iPhone OS

Suspense! Drama! Surprises! Unrealistic expectations! It's always a veritable roller coaster of emotions whenever Apple gets around to cutting a new SDK build -- and without a doubt, iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 is no exception. We don't yet have a good read on what's new here, so if you're a member of Apple's $99 dev program and happen to get it downloaded and installed, let us know if you find anything awesome, like an iPhone 4 or iPad 2. Or, you know, anything else. Have fun!

iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 drops in originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we march toward the inevitability of a post-iPad world, so marches the development of iPhone SDK 3.2 -- and this time, we're on to beta 3. There's no word yet on what's changed, but unless you're a registered (and paid) member of Apple's iPhone Developer Program, it doesn't much matter to you seeing how you can't get in on the download. Keep us abreast of the trials, tribulations, highs, and lows of your downloads and installs, won't you?

Update: TUAW now reports that beta 3's been pulled, but it's not yet clear why. We'll fill you in more as we find out.

Update 2: iPadInsider reports that a Photos app has been added to the emulator, and there's a Camera tab in it -- possibly corroborating evidence that there'll be a camera in some version of the iPad, but more likely a tool for the camera connection kit.

Apple's making life simpler for developers with the iPhone 3.2 Beta 3 SDK which makes it easier to develop universal apps by allowing devs to easily update "existing iPhone projects to include the necessary files to support" iPads. [Apple] Updated again.

Update 1: Commenter apple1loop and others are reporting that Apple has pulled the SDK from their developer website. No word on why this happened just yet.

Update 2: Once again, apple1loop

Ars Technica has posted an interesting article, speculating that wireless carrier network congestion (especially in the case of AT&T) may not have so much to do with how much bandwidth your device is consuming, but rather how your smartphone is connecting to the network.

Typically, when a phone needs a data connection, it makes a request via a signaling channel on your carrier’s network. The data connection is then approved, opened, and remains open in an idle state when not in use. However, iPhone, Android, and webOS devices have all employed a little trick to help conserve battery life; they drop the data connection when not in use as opposed to allowing it to idle. While end-users see this manifested as increased battery life, wireless network carriers see it manifested as a spike in signal channel traffic, especially in urban areas. “Cell nodes use signaling channels to set up the data connection, as well as signaling phone calls, SMS messages, voicemails, and more. When enough iPhones are in a particular area, these signaling channels can become overloaded—there simply aren’t enough to handle all the data requests along with all the calls and messages,” writes Ars.

Gartner just released its annual numbers for worldwide mobile phone sales to end users in the year known as two thousand nine. Looking at smartphone OS market share alone, Gartner shows the iPhone OS, Android, and RIM making the biggest gains (up 6.2, 3.4, and 3.3 percentage points from 2008, respectively) at the expense of Windows Mobile (off 3.1 percentage points) and Symbian (off 5.5 points). Although Gartner says that Symbian "has become uncompetitive in recent years," (ouch) it concedes that market share is still strong especially for Nokia; something backed up by Nokia's Q4 financials and reported quarterly smartphone growth by 5 percentage points. Regarding total handsets of all classifications sold, Nokia continues to dominate with 36.4% of all sales to end users (down from 38.6% in 2008) while Samsung and LG continue to climb at the expense of Motorola (dropping from 7.6% to 4.5% of worldwide sales in 2009) and Sony Ericsson. See that table after the break or hit up the source for the full report.

Continue reading Gartner: Apple, Android, and RIM winners in 2009 smartphone growth, Nokia and Symbian still dominate