With the release of Apple’s iPhone OS 3.1 Beta and SDK 3.1 Beta yesterday, developers have begun to document and report the most visible changes. One of the first things they noticed was that iPhone OS 3.1 changed the current baseband firmware. Improvements to OpenGL and Quartz were also reported yesterday, among other enhancements, like the ability to save the original copy when editing a video, and more.

“iPhone SDK 3.1 beta and iPhone OS 3.1 beta are now posted to the iPhone Dev Center,” Apple’s message reads on its Developer section. “These versions are for development and testing only and should be installed on devices dedicated to iPhone OS 3.1 beta software development,” the Mac maker adds.

“Please read the iPhone OS Pre-Install Advisory and the iPhone SDK 3.1 beta release notes before downloading and installing. Use the Apple Bug Reporter if you discover compatibility or functionality issues while testing with the iPhone OS 3.1 beta release,” the message ends.

Not long after the release, the iPhone-focused QuickPwn website provided some details about the new software. Some of the changes include a vibrate feature when you move icons around, MMS enabled by default (although AT&T still has to give its go-ahead for the service), updated AT&T profile to 4.2, improvements to OpenGL and Quartz, a new VideoEditorController API (which allows third-party apps to call up video-editing UI), a video picker API, and more.

Most recently, iPhone OS 3.1 has been confirmed to offer additional enhancements. According to World of Apple, which also documents some of the changes spotted by QuickPwn, these are:

- Ability to use Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with a Bluetooth headset;
- Video editing on iPhone 3GS is now non-destructive, offering the option to “save a copy;”
- iPhone vibrates when moving home icons;
- Fraud protection option has returned to Safari;
- Noticeable improvement in iPhone 3GS battery life;
- Startup and shutdown speed improvements.

Also noteworthy is that, because of the baseband update, Ultrasn0w users are locked out of the new firmware, according to the iPhone Dev Team. As for the iPhone SDK 3.1 Beta, it is only available for developers enrolled in Apple’s iPhone Developer Standard or Enterprise Program.