine if Apple fleshes out this functionality with other information over time, like genre or bit rate. What info would you like to see there?
We raved about how cool the new hard button for shooting stills using the Camera app is, and we’ve even shown you how to use it. But guess what — it works with video too.
That’s right, in iOS 5, you’ll be able to start and stop shooting video just by tapping the volume up button, the same one used for shooting stills.
New to iOS will be the ability to use the volume up button on an iDevice to take a picture. Because of this, you’re also able to use the volume up button on your headphones to do the same thing.
Obviously, you’ll need a headset or pair of ear buds that support Apple’s volume-up/volume-down functionality (like Apple’s official ear buds) to get this to work.
Once it’s set up, though, this is just great additional functionality for those of us who take pictures with our iPhones using a tripod, or those of us who want to take really steady shots. Just plug in your headphones, line up your iPhone on a table, and use your headset to trigger the shutter, with no resulting wobble!
Here’s another little neat trick from the latest developer beta: in iOS 5, you’ll be able to download and install more than one app at a time, even on 3G.
Are you eager to jump into iOS 5, but not willing to risk your device with the sometimes unstable, developer-only beta? Well, as you may know, many of the new iOS features already exist in some form or another between the App Store and the Cydia Store, which is the jailbroken alternative to the Apple’s App Store. In this video, you’ll see how you can get most of the new iOS 5 features with your jailbroken device.
We’ve been raving about Apple’s new iMessage feature in iOS 5 all week. If our current findings haven’t piqued your interest in the new messaging service that let’s you ditch SMS messaging, then maybe this little tidbit will intrigue you. With iMessage, Apple is also introducing the best mobile group chat client to ever hit a smartphone.
Our heads are spinning with all the new little features that are packed into iOS 5. Our heads also might be spinning from the new “LED Flash for Alerts” feature found under the Accessibility settings which we just enabled. While it currently only works on the iPhone 4, this neat little feature enables your phone to send out a few pulses of light from the LED Flash every time you get a new Text or Phone call.