We’ve just finished liveblogging the event, and the iPhone 3.0 press conference has definitely yielded some delicious morsels of functionality. Here is pretty much everything you need to know, though as things get more clear throughout the day, we’ll update this post. You guys will probably be seeing these features sometime this summer.
We’ll have pictures and a hands-on in just a few minutes so keep your eyes open.
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iPhone 3.0 Features for you:
- Push
- PUSH!
- Bluetooth will be used to auto-discover nearby people for games without any pairing. They then can communicate via Wi-Fi. Hopefully it’s secure, it could be nice.
- There will NOT be background processing, no matter how much you want it. Reduces battery life. As if battery life could get much worse, noted a commenter.
- Cut, Copy and Paste: This feature was seen riding a dinosaur into the auditorium. Anyway, it’s finally here and it even applies to image(s). Simply double tap a word and it gets highlighted with “cut, copy or paste” above. For a block of text you just tap a word and drag the edges. It works across all applications. It seems like anywhere the magnifier works, copy and paste will work. If you accidentally paste the wrong word or phrase then just shake the iPhone for an “Undo” prompt. To redo just shake again.
- Meebo coming as a native app for iPhone. That sounds nice.
- New “home” screen to the left of your current far-left one. It has a Spotlight search, looks for stuff all over your phone.
- Calendar supports CalDAV now, you can subscribe to other calendars online. Useful for syncing with your spouse or whatnot, even if they’re on Google or Yahoo.
- Many apps will now support internal search, including Mail. It’s incomplete (doesn’t search message contents) but it’ll search IMAP servers, so if you’ve got GMail for instance you’ll be good. A collective sigh of relief emanates from iPhone owners.
- Landscape keyboard all up in every app you can think of.
- Multimedia Messages! This feature flew in on a Pterodactyl.
- Stereo Bluetooth. I know how much you love that, honey, so I just went and got it for you.
- Hotspot auto-login. Because you love Starbucks but don’t want to waste time inputting passwords.
- Send and receive files between your iPhone and iPod Touch. That’s awesome.
- Apps can talk directly to accessories — FM transmitters, stereos, anything you like. Expect a lot of bundled apps with your iPhone bundled apps. How about an NES-like iPhone controller for those emulators?
- You can get subscription apps now, in case you weren’t paying enough already.
- Apps can now use voice communication. I foresee controversy.
- Embeddable maps for developers. Now they won’t have to launch Maps outside their application. Handy for shopping apps.
- Buy stuff in-app: I’m calling this the “Sims” feature. You could also use it to buy books for a reader, or new maps for a game, that sort of thing.
- Turn by turn directions in navigation apps now. First one probably from Telenav.
- Apps can access the user’s library of music and videos, so you could have the background music in a game be the user’s.
- Lots of new APIs, too many to list here but if you’re a dev you’re gonna check it out.
- Tethering support is in there, but “will depend on each carrier on supporting it.”
3.0 features for App store and Developers:
The upgrade will be free for iPhone users, but iPod Touch folks will have to shell out $10, like last time.
Well, we didn’t get fixes for a lot of our issues with the iPhone, but a lot of this stuff will be really handy. Search and push in particular will make this a lot more useful for business types. We’ll let you all know as soon as we know anything more, say about the release date for this big mother of an update.
I’m very pleased with the feature list.. added everything “i” wanted and then some! Copy and Paste, FINALLY!
This is the perfect opening for the Palm Pre.
The Pre got universally excellent reviews this weekend. Multi-tasking is HUGE. Replaceable battery vs. sending your stale iPhone to Apple, paying an exorbitant amount for the replacement and twiddling your thumbs while you wait is going to get big soon as the iPhones start to wear out.
But here’s the kicker: By end of year the Pre will have Flash. Flash has 1 million salivating developers / artists anxious to get their very creative minds on a cool mobile device. No developer community can approach Flashers when it comes to Games and User Interfaces.
Put all you have in Adobe and Palm. Mark my words.
I wonder if the calendar sync feature will work if my current calendar is Exchange…. Wish they had added some sort of video feature… (Where I could take video.. )
Awesome! More than I was excpecting!
I hope every bit that can comes to the iPod. Especially if we gotta pay for it!
Finally some improvements, such as MMS, A2DP and the most wanted CopyPaste.
Now i can use my iPhone without jailbrake!
Still no OBEX then? Unlike every other phone in Europe for at least the last five years.
looking forward to it
So the 1st Gen iPhone doesn’t get bluetooth and MMS? That’s pretty crappy.
But the real question is if they are going to release a 3rd Gen version of the phone? I don’t to buy a 3G phone to get MMS and then the new version comes out a week later.
P2P connectivity is really going to change the app landscape… that is the biggest announcement along with full bluetooth accessory support. yawn on cut and paste.
Using it right now. Got to admit that it is nice but buggy. I particularly like the new “Enterprise” features such as the ability to create calendar entries with invites and the ability to search for email on the server if you are connected to an exchange server.
But, it is still buggy… Then again, it is beta.
Tethering! Tethering! Tethering! Tethering! Tethering! Tethering! Tethering! Tethering!
Thank you!
Remarkable how Apple can market as news what is a no-brainer standard on any other smartphone.
Dang it!
now it’s actually becoming a viable phone…
(HA! to no background processing)
Wow really excited about getting to work with that!
“You can get subscription apps now, in case you weren’t paying enough already.”
EFF EFF ESS!!!
I cannot believe how much people complain about having to pay for iPhone apps. Jesus Christ! Most are sold for measly ring-tone prices, yet take a lot more effort and imagination. I find it both infuriating and saddening the fuss people make.
Compared to DS games they cost nothing, yet I never hear people complaining about having to pay for DS games. What’s the difference? the physical medium DS games come on? OK, DS games on average are probably more in depth and required more development hours that iPhone ones, but not so much great a difference to make the price difference acceptable for any logical reason.
I really feel it’s the lack of physical medium issue. It seems that people think anything that is downloadable should be free. It’s ridiculous to think that iPhone apps (in general) are over priced, and to complain about having to pay for them.
Anyway, rant over.
Turn-by-turn directions is huge on my book…was getting tired of my Garmin Nuvi…would be handy on city walks as well…just so freaking cool