Apple has recently released firmware 3.0 Beta 3, build 7A280f, to developers. Along with the firmware there are also updates to the SDK. Changes include performance improvements, user interface updates and alterations to Spotlight search. How does this affect you? Well one big issues with Beta 3 is it will not run apps that aren’t made for 3.0. This means none of your apps would work but the ones you’ve developed for 3.0 yourself. (as of writing this article, beta 3 is not jailbroken either.)
UPDATE: The note below is for the emulator in the SDK, not for the firmware on the iPhone. (Thanks to Tetanus in the comments for this info)
“Applications targeting devices prior to iPhone OS 3.0 beta cannot be tested in this seed, this bug is intended to be fixed in a future seed.”
I really, really wish Apple would have fixed one thing with the Camera app. Make the whole screen the button to take the picture. Then, when you’re taking a self portrait, you don’t have to find the button. The new features are all pretty small compared to other firmware 3.0 features but nice improvements. Instead of the blue box in the bottom left corner, which takes you to the camera roll, there is now a preview of the last picture you took. Tapping on it still takes you to the camera roll. Also, when in the camera roll, instead of tapping on the little camera icon to get back to the camera, you now tap “done”. 
The Photos application’s new features mainly have to do with the way photos are shared. You can now of course send photos via MMS. Just select the photo you want and tap the little arrow in the bottom right and it gives you the option to send via MMS. Another great added feature is the option to send more than one photo via MMS or email. To do this go to one of your albums and tap the arrow again in the bottom left corner. This now gives you three options at the bottom. Share, copy, and delete. If you tap share you get the option to send via email or MMS. You can also open your email and paste the photos into an existing email, draft, reply or new email. 
The Calendar application for firmware 3.0 didn’t have a lot of changes but there are some pretty important ones. Starting with the ability to add Invitees to your event. Just tap it and it lets you pick from your contact list. Next is Availability. This shows if you are busy, free, tentative or out of office. These two little feature make Calendar a little nicer, but there’s one more. A pretty big feature is the ability to search. At the top of “list view” there is a search box. Just start typing and it will show you results. This is all very useful to those of you using your iPhone for business. Overall the app stayed pretty much the same with some new features. Let me know in the comments what else you think the Calendar App should have as features.
One of the biggest changes to firmware 3.0 is the app name change from “Text” to “Messages”. The icon was also changed, now with a blank chat bubble where before it had the letters SMS. Of course SMS stands for Short Message Service, which is only texting, but now Messages send pictures, contacts & current location. The icon, along with a few others like the Phone and iPod icons, have a new style shading to them. See the icon at the beginning of this post to see what I mean. 
Well, since yesterday’s poll is a little outdated already…here is a new one!
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