iPhone OS 3.1 beta 2: Apple giveth and Apple taketh away

iN iPhone OS 3.1 beta 2, Apple has added some useful new features, but also disabled an important hack. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers develop the story.

By Richi Jennings: your humble blogwatcher, who selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention everybody's a critic...

Jacqui Cheng has the deets:

Apple released an update to the iPhone OS 3.1 beta [last night], making the new version of the software available to registered developers. ... Beta 2 enables [developers] to connect to their devices wirelessly instead of requiring them to be tethered for development purposes with Instruments. The WiFi connection supports all the same features a developer would get (through Instruments) when tethered.
...
It's primarily geared at those who need to attach something to their iPhone or iPod touch via USB, so freeing up the USB port during the development process goes a long way in that regard. It's also undoubtedly slightly less of a pain in the butt to be able to use WiFi, though Apple warns that USB is still preferred because it's faster and draws less power from the device than using WiFi. Developers can't install applications from Xcode over the wireless connection, nor can they debug them over WiFi.

Chris Ziegler brings bad news and good:

Looks like Apple has closed the door on hacks that enable tethering in this release -- at least for AT&T.
...
Beta 2 also introduces what appears to be a public API for manipulating live video. Devs are still testing the capabilities but it could open the door for augmented reality applications like Layar to come to the iPhone 3GS.

Sang Tang adds:

Tethering via the IPCC hack no longer works for AT&T customers. While iPhone OS 3.0 provides support for tethering, AT&T has yet to officially support it. As a workaround to obtain tethering (as well as MMS for some), some users have modified their carrier files (IPCC). As of 3.1 beta 2, this no longer works.

It's not that surprising that Apple would want close this loophole... but it is a little surprising that AT&T has yet to announce a firm date or rate plan for US customers to tether their iPhones. [It should go without saying, but if you enable tethering on your 3.0 iPhone, you do so at your own risk; AT&T may slam you with a data overage bill or worse.]

Aidan Malley reminds us of the legalities:

No official information is available regarding the upcoming iPhone OS 3.1 as developers are currently under a non-disclosure agreement. The second beta is available at the iPhone Dev Center Web site.
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As revealed with the first release, 3.1 also adds Bluetooth and video features. Users can now invoke Voice Control using a Bluetooth headset rather than a wired headset or the built-in microphone. When editing video clips, users can save a copy of the trimmed video instead of permanently losing the discarded ends. ... Further additions appear to improve battery life, greater access to video recording features for developers, and possible preparation for adding MMS support for AT&T subscribers.

Taimur Asad sounds a warning:

Those of you who have jailbroken and unlocked their iPhone with OS 3.0 should avoid to upgrade to 3.1 unless new tools are made available by Dev-Team (this warning does not apply to iPhone 2G). This version is meant for development and testing purposes only and should be installed on devices dedicated to iPhone OS 3.1 software development..

Justin notes some other changes:

Non-destructive video button names changed to Trim Original and Save as New Clip, this should help clear up the confusion caused by the original names Save and Save a Copy.
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Bluetooth still don’t support AVRCP, so no iPod app track control. MMS still included, but still doesn’t work on at&t.

So what's your take?
Get involved: leave a comment.

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.