iPhone 3.0 beta 5 seeded to developers
updated 09:20 am EDT, Thu May 7, 2009
iPhone 3.0 beta 5 seed
A fifth beta of the iPhone 3.0 firmware has already been made available to developers, reports reveal. The deployment represents an extremely rapid turnaround, as beta 4 was only put into distribution in the middle of last week. An acceleration in the release schedule could suggest that Apple wants the software ready in advance of WWDC, scheduled to begin June 8th. Traditionally, however, Apple has paired major iterations with the availability of new hardware, which has only ever appeared weeks after a WWDC announcement.
Any new features in beta 5 have yet to be discovered, but initial accounts indicate that two existing components may be broken, those being tethering and MMS messaging. The problem does not appear to be affecting all developers though, and it is speculated that the issue may stem from whether people have done a clean installation or chosen to restore content from backup. A final release of the iPhone 3.0 firmware is officially scheduled for sometime this summer.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2007
Tradition
"Traditionally, however, Apple has paired major iterations with the availability of new hardware"
I love this comment. Let's see, there has been one major hardware upgrade and one major software upgrade so far. Does that make it a "tradition"??? Does anyone remember Jobs saying afterward that it was a mistake to do that (along with MobileMe) all at the same time?
It would be smart to release version 3.0 slightly ahead of the new hardware this time, to distribute the load on the servers, Apple store personnel, and tech support folks. I predict the release of version 3.0 software at WWDC along with a detailed announcement of the new iPhone hardware -- to be shipped a few weeks later.