Apple Makes iPhone OS Beta 2 Available

Today Apple made a second beta of iPhone OS 4.0 available to iPhone developers. It also provided an updated software development kit.This new beta marks the second version of iPhone OS 4.0 that Apple has provided for developers. Apple typically provides updates about once every two weeks. Usually new features are enabled with each successive beta.

So far, early reports are mixed about what this beta update offers. Some are reporting that no one but serious developers should bother with it because it is so unstable. Others report that it is working well.

The first new feature that has been discovered is something called EventKit, a new API that lets third-party applications plug into the iPhone calendar and port calendar entries across apps. It basically lets users sync their calendar items into every other application that supports calendar functions.

Another new feature appears to be called QuickLook. This feature lets users get a sneak peek at files without actually launching the associated application. File types supported include iWork, Office Docs, RTF, PDF, images and CSV files.

Surely there are other new features, but no one has gotten around to publishing them yet.