iPhone 3.0 beta firmware FAQ

While most people would probably agree that 3.0 doesn't represent a revolutionary upgrade for iPhone users, it's still large (and interesting) enough to warrant tons of questions, which we've been collecting to answer in a FAQ about the beta. Feel free to submit some more below! Just remember that just about anything can change between now and the final launch of 3.0 -- it is a beta, after all.

So, how do I get this thing?
Well, unfortunately you need to be part of the developer program (which costs $99).

Whatevs, I just got it off of BitTorrent!
Okay, but it may not work. Your iPhone's unique ID must be authorized for the 3.0 upgrade, and Apple checks that. So until someone cracks the 3.0 beta firmware image, you have to be a registered developer, or know somebody who can hook you up, pretty much.

How did installation go? From Miqal
Running it on a non-jailbroken device, it went smoothly. Took about as much time as your traditional restore. Just be warned: from what I've been hearing, once you go to 3.0, you can't go back to 2.0. (Apple must have changed some of the baseband firmware or something, no real surprise.) Update: been hearing it IS possible to go back to 2.0 from 3.0, but be warned, it could require some baseband hacking and god knows what else, so it'd be wise to prepare for the worst.

How's performance been? I heard it's really sluggish.
Actually, it's been pretty good for me so far! Spotlight is actually faster than I expected and the rest of the common interactions feels the same as 2.2. I'm going to continue to keep an eye out for issues, but so far things have been humming along nicely. [Interestingly, Nilay, Ross, and Chris have all reported occasional slowness, proof that Ryan's zen-like patience is a virtue. -Ed.]

Do all of your apps sync? Do they work okay? From Kwarren and davidiom
So far, yes, I haven't seen anything really go missing. 3.0 isn't a fundamental architectural change, so I don't think most apps need to be re-worked to function. Granted, there have been a few apps which have definitely given me some trouble when running in 3.0 (like the Peanut Butter Jelly Time! app -- don't you judge me), but so far I've run into very few problems and apps have been working mostly without much issue. As always, with something like this your mileage may vary.

Is it stable enough for real use?
So far, yes -- if you're an Engadget reader, you're probably an early adopter-type who's willing to deal with a little pain. So far 3.0 has been pretty good, I wouldn't try to talk anyone out of it (unless they had some crucial apps that weren't yet working in 3.0, or needed it to be unlocked or jailbroken).

Does Spotlight let search the apps on the phone?
Yep. If you've got pages and pages of apps, it'll make finding them much easier. It also keeps your last search and its results open, if you want to refer back to it.

Does the iPod app do anything significantly different?
Yes! For audiobooks and podcasts there's a playback speed option now (1/2, 1, and 2x), a 30 second replay (á la TiVo), and some mail function which isn't yet implemented. There's also variable-rate scrubbing for that content -- you drag your finger down away from the play head to make the scrubbing more precise. Oh, and they finally fixed that annoying bug where some chaptered podcasts are downloaded over the air as video.

Does copy/paste extend to the URL bar in Safari? From jomolungma
Yes! Copy and paste has been working in a lot more places than I might have expected, even (especially in 3rd party apps).

Does Safari's new login auto-fill sync back to OS X's Keychain? From compboss17
So far it doesn't look like Keychain flows in either direction. That may or may not change in the future, but for now it's best not to expect that.

Are file upload fields enabled in Safari? From Tom W
Nope, looks like they're still disabled.

Did Apple add more search engines to pick from in the Safari preferences? From 54M
Nope, still just Google and Yahoo.

Does 3.0 allow you to record video?
Apple announced over 1,000 new APIs in iPhone OS 3.0, but video wasn't mentioned. Video recording isn't present in the default app set as of right now, but I wouldn't entirely rule it out. We'll have to wait for a thorough audit of all the new changes to know for sure, though, whether video will be possible. I will say this, though: if Apple had enabled video recording support, I'm pretty sure they would have taken a moment to mention that yesterday.

Does iPhone 3.0 syncing work for Entourage / Outlook / Exchange Notes? From Tom L
Haven't tested exchange notes sync, but so far I can confirm that OS X notes are properly syncing to your desktop. So your iPhone's notes are now readable on your Mac via Mail (and vice versa).

Can you send contact cards any other way than MMS? From adamreeve
Yes! Now contact cards have a little button that says "Share contact," which lets you send it via email or MMS.

Can you send receive contacts/files over Bluetooth from another handset, like an S60 phone? From mobiledivide
Contact cards, images, etc., are passed via MMS and email. It's feasible that you could do a P2P Bluetooth transfer to another iPhone, but someone would have to write an app to do that -- I expect that'll be one of the first apps devs get out there because it's a pretty obvious thing to do. It's just not built in.

Speaking of MMS, is MMS working?
It looks like it's working in 3.0, but it doesn't appear to be enabled on AT&T's side yet. Bottom line though: I wasn't able to send or receive MMS (but it didn't appear to be a bug or anything weird like that).

So you can edit notes in Mail on your Mac and they'll sync to your iPhone? From Macgirl
Yes!

Is there a unified inbox? You know, some place where all my many mobile inboxes can funnel into on spot?
Oh man, I wish. But no, sorry, that's not on the features list this time around.

Can you rotate the calendar app to view week-by-week? From jasonact
No, that'd be nice, but there's no horizontal/landscale or week view mode in the calendar app (yet).

Does 3.0 support SMS and notes in landscape mode? From akaboxer
Yes, it does.

Is there syncing for iCal to-dos? From e3na
Not that I've seen -- there's no native to-do app or repository on any version of the iPhone, so I think this is another detail they've skipped over (again).

Is there any sort of notificaiton system other than the badged icons? From Jeff M
I haven't been able to test the notification system yet because I don't have any apps that support it (remember, this was JUST officially put out there). Apple does offer multiple methods of notification though: audio notification (which developers can customize the sound alert of), popover notification messages (which already drive people nuts, think: SMS), and the badged icons we've seen.

Does 3.0 support the in-line volume control the newer Apple headphones? From anthonyfriday
It doesn't enable in-line volume control on the iPhone 3G, unfortunately. (Play/pause, etc. still work). The iPod touch 2nd-gen should still have that function, though.

Will the $10 iPod touch 3.0 upgrade include the Bluetooth support? From Chris S
Yes, Apple mentioned that yesterday. Now that iPhone OS supports stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), Apple is going to unlock that feature on the second-gen iPod touch. (The Bluetooth chip isn't in the first-gen iPod touch, however.)

iPhone 3.0 is going to support A2DP, will it support AVRCP as well? From David R
So far it doesn't look like AVRCP (the Bluetooth profile for controlling playback, volume, etc. from your stereo Bluetooth headset) is functional. This is a pretty obvious thing to add, so I'd be surprised if it doesn't make it in -- eventually.

Can you finally disable repeated alerts?
To explain, this refers to what happens when you get, say, an SMS in 2.x. Basically your iPhone keeps beeping until you acknowledge its existence. It's horrifically annoying. And yes, dear lord, yes, you can disable that in 3.0!

Does hitting the home button from the dashboard return you to the first home screen, or Spotlight now? From Adam S
Say you're on your third page of apps: hit home once, it takes you to page 1 (as before). Hit it again a moment later, it brings up Spotlight. (You can always swipe right to get there from page 1, as well.)

What else have you seen that's worth a peek?
Well, 3.0 is sprinkled with nice UI and usability improvements throughout (like the new send meter in the messages app), but one thing I'm really stoked about is the ability to open links in new Safari tabs. I'd been hoping they'd do this: hold down a link, and you're given a prompt asking if you'd like to open the link here, in a new tab, or copy it. So nice.

---

Engadget editor-at-large Ryan Block can be found crashing his beta iPhone, and readying his new site, gdgt, for launch this summer.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 2:30AM]

As a developer, I feel that 3.0 is usable, yet sluggish at times. The amount of new APIs is truly amazing and opens up many new doors. Transitioning from an app (native or third party) to the home screen feels sluggish at times. I have also noticed that the status bar across the top seems to get "stuck" on the side periodically when in landscape mode, mainly in Notes. E-mailing pictures from the photo albums seem to have a bit of lag as well. I have already experienced a "lock-up" of sorts after using the Facebook app. It seems that I was stuck in the Phone app and could only switch to Messages if I looked at a contact's info and clicked on Text Message, otherwise I was not able to return to the home screen and required cycling of the power. Sliding from the Home screen to the Search/Finder feels a bit sluggish as well as the actual search itself, but I assume this will be streamlined before going live. Copy and paste seems to work beautifully, but when trying to move the cursor in the Messages app, it seems to want to always select text instead of moving the cursor. I am unsure if this is a localized problem or if other may be experiencing the same.

I am very fond of the updated Recent Calls list, as it now shows locations as well as durations of each call. I also enjoy how the Camera app now shows a thumbnail in the lower left corner of the last picture taken. Typing in landscape mode is a blessing and feels much more natural than the portrait keyboard layout, although there is not (currently) support for landscape mode in the Calendar app. This slightly disappoints me since all other apps work seamlessly with landscape mode, with the exceptions I have mentioned and I feel that I input dates into the Calendar app more often than I use iCal since I am always on the go.

Hope this info helps at least one person out there.

[pupzombie Posted Mar 20th 2009 3:45AM]

will att charge for mms? can i email them and ask them to enable mms since i am a developer? has anyone done this successfully?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 4:20AM]

*raises hand to ask a question*

Does iPhone 3.0 improve battery life?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 4:37AM]

Does your phone stay up longer with iPhone OS 3.0 is what I mean.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 5:46AM]

I have noticed that since upgrading to 3.0 my car stereo and LCD TV no longer work with the iPhone as they did before the update. I think Apple has added the same authenication for dock connector add-ons as the new headphones for the shuffle. Very sneeky.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 6:10AM]

This is getting silly. I'm getting closer and closer to writing a letter to Weblogs, Inc. There must be an adult there I can talk to to sort this nonsense out.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 6:24AM]

Of course this will help all those, too, who already upgraded to 3.0 (via torrent) and got stuck now without activation.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 7:32AM]

Can confirm iphone 3.0 works brilliantly with Exchange 2003, can view & create invitations to meetings, and also set to 'Busy, Free, Out of office etc. :-)

[dagamer34 Posted Mar 20th 2009 9:39PM]

What app do you use to view and create invitations? Calendar?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 9:42AM]

Hi!

Whats New with the Call Log?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 9:53AM]

i mean:

can i delete just one call from recent?

and not all of them..

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 10:12AM]

Also having the problem with iPod not working after 3.0 install.

Everything else is fine, iPod app won't launch though, just keels over and goes back to home screen.

iTunes says there is 10Gb of audio data too, quite odd.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 7:04PM]

Does 3.0 include any updated notification sounds for SMS, (I can hear the Bell in my sleep)?

[0501701 Posted Mar 20th 2009 10:40PM]

I've been noticing a lot of ui bugs and lag as well as crashes. Ui problems especially like the bookmark creation panel, the song category when u play a song starting from the albums category as well as lag and slowness throughout the system.. Lots of fixes are needed. Please tell me if you are experiencing these problems too

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 21st 2009 3:36AM]

HEY, If you guys need on a DEV account to use iPhone OS 3.0 just send
me an email. You will also be included in our up and coming app beta
test!

[e-mail]

[andrewasmith Posted Mar 21st 2009 11:21AM]

Does hitting the home button from the dashboard return you to the first home screen, or Spotlight now? From Adam S
Say you're on your third page of apps: hit home once, it takes you to page 1 (as before). Hit it again a moment later, it brings up Spotlight. (You can always swipe right to get there from page 1, as well.)

Can you still hit the home button twice to go to your "favorites" contact list?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2009 5:46PM]

Yes you can still do that.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 21st 2009 12:58PM]

I am running a UDID authorized version of 3.0 on the original iphone 2G.

For some odd reason, I don't have visual voicemail... as in it just calls voicemail instead when I hit the button. Am I missing something or is that just disabled for the beta?

Thanks,
Jon

[hey1o Posted Mar 22nd 2009 3:23PM]

Does the Maps app do turn-by-turn directions, or not? From everything I've read I can't tell if 3.0 will make turn-by-turn possible via the SDK, or if the buillt-in Maps app will do turn-by-turn as they showed during the presentation.
I know apps will be required to bring their own maps to the table due to licensing issues with the Google Maps mapping source, but can the Maps app use those maps for turn-by-turn itself?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2009 5:43PM]

What it sounded like from the event is that they added API's to use the GPS for turn by turn. They however won't supply the GMap tiles for that. The app developer will have to have their own map tiles. And no there is no realtime turn by turn support in GMap for 3.0.

[darederek Posted Mar 22nd 2009 7:09PM]

i wish people would stop bitching and just not read the article if u hate apple

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2009 8:25PM]

Can you invite people to calendar entries yet? Seriously, Apple.. how hard can it be?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 23rd 2009 3:45AM]

IS the beta 3.0 sim free, so like will you be able to use any sim card with this version because i am running yellowsn0w on my iphone so if i upgrade to 3.0, i am registered developer will i be able to use any sim???

[ohaider Posted Mar 23rd 2009 4:59AM]

How is the battery life with 3G on?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2009 5:40PM]

Did you guys figure out what's in the 100+ feature list they talk about at the event. Also what other features you guys think are likely to be un-supported for the 1st generation iPhone (except MMS and Bluetooth support...)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 26th 2009 3:01PM]

Do you think the pin-heads can actually address the size of iPhone updates..? Surely, the bright kids at Apple know how to distribute updates which only update what needs to be changed. With this "novel" approach, I would expect the currently shipping 246Meg size to be something closer to 20Meg,,,,or less. So, in my case, a simple update doesn't take 2hrs but may 12 mins. Geez.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 26th 2009 3:44PM]

the last episode of life on nbc (aired 3-25-2009) had a detective that was asked if she had a camera on her phone. she answered yes 5 megapixels. they kinda made a whole deal about it. i thought this was odd until she pulled out what looked exactly like an iphone. There was a leather protecting case over the back but the front looked just like an iphone. perhaps hinting at 5 mp camera on upcoming iphone?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 28th 2009 4:55PM]

the ipod touch wireless chipset has wifi(obviously) bluetooth(just learned) , but it also has an Fm radio chip(learned from a teardown), any ideas if apple will enable this?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 30th 2009 9:56AM]

i have spaces left on my dev team activation for 3.0 if any one wants activated

email [e-mail]

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2009 9:44AM]

Is there a way to make links live on entourage on the iphone? when people send me links in emails and calendar events, i can't click on them.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 6th 2009 9:02AM]

Can you change the message tones in this build?

[meilon Posted Apr 4th 2009 4:15PM]

Does the Note sync include syncing wireless to my exchange server?

And/Or

Does one of the 1000 new APIs include access to my exchange server so there is finaly an app possible that syncs my notes and todos? ActiveSync support and no task-sync is something that doesn't get in my head!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 7th 2009 1:22PM]

I will add your UDID to my developer account letting you install the new iPhone 3.0 Betas!

Just visit my web site for more info: http://www.bwebdesign.net/iphone30/

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2009 5:06PM]

Hey Everyone, I found this!!!!

Apple iPhone / iPhone 3G / iPod Touch 1G & 2G Firmware 3.0 Beta 2 + Developer's Registration:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=260386741317

I was up and running within 1/2 hour. Seller is SUPER FAST!!! He will walk you thru every step!!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 10th 2009 5:24PM]

Hey that's funny a lot of the "improvements" on 3.0 are things my G1 can already do... keep spending $ to be cool apple fans!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 12th 2009 10:07AM]

Does 3.0 allow Flash content in web sites?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2009 10:45AM]

I was in a hurry to get iphone 3.0 and bricked my iphone 2 days ago and was stuck until i found the website that i linked to my name above actually found them in facebook, just click on my name to go there. They had me up and running in no time and i now have complete access to their Apple developers account with my own user ID and password. It was worth it, just my 2 cents for anyone who is in the same boat i was.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1330448030&ref=nf

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2009 3:40PM]

I have seen video record capability on a cracked 1st gen iPhone and it even supported sound. i think it was even able to e-mail out the files for sharing. My question is why can't Apple get this in their iPhone or allow developers to do so. They must have locked out some functionality in the development software to not allow this. It's too bad though, is worked awesome on a hacked phone.....

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2009 11:01PM]

Does anyone know if 3.0 will support a real voice dial option? I still can't believe this amazing piece of technology lacks such basic options found on cheap phones... I know there are apps that are for voice dialing, but none are activated by bluetooth headsets so they are basically useless...

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 8:07PM]

I found this website that i linked to my name above actually found them in facebook, just click on my name to go there, dont worry, you dont need to be a facebook member. They had me up and running in no time and i now have complete access to their Apple developers account with my own user ID and password. They have links to the newest beta firmware for pc's and mac as well as iTunes 8.2 links. It was worth it, just my 2 cents for anyone who is in the same boat i was.

http://activateiphone.net/

[Johnny Neat Posted Jun 5th 2009 2:56PM]

I can't wait but I wish FLASH were finally here. I'm annoyed every time I run into Lego Blue Box. Argh!!! So annoying.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 1:00PM]

The upgrade was easier that all the others so far, pretty straight-forward. I didn't time it but it seemed like 5 to 10 minutes.

Seems smoother and faster but then again all my jail-breaked apps may have been responsible for previous sluggishness.

All the lauded features (landscape texting, search, copy/paste) are worth it. I think the PUSH notification is awesome and trying it on the AIM Beta. It should save me some money each month on sms's.

It will be worth the wait...