iPhone OS 3.0 BETA 4 and iTunes 8.2 W/ Blu-Ray Support? and Multiple iTunes Accounts Released to Apple Devs

By SRASC at 30 April, 2009, 11:49 am

Apple’s engineering department is still working hard towards the summer release of iPhone OS 3.0. It has released beta 4 to developers only two weeks after beta 3 was released.

Like most Apple updates, we suspect that the new beta 4 includes several stability and performance enhancements that might make the beta more pleasing to use, if you are testing it.

It is too early to tell what kinds of changes have been made in beta 4, but we suspect that it will not take long for people to discover them.

along with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 BETA 4 comes a pre release (for developers only) of iTunes 8.2

Apple has seeded a new version of iTunes to developers which may include Blu-Ray support.

A MacRumors forum poster noticed that the about screen for iTunes 8.2 includes references to Blu-Ray data from Gracenote, suggesting that iTunes could support the reading/recognizing of Blu-Ray discs.

iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 4 now supports the use of multiple iTunes accounts, according to the Apple Blog.

There is now a new “Sign In” button at the bottom of the Featured page in App Store. Apparently, you’ll be able to create a new iTunes account, though this does not seem to be working at the moment.

In Settings, the “Store” entry that was a placeholder in Beta 3, and which did nothing, has gained an icon and is now working. Tapping on it brings you to a page where you can sign in and out of an account or view account information. If you choose “View Account”, you’ll be prompted to sign in once more, just like how it is when viewing account information in iTunes on the desktop.

Once you’ve done so, you’ll be presented with information such as your contact details and the balance remaining in your account. You will also be able to redeem gift codes from within this page, instead of having to find the “Redeem” button in the Downloads section of the built-in iTunes app, a step I have always felt to be rather counterintuitive.

This feature may have been added to work in conjunction with the In-App purchases supported by OS 3.0.