iPhone Firmware 2.0 - Discussion

[Kyle Matthews]

Apple announced iPhone firmware 2.0 (which is just marketing, btw - its 1.2, not 2.0. Unless they plan on going from 1.2 to 2.0 between now and June) Thursday, which will be released in June. Specific dates have not been made available yet, I'm sure it will depend on how fast they can get it finished (my Time Capsule shipped "in February" - which meant Feb 29th, heh).

We posted it yesterday in the SDK quasi-liveblog thread, but I'd like to have a thread specifically for the new firmware, not for the SDK.

Some highlights:

• Native support for Microsoft Exchange and ActiveSync.
• Ability to store web apps locally. This is a big deal - the SDK will allow for building of web apps which can be saved offline and ran when not connected to the net.
• AppStore, of course, allows you to download and install 3rd party apps straight from your iPhone. (Installer, Cydia).
• Major code differences compared to previous firmware versions. Erica took a look at the SDK, and said the headers/frameworks are very different, which many of the DRP guys have also confirmed. What does this mean to you? Existing 3rd party applications will have to be rewritten a bit to get them working on the new firmware, so when it initially comes out, and is jailbroken, we'll be waiting a bit for unofficial apps to come back out.

Since I know you'll all ask even though there's no way of telling yet - WHO KNOWS how long the jailbreak and unlock will take. Not I. This isn't to say it will take long, just that we don't have any way of knowing right now until it gets in the hands of the proper dev's and hackers. The firmware IS being released as a beta according to Apple, which has gone out to "thousands of developers," so that's a possible headstart.

There's still a huge international community of iPhoners, so don't expect jailbreak and unlocking to go anywhere. Also no word yet on whether AppStore will work on non-ATT iPhone's, such as all us T-Mobile iPhone owners. Members of the DRP Dev Team have found that the new XCode release knows if your iPhone has been activated on ATT or not, so that may speak ill for non-ATT folk wanting to access AppStore. Just another hurdle to jump.

Thoughts?

[cranie]

I'm happy and excited anytime the iPhone grows and "moves forward" in features and performance. If the people who make the apps that we can currently only use on jailbroken phones (i.e. Simplify Media) make them for the new FW and it's Apple approved that's a good thing no?

[Kay338]

sweeeeeet! cant wait.

[patrickj]

We heard tons of very, very good things yesterday - I think. All the enterprise features mean it should have Blackberry's makers real scared, the App Store sounds excellent and so on.

One - possibly - very disconcerting thing was spotted by John Gruber at Daring Fireball: he found a section of the SDK that seems to say no multitasking for 3rd party apps. If they remember their state / where you were at when you left them, that's no big deal. But ... if they don't, that is Suckerama and equal to a Palm Treo. Here's the section he highlighted:

Only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. It’s important to make sure that users do not experience any negative effects because of this reality. In other words, users should not feel that leaving your iPhone application and returning to it later is any more difficult than switching among applications on a computer.

And his post is here

Interested to hear what folks think on this ...

[viperstarpoint9]

I don't mind if only one application can run at a time it means the programs will run faster. However if the applications don't auto save (e-mail, text editors, and other programs that create saved files) then there will be some annoyances. Other than that I am all for this one restriction.

[Eurisko]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is DRP an acronym for?

[ajl917]

I think we need to get this 2.0 firmware to the devs and Zibri ASAP so they can get everything ready for the real deal and maybe App Store on 1.1.3/1.1.4...

[Kyle Matthews]

Secrets. It will never stand for anything.

DRP is the MMi sponsored dev team, check bottom of this page to see who they is. Made colloQ, WiSync, iRefresh, Debicizer, and more...

[francis]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is DRP an acronym for?

dont be a noob

[patrickj]

I don't mind if only one application can run at a time it means the programs will run faster. However if the applications don't auto save (e-mail, text editors, and other programs that create saved files) then there will be some annoyances. Other than that I am all for this one restriction.

Wow. Fair enough. I think this would be a huge drawback. An IM app that has to completely close out when you switch to a call or another app is much less powerful. Location-based apps that want to run in the background = no go. A Notes or word processing or database or spreadsheet app that doesn't remember where you left off, in a specific file etc., and just launches back to the front-end of the app again each time you go away and back to it = to me, that's beyond lame ...

[Cave Man]

Apple announced iPhone firmware 2.0 (which is just marketing, btw - its 1.2, not 2.0. Unless they plan on going from 1.2 to 2.0 between now and June)...

Well, they went from 1.1 to 2.0 with the Apple TV, so it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

[King Chronic]

I think we need to get this 2.0 firmware to the devs and Zibri ASAP so they can get everything ready for the real deal and maybe App Store on 1.1.3/1.1.4...

hahahahahahaha. Give it to zibri. Hahaha. Good one. You crack me up. He'll take one of the unreleased jailbreak he stole from the dev teams svn that he ran off with and make a new ziphone, once again claiming that the exploit was his.

[imode]

dont be a noob

DRP stands for:

• Democratic-Republican Party (United States), the dominant political party in the United States from 1800 until the 1820s
• Deutsche Reichspartei, a nationalist political party in West Germany (1950-1964)
• Disaster Recovery Plan
• Distribution Resource Planning
• Dividend reinvestment plan
• Maldivian Peoples Party, (Dhivehi Rayiithunge Party) The Ruling Political Party of The Republic of Maldives
• Diklas Revinu Project

[Broda]

Seems cool but with this update we will all have to re-update our iphones with installer and fix all the apps. So what all this work for nothing? Someone better start making the hack cause I don't feel like waiting to update my iphone. I do like the fact that it will open areas for us to add applications that can use the new software.

[ohnonotme]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is DRP an acronym for?

dont feel bad i dont know what it is either

[ryan christopher]

i think this is a great step for iphone but being a tmobile customer i hope that the devs can find a work around so i can use the new features as well. if all else fails i could switch over to AT&T

[systdow666]

drp can also stand for digital rights protection alos any chance of anybody getting ahold of the 1.2.0 or 2.0.0 beta or do we really have to wait if its out there developers share

[Chantecleer]

i ordered the 2.0 thing from apple.com and if i get it i will be glad to share it with everyone on here

[jatatla]

Hey guys""""""""To MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,Its a gr8 news for all the iphone LOVERS,This way we know we are heading forward........I know,there wll b some breaks,gaps,hurdles.........but thats nt new......it has been happening b4 with all the upgrades,but we should,nt b scared of the FEW negatives,rather we should b happy with what we r enjoying right now & wll keep.......... in future too......
Thankx

[kissmyaxe]

I'm not sure if I'm quite understanding this right, but I know programs like Apollo and iSolitaire do run in the background, at least to some extent. I think the one-application-at-a-time thing is referring to what you can actually visibly run at once, i.e. we won't be able to swipe between apps. Am I terribly far off in saying that?