I’ve basically been running down the list of changes in 3.1 (listed on Cult of Mac), and there’s really not all that much to share, aside from some screenshots. Thankfully, the JAiB team had a lot of thoughts to share, so I assembled them as best as I could after the jump. You’ll get Day One, hands-on impressions of iTunes 9 and how it interfaces with iPhone 3.1 along with some screenshots when applicable.
Taking Screenshot
This one is just me, and I didn’t mention it in the team e-mails so that the others wouldn’t stare at me and blame Canada, but I swear the screenshot mechanism has changed somehow. Pressing sleep + home still takes a screenshot like before, but you now need to press longer on the home button when you do this, or your iPhone will just go to sleep and leave you in an awkward silence. Grrr.
Pasting phone numbers into the dialer
This one’s simple: the screenshot shows all. Just tap on the top and the option to paste pops up instantly.
Triple Tap on the Home button
Great that it now features accessibility, but can’t we use this for other things? How about triple tap for Spotlight? Triple tap for iPod controls? I don’t think it’ll be too confusing as long as these things stay as options that are deeper in the Settings.
Tethering Usage Counter
If you’ve got a mere 500 MB of data per month and are tired of guessing at how close to the edge you really are, then this update is useful. It’s in Settings under Usage.
Genius Mixes
These bad boys sync over from iTunes just like your Genius playlists, but they have a different look to them. You just see a 3×3 grid of album art, and tapping on it will start to play the playlist in an infinite shuffle. You’ll never see all of the contents of the playlist, but you do see the first few artists in it.
Trimming Video in Photos
This should have been there in the first place, but I’m just happy it’s here now. The prompt to save the clip as a new file is triggered when you tap on the “Trim” button after editing a video.
Bluetooth Voice Control
I can’t for the life of me figure out how to activate this feature. I’ve looked into the Bluetooth settings, and since voice control is actually activated by holding the Home button, there’s nothing that BT headset can do without AVRCP. The BT headset still won’t pick up my voice either.
Home Sharing
After setting this up between my PC desktop and my MacBook, it’s working pretty bloody well. Apps and music transferred very quickly (10 MB in about 5 seconds). This was a pretty big hit amongst the team here, and I don’t think anybody is against more music and app sharing. There’s no new interface here — you just set up the Home Sharing by logging into an iTunes account on an authorized computer. Once that’s done, you can just view any of the applicable shared libraries and drag files right into your library.
Locking the iPhone via MobileMe
Brandon got back to us with his screenshot and an explanation of how this works: enter your password twice in a form online and then walk over to your locked down iPhone and do a fist pump (ok, I added that last part).
That’s it for now, folks. If you’ve got any others you’d like to add, please hit us up in the comments — especially the BT Voice control. Where the heck is it?!
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: iPhone, iTunes 9
