iPhone 3.0 Beta Impressions
Only a day into having it I’m impressed with Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Beta release. Given that there are issues not seen in 2.2.1 i wrote a few things up in case you were thinking of diving into the developer program and upgrading early.
There is definitely a big of OS slow down in a few areas; Settings are slow to load. The Network option in particular takes a long time to load. The iPod application is slow loading and things have been a bit shaky while the lock screen control are perfect. A surprising gui error shows up if you delete a Podcast completely. When you go back to the main listing the deleted podcast’s cover art is still present but it has taken over the next postcast in the list, knocking all the covers down one place in the list and so out of sync with the titles. Restarting the app fixes the issue but I’ve still submitted it as a bug.
While most of the built in stuff is not crashing and just slower, Maps presented some serious fails when attempting to route locally and the gps dot is broken somewhat. I had to use another app (Where to?) to launch Maps and get away from a locked up attempt at directions. The app would crash and restarting just brings you back to the same state. The GPS dot jumped wildly when the map was moved around. Google may be transitioning the app given the new programming interfaces announced and possibly it will clear up with server side adjustments.
Moving applications around and being in that mode is generally feeling sluggish and so even more annoying to use. Even so there is a lot to really be excited about, the Calculator launches noticeably faster for example. Even better page rendering and manipulation in Safari could be faster and more stable. New features like Cut/Copy/Paste are solid, it’s takes a minute or so to get the hang of it but once you do it’s full speed ahead. Such a simple thing but having the ability is a tremendous boom to productivity. Already I have used it to cut text and photos out of Safari for email and notes. If this was the only update in the OS I would be fairly satisfied.
The new Spotlight search page (specially animated left of swipe of your first application page) appears to be working great. There can be a bit of stutter/slowdown when you first swipe into it but the search is already fast and accurate. I can see that there is improvement to be done overall but it’s a great new feature to have now. Ascetically it might be just me but I am not sure I love the cramped feeling rounded results view. Being able to search everywhere for anything is a nice thing.
Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP) works but after initially working very well I notice that it stutters a lot when using the phone and was putting the sound out of sync in videos. The sound when you put the phone down and just listen is clear and full. One thing that does appear to be missing is support for Play/Stop/Back/Next. I’ve tested two devices a Jabbra (BT320s) and Motorola (S805) and while both can control the volume (you have to), neither could control the playback.
The Bluetooth stuttering might be related to what I think is a memory leak or a rogue persistent process. The phone has been running much hotter then usual and appears to be using more memory. I even wonder if the locked test mode Apple said was apart of this release is running aggressive debug and logging processes. As a guess, when the OS is released this Summer it’s not going to exhibit any sign of the the current slowness.
A few other things:
-Battery Life might be even better overall but horrible using BT, I am still testing.
-MMS does not work without carrier support or specificly a MMS plan, looking into that.
-Curiously an application I hid (Stocks) with a previous Jailbreak install still has not surfaced with multiple restores and new OS installs.
Overall there is a general sense of forward progression in OS 3.0 and I think it’s going to be a great summer for Apple products running it.
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