Apple Releases IOS 4.3 Beta To Developers

m2pc writes "Apple has just released iOS 4.3 beta to developers. New features include: Developer access to AirPlay API, Four and Five-finger gestures, and the return of the hardware orientation lock for iPad, a feature that upset many when Apple suddenly removed this feature with no software option to re-enable it. Also interesting to note is the lack of mention of the Mobile Hotspot feature rumored to be included in 4.3 for all iOS devices by the Verizon announcement yesterday."

Comments

Four and Five-finger gestures

[Anonymous Coward]

I got the idea from Steve Jobs' mom.

Re:Four and Five-finger gestures

[jellomizer]

Which one, he has two

Hail to the lock

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome the return of the lock on my iPad.

anyone else here...

[gandhi_2]

...miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Re:anyone else here...

[Kenja]

You forget. Anytime Apple uses a term, they surplant any prior usage of said term. A team will be along shortly to remove the part of your brain that contains the Ciso/IOS link.

Re:anyone else here...

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Also when iPhone was a CISCO product!

Re:anyone else here...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Just you wait, sonny body, and be sure to snag yourself a serial wacom pad on Ebay while you still can.

You'll need it when the part of that trademark licensing deal that gives Cisco the rights to make all router configurations "intuitively multitouch gesture based" kicks in...

Re:anyone else here...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

anyone else here... miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

As someone who worked with them and had to use their products and put up with their business practices... dear Zeus no!

Re:anyone else here...

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

...miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Is this the complaint we default back to when there hasn't been any reason to bitch about the iPhone in a while?

Re:anyone else here...

[exomondo]

...miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Not really when it's in the 'Apple' category.

Re:anyone else here...

[ianezz]

Anyone else here miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Not really, but reading "Apple" next to "IOS" still makes me rise an eyebrow.

Re:anyone else here...

[tyrione]

...miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Really? I miss the days when Cisco didn't make POS routers and switches.

Re:anyone else here...

[bledri]

...miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Nope. I am fortunate enough to have upgraded myOS to a contextually sensitive parser and lexical analyzer. I can even handle the fact that there is an Ios Island in Greece that predates both Cisco IOS and Apple iOS.

Re:anyone else here...

[bledri]

Anyone else here miss the days when ios meant Cisco?

Not really, but reading "Apple" next to "IOS" still makes me rise an eyebrow.

As it should since Apple's trademark is on iOS. But I'm an old case-sensitve sort of guy even if the Slashdot "editors" are not. (Of course, HFS+ is not case sensitve by default, which annoys me. I must need coffee...)

Re:anyone else here...

[bledri]

Really? I miss the days when Cisco didn't make POS routers and switches.

Ah, the good ol' days of UUCP when Fred Fish was our patron saint.

Re:anyone else here...

[Celarent Darii]

Actually Apple and Cisco came to an agreement over the trademark.

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco_and_apple_agreement_on_ios_trademark/

Re:anyone else here...

[dgatwood]

Of course, HFS+ is not case sensitve by default, which annoys me.

Unless you're on iOS, in which case it is. (Assuming that's HFS+ under there, of course. For all I know, it might be a giant mbox file....)

I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[BitHive]

After owning an iPhone for a few months I have found myself making this gesture quite frequently but it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

High-five to you too!

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

After owning an iPhone for a few months I have found myself making this gesture quite frequently but it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect.

Uh.. what, waving hello to them?

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[blackraven14250]

You need to pull four of your fingers down, so the gesture does involve all five fingers.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[shoehornjob]

OMG you mean that it didn't "just work" Are you sure you have an IOS device and not some imposter? I was pissed when Steve took away my orientation lock on my ipad. No more updates for me.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

You need to pull four of your fingers down, so the gesture does involve all five fingers.

Man.. what an amazing rationalization! Your name isn't Russell T. Davies, is it?

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[Monolith1]

No more updates for me.

You wait till all the magic leaks out of the old version, then you will come beggin' for an update!

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[shoehornjob]

LMFAO. I've got a magic ipad cover made by the same developer that got the specs on Ipad 2 which resulted in a leaked video from the last weeks CES show. I think I'm covered (at least till the next version comes out).

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

I was pissed when Steve took away my orientation lock on my ipad. No more updates for me.

iOS 4.3 is good news for you then, as the orientation lock is back as a user selectable option.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[blackraven14250]

Just saying, the single finger salute doesn't work without the cooperation of the other 4 fingers.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

So there's no such thing as a one, two, three, or four finger gesture? Then why count fingers at all?

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[blackraven14250]

Because we have five digits, regardless as to how many need to be used to create a gesture. Language can be ambiguous, as well; a one finger gesture exists (just extend the middle finger), but the same gesture can be described as a four finger gesture ("fingers don't include thumbs") or a five finger gesture ("fingers do include thumbs") without the description being fundamentally flawed.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Language can be ambiguous, as well...

Sure, that's why we strive to make it understandable. That's why you cannot describe a 'middle finger' as a 'five finger gesture'

...but the same gesture can be described as a four finger gesture ("fingers don't include thumbs") or a five finger gesture ("fingers do include thumbs") without the description being fundamentally flawed....

People missing a finger would disagree. ;) Basically you're saying "a gesture cannot be described at all without going into detail which fingers are up and down". Well... actually, what I think you're saying is "I agree with BitHive's point even though he did the opposite of communicating it clearly."

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[blackraven14250]

You "give someone the finger" in that case; nothing vague about that. The phrase used earlier is stupidly vague (hardly any context to pull meaning from) and I've never used it heard in conversation before (not once), and thus can be interpreted a multitude of ways IMO.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

It's not vague, it's very specific. He's using 5 fingers to gesture with. That can be interpreted as waving hello, waving good bye, or maybe he's making a shadow puppet of a bird flapping its wings.

You are right about the context, though, that's actually what he broke.

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[blackraven14250]

I don't think he's doing the bird with wings flapping, that's a 10 finger gesture! :-D

Re:I've got a five-finger gesture for Apple

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Haha I dind't realize when I wrote that it could be called 'flipping the bird'. I think shot my own post in the foot!

Hehe

[copponex]

the return of the hardware orientation lock for iPad, a feature that upset many when Apple suddenly removed this feature with no software option to re-enable it

If there's one thing an Apple user needs, it's the ability to take things lying down.

Re:Hehe

[Anonymous Coward]

... don't you mean bending over?

Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[swb]

I see this as some kind of Verizon exclusive for a while. Apple probably had to give Verizon something to keep the phone from being junked up with VZW Crapware, and hotspot functionality was an easy one.

For one, it's an Android feature and Apple would like to sell iPhones to a lot of the people who bought Androids because it was either Verizon or nothing. For another, AT&T was a weak sister when it came to tethering and they probably won't whine about a short-term VZW exclusive iPhone feature they'd probably rather not support.

Long-term, it's hard not to see AT&T & VZW iPhones having the same feature sets eventually (within the limits of their respective network technologies, eg simultaneous voice/data) since the carriers are pretty much now directly competing. I know I wouldn't re-up with AT&T next summer if the iPhone for AT&T was somehow inferior to Verizon's model.

All in all, I think this will be a win for iPhone users. Apple is less beholden to one carrier, and the carriers are forced to keep up with each other's features & pricing.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[voidptr]

Reports are it's in the beta. There's no API for it (as with most of the system configuration settings); it wasn't highlighted in the release notes since these betas are aimed at third-party developers getting their hands on things to integrate into their apps.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[catmistake]

Also interesting to note is the lack of mention of the Mobile Hotspot feature rumored to be included in 4.3 for all iOS devices by the Verizon announcement yesterday."

Nope. Actually, it was mentioned by some leaky devs:
they even provided screen shots

Now that it settled... How do we stop AT&T from double charging for data? Pay for 2GB data, you should be able to use it how you wish... why would it matter to AT&T whether that data was going directly to iPhone, or by proxy to another device? It's still data you pay for.

someone must have an idea... it doesn't seem legal for them to do this for anyone but the "true" unlimited users.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[mini me]

Hotspot apparently works on Rogers right now.

I, unfortunately, am unable to verify the claims. But this screenshot looks pretty legit: http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5767/photojan1251329pm.jpg

From what I gather it is a carrier enable-able feature. If AT&T does not support it, it is due to their call, not Apple's.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[catmistake]

replying to my own post here...

When AT&T or Verizon charges for 2GB data, and then they charge again for tethering or hotspoting that data, what they are effectivelydoing is this. And, if I remember my John Grisham, each time they mail a bill out double charging for the data, they are committing mail fraud, and each offense is punishable up to 5 years, not to be served concurrently.

I know there's some sharp lawyers here... let's go get AT&T!!

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[tyrione]

replying to my own post here...

When AT&T or Verizon charges for 2GB data, and then they charge again for tethering or hotspoting that data, what they are effectivelydoing is this. And, if I remember my John Grisham, each time they mail a bill out double charging for the data, they are committing mail fraud, and each offense is punishable up to 5 years, not to be served concurrently.

I know there's some sharp lawyers here... let's go get AT&T!!

AT&T has several partnerships with Qwest and other regional bells to use their Hotspots. I'm not being charged by the use of it. It's a feature in my Qwest DSL contract.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[catmistake]

AT&T has several partnerships with Qwest and other regional bells to use their Hotspots. I'm not being charged by the use of it. It's a feature in my Qwest DSL contract.

I'm not talking about hotspots around town... down at the McD's or Starbucks. I'm talking about turning your iPhone into a hotspot (functions the same way as tethering). But thanks for responding.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[horatio]

With all of the nonsense that AT&T has with iPhone users and their data (plans are now limited, tethering wasn't an option until recently (and imho is way too expensive on top of the not-optional cost for the iPhone data plan), "enterprise" data is more expensive, f'ng with the network in various markets, sometimes shutting it down completely or severely restricting it with no explanation), I cannot possibly see them enabling a "wifi hotspot" feature. Unless of course, your phone is connected over wifi (yes, it defeats the purpose).

Hell, skype video just came to the iPhone. For a long time lots of apps simply weren't permitted to use 3G, including Slingbox and Skype. Any app over 10MB had to be downloaded on wifi (I think the limit is 20 now). I have no doubt this was an AT&T thing to protect their fragile network, rather than an Apple-imposed restriction. Any time I've been to an event that is attended by more than a few people, I get no data on my phone. Apps like twitter just churn waiting for the network. Maybe that last one isn't just an AT&T thing, but holy crap is it irritating.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[tyrione]

Tethering is a one-to-one relationship, not an interface for NATing and thus a one-to-many term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering

It's not that difficult to see this is not tethering, but a software NATing for up to 5 devices slaving off the single point of access--your 3G/4G device.

Re:Hotspot -- Verizon exclusive -- for a while?

[catmistake]

dude... you're trolling. I know what tethering is. In fact, I make fun of people that use terms like "wifi tethering" because it's not truly tethering, which by definition is via a usb cable or even bluetooth. But in the instance of my inquiry, tethering and wifi hotspotting serve the same purpose: use your cell data for another device.

so back to the point... AT&T is charging for the data... then, if you tether (or presumably, if you use hotspotting), AT&T charges you AGAIN for teh SAME DATA. I call this double billing. I'd like to get some interest up for perhaps a class action lawsuit against AT&T.

but I'm being trolled... so I get no joy.

The summary is wrong.

[teh31337one]

ars and Engadget both say there is a wifi hotspot feature.

Re:The summary is wrong.

[Sockatume]

No, it is in the software. AT&T's carrier settings file disables it, but plenty of people in, ah, more liberal phone markets are already using it in the beta. It's probably tied to the tethering permission right now, based on the networks I've heard it being used on.

Re:Full Screen iAds!

[Anonymous Coward]

Touch? Who touches ads?
You don't know where those things have been!

Can airtunes do multizone?

[afidel]

If so the ipad with a custom app would be the coolest multizone controller ever.

Hardware Orientation Lock

[exomondo]

return of the hardware orientation lock for iPad

I still can't understand why they took that away and left the 'press & hold the volume key to go to 0%' in there...the orientation lock button was WAY more useful than the mute button, maybe not so much on an iphone but definitely on the ipad.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Capsaicin]

..the orientation lock button was WAY more useful than the mute button, maybe not so much on an iphone but definitely on the ipad.

That's perhaps why they took it away! Ie. a moving part getting way more use than the original engineering anticipated. Problem is the software replacement requires a double-click on the (presumably longer lasting) home button a swipe to get to the area where you finally find the software button position lock button. Frustratingly cumbersome.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Caerdwyn]

The fact that it's reverting to what it was before suggests otherwise.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[exomondo]

Problem is the software replacement requires a double-click on the (presumably longer lasting) home button a swipe to get to the area where you finally find the software button position lock button. Frustratingly cumbersome.

Then you have to toggle the soft-button and press the home button again to dismiss that idiotic task manager.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

The mute switch is infinitely more useful than a orientation lock. Especially if you're use to iOS and you're trying to post prank wall postings to their Facebook wall with out them hearing the click click click of the on screen keyboard. Hardware keyboards are louder and less stealthy for this task.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Sancho]

You can tap the screen instead of pressing the home button to dismiss the task manager.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Sancho]

It's worse than that.

The mute switch is not a hard mute--it's up to the software to detect its position and respond accordingly. Most Apple software in 4.2 respected the switch. A great deal of third-party software did not. This inconsistent behavior is sort of the antithesis of Apple's design principles, and frankly, I don't know why they bothered to put a hardware mute switch that doesn't mute everything. Holding the down-volume button mutes everything I've come across.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Capsaicin]

Then you have to toggle the soft-button and press the home button again ...

It is a pain, but it just goes to show that you shouldn't really be lying in bed with an iPad. Personally I prefer lying with a leggy brunette ... problem is, she is actually the one with the damn iPad in bed. :|

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Tibor the Hun]

The switch was for notifications, volume rocker for other, normal volume.
iPad doesn't get that many notifications, so it was kind of a waste.
I look forward to switching it back, and using the new gestures.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[jasonwea]

Or you could just disable those annoying keyboard and unlock sounds in Settings, Sounds.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

If you've got 20 seconds to post, "Free lunch to everyone who likes this." that's too many taps to achieve your goals of pwnage.

I think Apple's solution is best, do both and hide the configuration somewhere where average users won't find it.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[Culture20]

the orientation lock button was WAY more useful than the mute button, maybe not so much on an iphone but definitely on the ipad.

The first day I got my first (gen1) iPhone I wanted orientation-lock. I tried reading stuff lying down on my side and discovered that Steve Jobs apparently lies down on his back exclusively.

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[pablodiazgutierrez]

My guess is that the developers didn't find it useful in their setting (office desk, sitting up, on a couch...). Maybe they should have nap rooms in Cupertino :).

Re:Hardware Orientation Lock

[swb]

It doesn't mute videos, which I find entirely annoying, especially when my wife wonders what Im watching.

Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[LordKronos]

Does this update fix the wireless battery drain issue that popped up in the 4.0 release? On both my ipod touch 2G and my wife's ipod touch 3g, we used to be able to leave wireless on all the time. We could let the thing sit in sleep mode for 2 or 3 weeks, turn it back on, and the battery would still be charged. Now if you don't explicitly turn off wireless when the device is sleeping, the battery will be completely dead in 24-48 hours. There are a ton of people with this problem, but (as usual) apples refuses to acknowledge any problem exists. Until they fix this, I have little interest in whatever other features they might add to ios.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[DJRumpy]

I found a similar issue on the iPhone 4. The 'usage' was equal to the actual 'on' time since last charge with almost no 'standby' time showing. A restore and 'setup as new' cleared the issue up for me. Something to consider. About the only thing I had to do was backup some app data from 2 apps. The apps themselves, music, playlists, email settings, etc, were all put back even though it was setup as new.

I also had to put the icons back where I wanted them, but that was pretty minor.

After the 'Setup As New', the problem cleared up.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[WeatherGod]

Hmm, I haven't noticed that on my 4th gen iPod touch. Then again, the longest I have let it sleep was for a weekend.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[inKubus]

Hopefully they fix the bug in 4.2.1 which has caused WiFi to stop working entirely on my MB702LL (8gb 3G). And reinstalling iOS, emergency bare metal install, and master reset do nothing. In fact, word on the street says even going back to any 4.0 firmware doesn't fix it. You have to have 3.x. Apparently 4.2.1 update breaks the firmware for the WiFi chip. No word from Apple. The Apple "Genius" (after scoffing at "how old it is" [2 years]) says there's no fix, I have to "buy a new phone". I'm going to a linux phone and I'm selling my stock.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[SpooForBrains]

It's not a bug, it's a feature. I'm not even joking. A touted iOS4 feature was/is that it maintains your WLAN connection while asleep, to allow notifications to be delivered.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[patman600]

I had a similar problem with my iPad after the 4.2 update. Turning off push notifications fixed the issue for me.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[Espectr0]

I think this is designed to work this way. When your device is sleeping with wifi on, actually the device can get woken up by applications listening on wifi (like instant messengers)

This behavior appeared as soon as multitasking was developed into the os.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[jspayne]

I don't think this is a software issue - if you search around, you'll find a lot of issues with the WiFi on the 3G where it just stops working (same thing happened to me, long before 4.0). I think it was a hardware problem in that design.

Re:Does it fix wireless battery drain issue?

[Xyde]

So many things wrong and so much deception going on in this paragraph I don't even know where to begin...and you forgot to post as AC.

Re:Full Screen iAds!

[Nikker]

Of course only if you decide to touch them but then you realize the ads are always bordering on important UI elements and you end up with AppStore popping up or some page in Safari. Until then though, its just a banner.

iphone 2 support, finally?

[kaplong!]

Does this support the iphone 2?

Re:iphone 2 support, finally?

[exomondo]

Does this support the iphone 2?

What's an iPhone 2? Do you mean the second iPhone (the iPhone 3G) or the iPhone 2G (the first iPhone)?

Re:iphone 2 support, finally?

[Vectormatic]

I would think the 3G is (partially) supported, my 3rd gen ipod touch 8gb (so basically 2nd gen hardware, equal to the iphone 3G) is currently running iOS 4.x, obviously without the multi-tasking, but with the semi 3d dock effects and such..

Re:Full Screen iAds!

[RocketRabbit]

Except I'm not wrong at all, and the AC is full of shit. The iAd API has the option to force a user to watch a full screen iAd on launch of an app, or at intervals.

Re:Full Screen iAds!

[RocketRabbit]

ADInterstitialView there champ.

Then again you may not be able to view the actual documentation.

Besides, unless you are probably unfamiliar with banner ads, and it shows. In addition to there being a market for clicked ads, there is one for ad impressions as well.

Also, "fraud?" I don't think this word means what you think it means.

Re:Full Screen iAds!

[BasilBrush]

I apologise. I do have access to the documentation, but I hadn't downloaded the 4.3 beta, and the developer website showed me the iAd docs for the release version, not the pre-release.