[Hands0n]

Cor, they're tripping them out fast and furious. I wonder if this is going to break new ground and not require the usual patching up two days after release.

No word yet on what is in Beta 5 ... post here as you find out please :)

[Ben]

All new iPhone apps must now work on Beta 5 before they'll be added to the app store...

...sounds like an RC or pretty close to me!

[Hands0n]

...sounds like an RC or pretty close to me!

Woooo Eeeeeee OoooooooW :eek:

[gorilla]

MMS is disabled this time round (apparently, I've not had it work for me!) and some other bug fixes. I've not updated yet, but I'm finding these betas to be very stable.

There's talk that the camera is greatly improved (not just in this beta); personally I think it responds a little quicker, but that would suggest an improved camera (which it obviously needs).

Having played with 3.0 for a few weeks now, I can safely say that it is a good OS, but it doesn't quite do it for me. I need a new handset and I suspect most of the current iPhone users on here will feel the same. Bring on the hardware!

Just been reading HandsOn's experience with the Magic. 3.0 has a great keyboard, very responsive and landscape which speeds up typing (for me anyway), the predictive text is also a lot less annoying i.e. it has a better guess.

[chagle]

Having played with 3.0 for a few weeks now, I can safely say that it is a good OS, but it doesn't quite do it for me. I need a new handset and I suspect most of the current iPhone users on here will feel the same. Bring on the hardware!
.

I really do have to agree with you here. I'm needing something.. err, different - but still badged Apple of course! :)

[Ben]

I'm hearing that there are some bugs, both in installation (bricking) and in general use (problems playing music, for example) - anyone run into problems?

According to Apple, and some other posts, in order to install the dev versions of iPhone OS 3.0 the handset is flagged as a test environment and the baseband firmware is changed - and this is permanent. In theory, that would limit the device to only accepting future dev updates/betas, and rule out ever using the 'mainstream' OS on the device again. Any truth to that? (I suppose you'll only find out if you try to downgrade!)

[gorilla]

Not had any such problems. Today I updated to beta 5 and as always after a fresh istall, the handset is working wonderfully.

With regard to the t&c's, there's always a way around this and if need be you could jailreak it, or download the original fw (from your favourite torrent site!) and do a restore.

The real beauty of 3.0 will not be fully appreciated until the apps come out for it i.e. we're bound to see push gmail, tom tom etc, and all sorts of other unique offerings. The OS has really been opened up compared to the previous offerings.

[Ben]

AFAIK even jailbreaking wont allow you to change the baseband firmware back? I've heard that this can basically result in being unable to use phone functions on vanilla firmware.

[gorilla]

Not sure about the baseband, but I would imagine that at some point all beta testers will have the vanilla firmware installed. Let's be honest, it not going to affect me for long! If it's not a new iphone in June, it could well be something else!