Apple's iPhone 3.0 OS coming in June, features revealed

3.0 brings cutting, copying, pasting and much more

With the looming release of Palm's Pre and corresponding new WebOS, Apple Inc. has hedged its bets by offering a slew of new features to appear in its iPhone (2G and 3G) and iPod Touch ($10.00 for update). Aside from features that users have long been clamoring for, iPhone OS 3.0, which will be released in June, has an abundance of new applications well waiting for.

Here are the announced new features:
Developers get the SDK today, the world gets the OS in June

In App Purchase - Enables the buying of content or services from within applications. For example, in a virtual pet type game - users can purchase clothes and accessories for their pet from within the game but using established iPhone App store linkages.

Multiplayer Shoot Em

Push notification service- Long promised feature enables ways and means to notify users of new information even if the application isn't running. For example you can still receive messages from an instant messaging application even if it isn't on. This integrates some cloud computing features.

Accessories- A new framework that allows extended use from "Made for iPod" devices through the dock connector or via Bluetooth.

Peer to peer connectivity- This is a biggie, enable multi-player or interactive gaming between devices using bluetooth and no pairing is required. This means you can, in theory, beam messages or photos or even apps and content (songs, short videos) to nearby iPhones and iPod touch devices that have their Bluetooth enabled.

Universal search- A response to a feature on the upcoming Palm Pre, this uses Apple's Spotlight technology to allow you to search your entire iPhone or iPod Touch.

Cut, Copy and Paste- The big Kahuna feature which users have been begging for since the iPhone first came out. Text can now be selected and moved between applications and this will enhance the usefulness of these devices making them, in essence, handheld computers capable of doing so much more.
Cut, copy, paste on the horizon

MMS- Multi Media Messaging, the ability to send photos, video and other media via text, has long been available on networks but has not made an appearance in the iPhone until now. Personally we already have email so why MMS is such a key feature escapes us, but it is good to have nonetheless.

Landscape mode on keyboard-Thank goodness, you can now type email, text and other applications in landscape mode, making full use of the screen real estate for the keyboard


Stereo Bluetooth- Now we're talking! The iPhone 3G will be able to use stereo Bluetooth headsets and eliminate the need for wires. This can only be a good thing although I wonder how much this will affect battery life.

Over 100 features are expected on the iPhone 3.0 OS, which will be released in June. If all these features work half as decently as the demo suggests, this is a monster upgrade for every iPhone owner and a major salvo against competing OS's.

The 3.0 improvements don't just make a more useful and better smartphone, they clearly give the iPhone some of the features that can well propel it in the corporate space and even allow it to encroach the netbook space. I for one, am looking forward to the new release and I am happy that Apple seems to be focused on improving the iPhone ecosystem as well as bolstering its feature set so that developers can churn out more awesome applications.


Now, will 3.0 be accompanied by a new iPhone model. You can pretty much bet on it. We're hoping that aside from a new 3G iPhone we'll see the return of the Newton - a 10-inch screen with full wireless and network connectivity, storage and all the features needed to bridge the gap between smartphone and sub-notebook.

By Gadjo C. Sevilla