iOS 5 beta 3 brings some new and interesting features, including the new Assistive Touch menu. This menu allows you to perform many commonly used gestures as well as simulate hardware buttons. In this video, I’ll show you how to activate and use this menu in iOS 5.
We’re just starting to dive into Beta 3, but we thought we’d start a thread to catalogue everything new that we discover in the latest dev previous of iOS 5. We’ll be keeping this updated throughout the day.
Noticed anything new? Let us know in the comments, or email us at news@cultofmac.com and we’ll update the post accordingly.
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.
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.
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 received various reports from developers testing Lion Developer Preview 2 that the Preview 3 update is no longer appearing in Software Update on machines running Lion Developer Preview 2 released on March 30th.
Brand new from the maker of desktop Gmail client Mailplane is Replies, an app designed for people who do a lot of customer support.
The idea was born from Mailplane developer Ruben Bakker’s own success with Mailplane. He was soon so inundated with support requests, he found himself writing similar replies time and time again.
So, enter stage right: Replies, an app to make that part of his job easier.
Reuben points out that, far from turning all his emails into clones of each other, Replies saves him time on writing the dull stuff and frees up time to add personalised extras. So his messages end up being more personal and more useful, yet take less time to write than before.
One nice touch is that Replies indexes the emails in your Sent items folder, which means you can quickly search for replies you’ve written before, then insert them into new messages.
The app will be in beta soon, so if you’re interested in trying it out, go sign up to the announcement list.
Apple appears to have re-introduced the full version of field test mode in iOS 4.3 Beta 3, which will allow you to quickly check the quality of your cellular signal by simply dialing: *3001#12345#* and pressing Call on your iPhone.
Under iOS 4.0 the field test vanished much to everyone’s dismay during Antennagate last year only to have a much simplified version reappear in iOS 4.1 that looked like this:
Apple released iOS 4.3 Beta 3 to developers this afternoon. The update includes a new firmware update for the new Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS as well as the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.
Registered iOS developers can download these updates as well as a new SDK from developer.apple.com.
Let us know if you find anything interesting in the new beta by leaving a comment.
If you for whatever reason doubted that the next iPad would be FaceTime compatible, a new screenshot found inside the latest iOS 4.3 beta gives stronger indication than ever that there will be both front and rear-facing cameras in the iPad 2.
Apple released iOS 4.3 Beta 2 to developers this afternoon. The update includes a new firmware update for the new Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS as well as the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.
Registered iOS developers can download these updates as well as a new SDK from developer.apple.com.
Let us know if you find anything interesting in the new beta by leaving a comment.
Apple has released an announcement, via e-mail, that enhancements to iWork.com Apple’s public beta online service for iWork ’09 users have been released.
This announcement came out of the blue regarding a service that has definitely been off the radar for a long time and in beta for longer than I can remember. It’s future isn’t clear considering the pace at which Apple is deploying features on it. Perhaps that will change this year with the rumored release of iWork ’11.
Skitch, the screenshot and image editor that’s been in beta since the day your parents were born (OK, since 2007), has finally reached 1.0.
If you’ve not tried Skitch before, now’s a good time to give it a spin. The emphasis is definitely on screenshots – taking them, and adding text, arrows, annotations and other fun stuff. It’s an app much beloved by writers of Mac blogs, who’ve made much use of it over the years for making quick-and-easy illustrations for their posts. Guilty as charged, Your Honour.
The deal with Skitch 1.0 is simple: you can still use the app for free if you like (“YAY!” cry the Mac bloggers), but if you shell out about $15 a year, you can get all sorts of sexy extras like no ads, more image formats, SSL encryption and more more more.
(Via delicious Brett at TUAW, oh yeah.)
The guys at Evernote have just unveiled some new goodies in Evernote 2.0 Beta for Mac.
First up is sharing, and this includes some sweet new features. You can share any notebook, either with named individuals or with the entire world. These public notebooks have a URL (which you can keep to yourself, or tell the world – and search engines – about), and an RSS feed.
Apple’s finally seen fit to make their MobileMe Calendar web app an official product after a long period in beta. It’s now available to all comers, and will allow you to check or update your MobileMe calendar from any computer or Apple device, as well as share calendars with friends and colleagues, or send out invitations to events to your droogies.
Apple has today released the first beta of iOS 4.2 for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, which is now available to download for developers.
4.2 comes just a week after the public release of 4.1, and was first previewed by Steve Jobs at Apple’s media event on September 1st. The update introduces some much-anticipated new features to the iPad in particular, including; folder organization, Game Centre, and long-awaited multi-tasking. AirPlay, a new feature for streaming music to your device, is also introduced to iOS in this update, along with the wireless printing feature, AirPrint.
Devices supported in beta 1 include the iPad, the iPhone (3G and above), and the iPod Touch (2nd-gen and above).
The iOS 4.2 download weighs in at 514MB and is currently only available to registered developers through Apple’s Dev Centre. The update is scheduled for public release in November.
Apple appears to have fixed the widely-reported iPhone 4 proximity sensor issue in the latest iOS 4.1 beta 2 update.
The latest beta also includes a baseband update (AT&T 7.1), which seems to fix HSUPA upload speed issues, which slowed video and photo uploads to a crawl.
Despite reports to the contrary, our tests show that the proximity sensor issue appears to be have been fixed. (MacRumors says the issue hasn’t been addressed).
In numerous tests, I couldn’t get my iPhone 4 to hang up a call. Previously, the iPhone was plagued with proximity sensor issues. It would constantly hang up calls when I held the phone next to my cheek.
But after installing the iOS 4.1 beta 2 update this afternoon, I couldn’t force the iPhone to hang up calls when lifting it up to my face, no matter how hard I tried.
I stress that the issue only seems to have been fixed. I could of course be wrong. Apple hasn’t yet documented what is in the latest beta update.
As you can see in the above screenshot, Apple has delivered on their improved signal bar graphics. Only time will tell if this is an actual indication of signal strength. Other noticeable changes include a revamp of the Game Center app, the ability to add FaceTime favorites and the Camera app (incl. camera roll) auto-rotating in landscape. More screenshots after the break.
Earlier today, Apple released an update to iOS 4 and the corresponding SDK to developers, bringing the current version of both to 4.1 beta. The update follows the release of iOS 4 last month.
There are a plethora of problems being reported about the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 and I hope that this update will address them. I’d particularly like to see fixes for the sensitivity of my proximity sensor and the Jawbone bluetooth connectivity issues reported earlier on Cult of Mac. I’ve personally experienced both of these issues on my iPhone 4.
It will also be interesting to see if this update includes the new signal strength formula or not and what effect if any this will have on the problems reported with the iPhone 4 antenna.
Registered iOS developers can grab a copy of the new beta at developer.apple.com/iphone.
I have not yet heard about any new features in this beta, but these details will likely surface soon. If you find out anything new about this update feel free to tell us all about it in the comments.
