First Look: TUAW gives iPhone OS 3.1 the hands-on treatment
iPhone OS 3.1 made the scene today at the Apple event, with a number of new features and fixes that should make iPhone owners happy (and iPod touch owners -- although for them, the version number is 3.1.1 instead). After a slow start to the download, I was able to get the update loaded onto my iPhone 3GS and I gave some of the new features a test drive.The first big new feature is the Genius for Apps. To turn it on, you go to the Featured screen the App Store, and click the Genius button at the top of the display. After approving the license agreement, Genius is up and running, and clicking on the Genius button gives you a list of what it considers to be good suggestions based on what I have purchased. I wasn't very happy with the first list it produced (see screenshot at right), since I don't live in NYC, don't read Time, and really don't want something called The Most Useless App Ever.
The Genius lets you refine this list by swiping items to remove them. I did notice by the third screen of suggestions that the Genius was starting to pick apps that were more my style, so I think it's going to work out.
Read on for more impressions of 3.1.
Apple's updated the Genius Playlist feature to now support "Genius Mixes," which provide you playlists based on your library without having to select a 'seed' song. You might spend a good bit of time looking for this feature -- we certainly did -- and not find it without this handy tip from Cult of Mac: go to the Store menu in iTunes and choose "Update Genius" to reload the iTunes Store's database of your song choices. Once that's done (and it may take a while tonight, the store is understandably under some load right now) you should see the new option in iTunes under the Genius section.
Once you've had iTunes 9 generate your Genius Mixes, you can go to the Music tab for your iPhone, and choose one or more of the Mixes to sync with the iPhone. The next time you start up the iPod app on your iPhone, you'll see a Genius icon at the lower left of your iPod button bar (see below). Tap that icon to listen to your Mixes; you'll be impressed! One of the albums didn't have cover art, so it's showing up with a generic musical note icon.



When purchasing apps from the onboard App Store, you now have the option to pay with an iTunes Gift Card, a promo code, or a gift certificate. Both the App Store and iTunes Store also show how much credit you have available in your iTunes account.
Since I like to shoot short videos with my iPhone 3GS, I was thrilled with the new function that gives you the capability to save a trimmed video as a new clip rather than "destroying" the original clip. Once you've tapped the Trim button, the following two buttons appear:


I was really excited when I heard about the ability to use a Bluetooth Headset with Voice Control. Finally, I'd be able to use my Plantronics headset with my iPhone to do voice dialing! Unfortunately, I can't find the headset, so I'm not able to show you how that works. Dang, and here I was, already to give you all another of my wonderful videos...
Another new feature is the ability to paste phone numbers into the keypad. This can come in handy on the occasions when a phone number is not enabled as a link that you can tap for dialing. Instead, you can use iPhone 3.0's copy and paste functions to select and copy the number, then paste it into the keypad screen:

As always, we welcome your comments and questions about iPhone OS 3.1. This is not a groundbreaking upgrade to the OS, but it does provide some welcome new capabilities that many iPhone users have been asking for.
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iPhone OS 3.1 made the scene today at the Apple event, with a number of new features and fixes that should make iPhone owners happy (and...
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I don't want to upgrade my iPhone while loosing the essential function of tethering. Thanks to apple, but I don't need the fancy genius downgrade with higher version numbers. First they sell you a car, and now they take away your gearbox. How cool is that? And why does the 3.1 manual still talk about the tethering feature? Apple, tell me a way how to activate tethering in 3.1, I bought my iphone unlocked by apple with no contract and did no jailbreak. Competitors, hurry up, I need an alternative.
September 13 2009 at 7:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
To sync the "mixes" you have to select them from the playlist sync selection, similar to how you'd sync a regular playlist. Note that they're NOT accessable as playlists anywhere else in itunes, only in the iphone sync.
If the "Mix" that is generated is to large for your phone's storage, though, you're SOL. In my case -all- of the mixes were larger than the available space on my phone, so I've never been able to sync them.
You can't control their size, nor control which songs they source from, nor export them to a regular playlist (so I could use the mix on my 3g nano, or size-reduce it to fit the iphone, or or or or)
So for me the Mixes are useless (I rarely use itunes to listen to music directly). :(
Well yes all the fixes are great but not when it makes the iphone battery life even worse then it already is... I can no longer get through a day. 2 phone calls about 15mins and search for a address and directions - my full charged phone was now giving my 20% warning. It appears I am not alone in this, as the apple discussion is also buzzing with this issue. Have any of you at TUAW found OS3.1 is sucking juice at a high rate?
September 10 2009 at 7:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOk, so I have genius mixes showing in my iTunes, but not on my phone... I even checked the "more" section and even hit edit to see if for some reason it wasn't showing up in the bars. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
September 10 2009 at 11:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAnyone else having problems with audio podcasts in playlists?
Video podcasts work just fine. But audio podcasts are only available through the podcast function of the iPod app. They are no longer listed in playlists, although I have checked the box under the podcast tab...!?
My WiFi has been extremely flaky on my iPod since upgrading to 3.1.1. Not only is it dropping the connection even more than it did after upgrading to 3.0, now it's completely forgetting WiFi passwords at random. I had hoped that 3.1.1 would improve things.
September 10 2009 at 8:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis is totally awesome. I have an iPod Touch 8GB 2G, and I'm thinking about buying a bluetooth for it. Any comments? I heard there is lag when watching movies, and that it may not work properly with all headsets. I also do not know whether audio input is possible. Can anyone help clarify for me? :)
3.1 FTW! Wishing the iPod touch 3G had a camera though :P
my first Genius Mix was disappointing. Clicked on a "Piano Rock Mix" and got a literal earful of vulgar obscenities yelled at me. Somehow it chose a voice clip of Ian McShane's character Al Swearengen from the Deadwood soundtrack!
September 10 2009 at 2:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe genius mix is pulling from your own music catalog. You can remove that track, star-rate it lower (assuming Genius uses that data), or never download it in the first place. :-)
September 10 2009 at 10:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyhas there been any performance improvements? any less lag for the 3g?
September 10 2009 at 1:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyworst bug I had with my 3.0 3gs is bluetooth. when you are throwing music to your a2dp player, there is a slight lag (one second delay) it doesn't matter with musics, but when you're watching movies using your iphone + jabra halo, it is quite bothersome. has this been fixed?
September 10 2009 at 1:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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