Apple Introduce iPhone OS 3.0 - Over 100 New Features

Tonight Apple presented the latest reincarnation of their iPhone OS, which brings new and exciting features to the already capable OS. Another significant change is that there will be 1000 new APIs that will give developers new possibilities to control the iPhone. AppStore changes and enhanced Bluetooth capabilities will also see daylight.

There are also over 100 new features directly available to the end customers including cut copy and paste. Here's a run down of the key ones.

• System-wide Cut, Copy and Paste feature
• Stereo A2DP Bluetooth streaming is on (not available to iPhone 2G)
• System-wide landscape keyboard
• A system-wide search Spotlight is added now including Mail, Calendar, Notes, iPod and web
• There's now MMS support (not available to iPhone 2G)
• Turn-by-turn navigation (but only with third-party maps)
• You can forward and delete individual messages
• Notes can now be synced with iTunes
• WiFi auto-login for hotspots
• Bluetooth peer-to-peer connection with file exchange and remote control (over Bonjour only)
• Safari gets password login manager
• Support for YouTube accounts and YouTube subscriptions
• New action button in Photos lets you choose multiple pictures to attach to a mail message
• There are Voice Memos, which can be edited, cropped and shared using email or MMS
• Calendar gets Exchange support and will be able to sync with Google and Yahoo calendar services
• Stocks app will be getting news stories and stock details
• iPod gets shake-to-shuffle function
• Anti-phishing tool in Mobile Safari
• Increased number of supported languages
• Parental Controls are extended to movies, TV shows and App Store content
• Detailed Calls Log with call durations
• iTunes store account creation
• Proxy support
• Live video and audio streaming
• Internet tethering is now supported both via Bluetooth and USB(but available optionally)
• Voice recording

And if you are interested how copy and paste works, here's how - a double tap on text auto-selects it with grab points appearing at both ends of the selection for finer tuning it and a cut/copy/past bubble above. A second double tap elsewhere brings up the Paste bubble. It works across all applications including web content in Safari - well it was about time. You can also shake the iPhone to undo: the action brings up an "undo" and "cancel" dialog.

The universal search application Spotlight is accessible by flicking the left of the first tab of the regular homescreen.

The new AppStore changes will include optional In-App Purchases, meaning paid apps will be able to offer users optional upgrades or modules directly from the application environment. Unfortunately, free apps will not be able to offer paid upgrades.

Bluetooth enhancements will allow communication between iPhones and iPods with no pairing procedure needed over the existing Bonjour protocol. And it's not limited to games - users can exchange contact details as well.

The new APIs would allow developers to link the core Maps data to new applications thus essentially embedding maps data to them.

There is even support for turn-by-turn navigation, but due to licensing reasons, Google Maps cannot be used for the purpose. Developers would have to use other maps data.

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