iPhone OS 3.0 beta 2 screenshots
The second beta of the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 was released to developers yesterday (the build number is 7A259G). Aesthetically there aren't that many changes noticeable however the speed and responsiveness of the beta has definitely improved by leaps and bounds - with beta 1, rebooting your phone would be a daily affair as the phone would become unresponsive or just hang all together. In addition the keyboard would sometimes lag for no apparent reason.
Thankfully these glaring bugs have been fixed in this second release beta - in addition app launch times are also much quicker; in beta 1 the Google Maps application would hang for a good 60 to 90 seconds after launching before it would even begin triangulating your location. In beta 2, Google Maps loads AND displays your location in about 15 to 30 seconds from the time the application launches. Very nice... Searching for contacts in Address Book as well as searching across the iPhone is also quicker.
Read on for some screenshots from the latest build and a few shots of Skype for iPhone making a VoIP call over the cellular data network.
Fig 1: The main home screen on my device - nothing different from the previous 3.0 beta
Fig 2: The phone's about screen showing the software version as 3.0 (7A259g). The Carrier plist settings were modified to enable the USB and Bluetooth tethering on my carrier. You can download my .ipcc settings file from here, but you'll need to have the MMS and data settings for your carrier. The key pairs you will need to change in the .plist file:
apn
username
password
mms_proxy
mms_proxy_port
mmsc
Fig 3: Interestingly the Modem Firmware in Beta 2 has gone from 04.20.01 to 04.22.01 -- no word yet from the Dev Team if this will affect their plans for a baseband unlock. There's also no telling how many more modem firmware revisions we'll see before the final OS 3.0 release (presumably at WWDC in June)
Fig 4: The settings screen showing a link for Store however there is no icon for this nor any description once you've drilled down
Fig 5: The Store screen
Fig 6: If you've enabled the .ipcc settings hack from above, a new option labeled 'Internet Tethering' will show up. The Celluar Data Network tag is enabled in the same .ipcc settings file with the AllowEDGEEditing key.
Fig 7: The Internet tethering pane - One thing a lot of people have noticed is that USB tethering does not show up if Bluetooth is turned on. In order to get both working, ensure that your Bluetooth is turned off when you connect your phone via USB for the first time. Thereafter, it doesn't matter whether Bluetooth is on or off; if you connect your device via USB and Internet Tethering is enabled; the USB method of tethering will take precedence.
Fig 8: At long last Skype for iPhone is finally here
Fig 9: The profile tab
Fig 10: Contact details pane
Fig 11: Now this was interesting - on occasion I would get a pop-up message informing me that 'Skype Calls over 3G networks are currently not supported due to restrictions that may be placed on your data plan. For more information visit www.skype.com'. This would only appear now and again with no real pattern (at least none that I could find). The 'fix' for me was to just close the app and relaunch it which inexplicably would solve the issue and allow calls to be placed
Fig 12: Call routing being done - one thing I did notice is that if the network connection were to drop / change from 3G to EDGE or GPRS, you would immediately get a 'Call Failed' error - I guess one way to 'fix' this would be to disable 3G thus not allowing the phone to switch back and forth - I do wish there was a '3G only' setting though.
Fig 13: Call in Progress -- In the brief tests conducted, I found that in general if the network connection goes from 3G -> EDGE or from EDGE -> 3G once the call is 'in-session', the call is not interrupted / affected, however if the connection drops to below EDGE (i.e. GPRS), the call is disconnected immediately. Strangely, calls CAN be placed/initiated even on GPRS however the call quality is atrocious.
