World of Apple

Apple today released a new beta release of iPhone OS 3.0 to developers. Build 7A259 of iPhone OS 3.0 is said to contain many stability improvements and appears to run faster.

Additionally, reports point towards a new menu appearing in the system preferences labelled “Store” but it currently contains no data. Finally Apple has confirmed that MMS and device tethering would not be working in iPhone OS 3.0 beta builds.

Apple announced iPhone OS 3.0 to the public on March 17 with a beta release being given to developers on the same day.

A flurry of sites including Engadget, Gizmodo, iLounge and AppleInsider have posted detailed galleries of the latest iPhone OS 3.0 software which was previewed by Apple yesterday.

The galleries reveal a few details that were not disclosed during Apple’s event:

• Notes sync to Mail
• Backups from the iPhone can now be encrypted
• SMS messages send in the background allowing a new one to be typed while the old one is sending
• Spotlight searching is said to be fast and efficient

Engadget and Gizmodo have each posted videos giving walkthroughs of the software update.

At approximately 10AM Pacific time Apple will hold an event to give an “advance preview” of the next iPhone operating system. World of Apple will not offer live coverage but a summary of events will be posted on this page.

For a list of sites with live coverage see here.

Live coverage can be seen below.

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A turn-by-turn GPS application produced by Sygic has been shown off this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The iPhone Blog reports that the software was on display at the TeleAtlas booth at MWC and features turn-by-turn GPS directions with voice prompts, points of interest, support for multiple countries, and locally-stored maps.

It is unknown what kind of welcome the app will be greeted with when submitted to Apple’s App Store. Despite having the ability to run turn-by-turn GPS navigation many companies have in the past stated interest in creating an app, but Apple’s SDK terms prohibit the creation of such applications.

According to Macworld Sweden Apple has given the go ahead for Telia the regional carrier for the iPhone to develop its own MMS application in the country.

The iPhone ships with the ability to send and receive SMS only which has caused some people to become aggravated that even very basic phones on the market can send and receive MMS messages but the iPhone can’t.

MMS messages allow for the transfer of images, audio, video and rich text.

In the report it is said that Telia will be pushing the MMS application to users in Sweden in the next couple of months, there is no word whether other carriers will also be creating similar applications.

[Update] It has been revealed that Mobispine is the provider of the MMS solution for Telia in Sweden. The company has released a press release about its MMS application for the iPhone (PDF).

Mobispine AB (MOBS) the market leader in delivering
mobile solutions to operators announced the availability of the world’s first true Multimedia
Messaging (MMS) for iPhone. Mobispine is now offering a “white label” MMS service for iPhone
to global operators. This new and innovative service will increase revenue per user (ARPU) and
generate profits for operators.

In an article from the New York Times on the Opera Software company it is revealed that Apple is not allowing the company to distribute a version of its web browser for the iPhone.

Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.

It is speculated that the decision has been made by Apple because the company doesn’t want applications available that compete with the pre-loaded apps.

It is being reported by numerous sites that Apple seeded a new build of iPhone OS 2.2. Beta 2 is said to add no new features that weren’t in Beta 1 but Google Street View is said to be fully enabled.

The accompanying notes also state that line-in audio accessories are now supported.

iPhoneYap has posted a selection of screenshots from iPhone OS 2.2 beta 2.

As promised earlier in the month Apple has posted a revised iPhone non-disclosure agreement. Two agreements appear to be in place, one is a public agreement (PDF) the other is only available to registered iPhone developers (PDF).

The new NDA continues to protect “Apple Confidential Information” including “any Apple pre-release software (including related documentation and materials) and any information disclosed by Apple to you in connection with Apple Events or Paid Content.” Paid content is defined as “certain proprietary content (including, without limitation, video presentations and audio recordings) that Apple may make available to you from time to time for a separate fee.” But the NDA now allows developers to collaborate with each other and conduct training and offer books and online guides on using the iPhone SDK.

On a related note Apple has also opened the official iPhone developer forums.

Apple has launched a set of iPhone developer tech talks that will be available on select dates across the globe.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity. The event is free, but space is limited.

Apple technology evangelists and engineers will soon be traveling the globe bringing iPhone development expertise to a city near you. Learn about the tools and technologies you’ll use to create great iPhone applications, then work with the experts to optimize your code, refine your user interface, and apply the knowledge you gain from the sessions to enhance the capabilities of your iPhone application.

The 12-hour sessions will focus on Objective-C, interface design, game development, maximising iPhone performance, submitting apps to the app store and much more.

The talks will be available in the following cities on the following dates:

North America

• Oct 22 San Francisco(FULL)
• Oct 24 Los Angeles
• Nov 03 Austin
• Nov 05 Chicago
• Dec 02 New York(FULL)
• Dec 04 Toronto
• Dec 09 Seattle

Europe

• Oct 22 Paris
• Oct 24 Munich
• Nov 03 Amsterdam
• Nov 07 London
• Nov 10 Berlin
• Nov 11 Madrid
• Nov 14 Copenhagen
• Nov 17 Zurich
• Nov 19 Rome
• Dec 08 Stockholm

India

• Nov 24 Bangalore
• Nov 27 Delhi

Asia Pacific

• Oct 30 Tokyo
• Nov 04 Singapore
• Nov 10 Hong Kong
• Nov 19 Sydney
• Nov 21 Melbourne

In a statement on its website Apple announced on Wednesday that it has decided to remove the non-disclosure agreement for released iPhone software.

“We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before,” reads a company statement.

“While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.”

Within the statement Apple admits that the NDA caused “too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software.”

Apple also announced that it is currently drafting a new agreement without an NDA covering released software that developers will have to sign later this month.