Apple Releases iOS 5.1 Beta 3, Restores ‘Enable 3G’ Feature for iPhone

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On Monday, Apple released iOS 5.1 beta 3 to developers for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, adding on the previous beta versions released late last year. Apple released iOS 5.1 Beta 2 on December 12 with Build number 9B5127a. The current beta now uses build number 9B5141a.

iOS 5.1 beta 3 restores a sought after feature by many users, Enable 3G. The Enable 3G toggle allows users to completely shut off their cellular data, something that is currently unavailable. iOS users who use WiFi at work and home, experience heavy battery loss due to the fact that 3G and WiFi are running simultaneously. With this new feature, users can simply switch off 3G and use WiFi and can switch on WiFi just as easily. Apple noted under the toggle feature, that “3G offers faster data speeds but uses more battery power than EDGE”.

The new beta 3 is now available on Apple’s iOS developer program portal and is available to developers to download via OTA update. Apple also released Xcode 4.3 Developer Preview 3 and Apple TV Software Beta 2, as they have with all other beta updates in the past. It also appears that Apple has posted a new API to help developers flag app content that should not be backed up. The addition of these two new features and other security updates may not be the last of the updates, just yet.

iOS 5.1 introduces a new API to mark files or directories that should not be backed up. For NSURL objects, add the NSURLIsExcludedFromBackupKey attribute to prevent the corresponding file from being backed up.

With a beta 4 or the final release, Apple may add more features to help conserve battery life and improve stability.

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