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As expected, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone OS 3.0 software update was made available to users Wednesday morning.
The software contains dozens of new features -- some of which may appear incidental for most users and some of which have been hotly anticipated.
That latter category would include copy and paste functionality as well as the ability to use landscape typing mode -- as opposed to portrait -- in all applications, not just Web browsing. These, plus global search or Spotlight, have come to be downright demanded by iPhone users, even casual ones, Patrick Gilbert, president and CEO of 4SmartPhone, told MacNewsWorld. "By far these features make it a better device."
Altogether, there are more than 100 new features in the iPhone 3.0 software package.
Jam Packed
iPhone OS 3.0 is loaded with new functions, Rob Walch, host of Today in iPhone, told MacNewsWorld. The much-anticipated copy and paste feature, Walch said, "works beautifully from one application to the next. I couldn't be happier with the way Apple has implemented this," he said, having tested the 3.0 software for several weeks. Users can copy and paste both text and images with the new feature.
The new search functionality also works well, he continued, especially for users who take advantage of the maximum 250 emails per account the iPhone allows the user to view. Spotlight, in fact, can search contacts, calendars and notes -- basically everything in the device.
Walch also pointed -- half jokingly -- to the ability to listen to longer podcasts at twice the speed. "You can get through a longer podcast like mine in half the time."
Others additions he likes include the expanded capacity for applications on the iPhone and the fact that attachments are now longer automatically downloaded. Also, stereo Bluetooth will get support from the 3.0 update, which will be a much-appreciated upgrade among many users.
Improvements to Safari -- the ability to autofill usernames and passwords, for example -- are on the list of upgrades; so is the ability to sync notes, implement additional parental controls; and log on to YouTube automatically.
Some applications that are new -- but perhaps not so vitally necessary -- include Shake to Undo, which allows a user to erase a half-written text messages with a shake to the iPhone, instead of hitting the delete button. Ditto for Shake to Shuffle, which allows users to shake the device to call up a different song in the music library.
AT&T Ineptitude
Theoretically, iPhone OS 3.0 also comes with support for Internet tethering and multimedia messaging service capabilities. However those features won't be immediately operational because AT&T (NYSE: T) is unable to support them.
Along similar lines, Gilbert, who also has been testing the upgrade, points to one feature that he would have liked to see in 3.0. "I don't understand why video support isn't available in this version. It is not a question of hardware -- Apple could have added this easily."
Such functionality is possible on jailbroken iPhones. Also, the upcoming iPhone 3G S, scheduled to go on sale Friday, will feature video capabilities out of the box.
Unlike some earlier upgrades, when Apple released everything at once --
a new iTunes version, a new phone, a new OS -- this release cycle appears to be better planned. "Last year Apple
dumped everything on the market on the same day, and their site
crashed," Walch noted. "Kudos to Apple for getting it right this
time."
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