Apple has released a new beta of its operating system for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Developers can download iOS 5.1 beta from the Apple developer portal.

The list of changes isn’t all that informative, but the latest version of iOS appears to add some new voice dictation features, fix some bugs, and squash some security holes. It’s likely that Apple has also been working on bugs that have affected battery life for some users, although it’s not yet clear whether iOS 5.1 will deliver better battery life.

If you have a jailbroken device you’ll probably want to hold off on updating to iOS 5.1 until the iPhone Dev Team confirms that you can use redsn0w or a similar tool to jailbreak the new operating system.

via 9 to 5 Mac

Another iOS beta, another jailbreak. Just a few days after Apple released iOS 5 beta 5, the iPhone Dev Team hackers have released an updated beta of redsn0w — a tool for jailbreaking iOS devices. Redsn0w 0.9.8b5 is now available for Mac and Windows.

You can use the utility to jailbreak an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running the latest beta version of iOS. Jailbreaking an iOS device allows you to run code that’s not officially supported. This lets you run third party apps that aren’t available in the app store, install custom boot logos, and make other changes to the operating system.

For now the iPhone Dev Team is recommending that only developers that want to see if their apps for jailbroken devices work with the latest beta use the new version of redsn0w. In order to use the software you’ll need to connect your mobile device to a computer via a USB cable and run the redsn0w app. Because this is a tethered jailbreak, any time you reboot your iOS device you’ll need to reconnect to a computer and run the software again.

Apple is expected to launch iOS 5 to the public in the coming months. Until then you’ll need an iOS developer account to try the new software which includes a new notification system, tight integration with Apple’s new iCloud service, a newspaper and magazine store, and Twitter integration.

Apple has pushed out another beta version of iOS 5 for developers. The latest version includes a number of updates including enhancements for the iCloud service which allows you to backup your data to Apple’s servers and synchronize music, photos, documents, and other files.

The folks at BGR have posted the complete changelog, and for the most part it looks like iOS 5 beta 5 features bug fixes and stability improvements rather than new features. But there are also some known bugs still affecting the preview version of iOS 5 and Apple will likely have to spend some time fixing those before releasing the software to the public.

Just like the previous beta, users can download iOS 5 beta 5 as an over-the-air update over WiFi or 3G. Or you can connect your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to a computer running iTunes to download and install the update. You’ll need an Apple iOS developer account to get the latest beta from Apple’s developer portal though.

Apple just posted iOS 5 beta 2 to its developer web site. If you’ve paid your $99 for developer access you can go ahead and download it right now. This release isn’t available for the general public, but the full version of iOS is expected to hit the streets later this year.

Apple hasn’t officially made any comment about what’s new since iOS 5 beta 1, but here are some of the features that have been uncovered so far:

• Wireless synchronization with iTunes 10.5
• Support for backing up your data to iCloud
• Over the air software updates are enabled

iOS 5 beta 2 is available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch, and the iPad and iPad 2.

via TUAW

The popular Swype keyboard for Google Android smartphones is now available for tablets running Android 3.x Honeycomb. Or rather, a beta version of Swype 3.0 is available for tablets. You’ll need to register for a Swype account to take part in the beta test, and you’ll need to be willing to put up with a few kinks that the company still needs to work out.

Swype’s claim to fame is that the keyboard allows you to “type” without lifting your finger. You can just drag from one letter to the next and Swype uses predictive text technology to figure out what word you meant to type. That can be a huge advantage on a tiny smartphone display where two-finger typing can be difficult. But how does Swype hold up on a 10 inch tablet?

I took Swype 3.0 beta for a spin on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the keyboard looks great in both portrait and landscape modes. It can also use predictive text to offer suggestions while you tap out letters on the keyboard instead of just when you drag your fingers, so if you’d prefer to use the wide keyboard like a standard 10-inch tablet keyboard, you can. Swype 3.0 is also resizable, allowing you to shrink the keyboard to a more finger-friendly size and locate it either in the bottom center, bottom left, or bottom right poortion of the display.

There’s just one major problem with Swype 3.0 beta: It’s slow. In my testing, it often took a second or two for a letter or word to show up on screen after I entered it on the keyboard. So instead of speeding up text entry, Swype is actually slowing things down because I constantly have to keep an eye on on the screen and wait between words to make sure Swype doesn’t select the wrong word from its library.

That said, this is just a beta release. Hopefully the beta testing and bug killing process will speed things up.

Swype generally comes preloaded on devices and the company likely won’t offer version 3.0 in the Android Market anytime soon. But if you want to test it on your tablet or smartphone, you can sign up for the beta.

The developers behind the popular Dolphin HD web browser have launched a public beta of the next version of the browser. You can download Dolphin Browser HD v5.0 beta1 from the company’s website.

The new browser has been in private beta testing for the last week or two, but now it’s available for anyone to download.

SO what’s new in version 5.0?

• Support for folders in the bookmark sidebar, along with a Quick Menu to access your settings
• Bookmark subfolders are now supported
• Speed Dial-like new tab page which shows previously closed tabs, most visited pages, and history
• New color scheme and UI elements (It’s all much… greener)

The Dolphin team says the latest beta is also faster and more stable than the private beta. Dolphin HD 5.0 beta will overwrite earlier versions of the Dolphin HD browser on your phone though, so you might want to stay away from the test release if you’re not willing to play bug tester for a while.

Mozilla has long offered users and developers a chance to try out early builds of its desktop Firefox web browser before they were thoroughly tested and deemed ready for the public. Now Mozilla has also launched Aurora and Nightly channels for Firefox Mobile, allowing Android users to test out early versions of Firefox 5 and Firefox 6.

The Aurora channel currently lets you preview Firefox 5 on an Android device. It’s not as stable as the Firefox 4 web browser which is currently available for download from the Android Market, but it gives you a look at where Mozilla is going with the next version of Firefox.

If you install the Aurora build you’ll be prompted to update the browser about once a day as Mozilla pushes new features and bug fixes.

Mozilla is also now offering a Nightly build of the browser, which is even less stable — but which shows what Firefox 6 for Android may look like. This build is for people who want to test the bleeding edge features, or check to see if their Firefox add-ons will support upcoming versions of the web browser.

Firefox 6 Nightly will also update about once each day.

Honestly, at this point you won’t see much difference between the Aurora, Nightly, and stable channels. They all look pretty much like Firefox 4 at the moment. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The browser offers speedy page rendering, smooth zooming and scrolling, and support for add-ons, among other things. But as developers continue working on new features, they’ll show up first in the Aurora and Nightly builds.

You can install the new test versions of Firefox without uninstalling Firefox 4. All three can co-exist on your Android device and each will have its own set of data, which means you can uninstall one without affecting the others.

You can download each version of Firefox for ANdroid from the following links:

• Firefox 4 Stable: Android Market or firefox.com/m
• Firefox 5 Aurora: bit.ly/fennec5
• Firefox 6 Nightly:bit.ly/fennec6night

via Mark Finkle

Research in Motion is making a beta version of BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 available for download. The app features a new design, snappier performance, and sme new features including:

• Alerts set for SMS contacts now show up in BBM when you add your SMS contact.
• Contacts are easier to search.
• You can search for locations before sending a message.
• You can detect your location using GPS or cell tower triangulation.
• You can send appointments or calender events the same way you would with SMS.

Pre-release versions of BBM 6.0 have been making the rounds for a few months, but now it’s officially available for download from the BlackBerry Beta Zone.

via n4bb