Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 2, Enables Wireless Syncing!

It’s been less than three weeks since Beta 1, and the second beta is already upon us – lucky us! Also included are new versions of the iTunes 10.5 beta, as well as a new beta for XCode and the iOS 5 SDK. I’m downloading the updates even as I’m typing this report, so I’ll be sure to let you know what I find as soon as possible.

The new betas should take care of a lot, and should help to enable some of the new features and smooth out some of the bugs in Beta 1. So, developers: get to it, install the update, and let us know what you dig up? OK? Thanks!

Update 1: Wireless Syncing now works, and it requires the latest iTunes beta, and OS X 10.6.8 or the latest Lion Developer Preview to work.

Update 2: iMessage for iOS 5 Beta 2 cannot communicate with iMessage from iOS 5 Beta 1 – you’ll need to do the upgrade to use that functionality.

Update 3: iTunes 10.5 Beta 2 cannot sync with devices running iOS 5 Beta 1.

Update 4: There’s now an animated welcome screen after you reinstall.

I’m only going to detail the significant changes from this point forward – minor cosmetic changes, and things that are not functionally important will not be mentioned.

Update 5:

• iMessage is now significantly faster, though it only works between iOS 5 beta 2 devices, and not devices running Beta 1.
• Backing up to iCloud now works better, faster, and can be done when setting up your device.
• Over-The-Air Updates is now functional, but there are no updates available.
• You can now access and browse through the stock wallpapers, but there are no new or different ones.
• The first-boot welcome screen is now nicely animated.
• The entire experience of using iOS 5 beta is now speedier, snappier, and a bit easier on the battery life.

I’m sure there will be more discoveries down the road, so we’ll brief you on any significant things we discover or hear about, but as far as I’m concerned, minor changes and slight cosmetic differences aren’t really worth mentioning here.

Let us know if you find something interesting by commenting on this post!