Apple finally invents copy/paste and MMS; iPhone 3.0 gets official
We all know as soon as a feature comes to the iPhone, Apple invented it right? Perfect examples are the full touchscreen form factor, mobile apps, visual voicemail and the accelerometer — all brought to market by Cupertino. But none of those things are Apple inventions, you say? Pfff, clearly you’ve never met an Apple fanboy. So let’s take a look at a few of Apple’s latest mobile inventions fresh from today’s town hall:
- Push notifications for apps. Finally. As you well know, this will allow the iPhone/iPod Touch to be notified (via a badge, text pop up and/or audio alert) in near real-time of a new server-side event associated with a specific app. Think of it as a poor man’s answer to background processes. Background processes, by the way, are not an addition to version 3.0. Apple’s excuses: Battery performance and memory strain.
- Updated media player adjusts streaming video quality according to current bandwidth.
- Cut, copy and paste. That’s right folks, Apple’s polio vaccine. Double-tap to select text, drag start/end points and do your thang. You can even shake to undo/redo edits.
- Send multiple images at once. Joy.
- Wider landscape keyboard availability. Apple finally tossed the landscape keyboard into all native apps, including Mail. Thank you.
- MMS! Hooray for decade-old tech! SMS and MMS are now lumped into a Messages app. It won’t be available on 2G (1st gen) iPhones.
- New calendar features. CalDAV allows for sharing across a bunch of services such as Google and Yahoo and .ics subscription support.
- Flushed out Stocks app.
- Extended search. Users can now search in all key apps including Calendar, iPod, Notes and Mail.
- Spotlight for iPhone. A “search homescreen”. It’s like Spotlight for Mac and it only searches native Apple apps.
- Bluetooth A2DP support (stereo Bluetooth) — but it won’t be available on 2G (1st gen) iPhones.
- Tethering.
Beyond that, Apple recapped the iPhone’s current position of course, with a presence in over 80 countries, 13.7 million iPhones sold, over 16 million iPod Touches sold and the App Store now has over 25,000 apps and over 800 million downloads. The iPhone SDK has been downloaded over 800,000 times by over 50,000 different entities, though over 60% of them have submitted no apps to the App Store. Damn, the Dev Team is growing by leaps and bounds — wink, wink. Apple tried briefly to woo potential developers by showing off how easy it is to develop an iPhone app, also touting that Gameloft has over two million paid downloads to its credit. Bank.
With iPhone 3.0, Apple is introducing 1000 new APIs for developers. It is also allowing developers to submit apps that carry subscription models — one download that is periodically refreshed with new content. In other words, Apple is now facilitating a more continuous revenue model compared to the one-time purchase model. Sell new magazine editions in a magazine app, sell new levels in a game, etc. This model will apparently not apply to free apps, so devs can’t give an app away and then charge for content. Apple has also added APIs to support peer to peer connectivity for things like online gaming via Bluetooth without the need to pair devices. Woo! Beyond that, additions such as the ability to build apps that communicate directly with hardware accessories via Bluetooth or the dock connector, streaming audio and video APIs and the introduction of a Maps API to facilitate app integration (including the use of Maps for turn by turn directions) were covered. Some pretty cool stuff, though nothing earth-shattering.
A beta version of 3.0 is available today to developers and end users will get it some time this Summer; free for iPhones, $10 for iPod Touches. So there you have it folks — discuss.
Whoa! Why the anger? I admit its a stupid update but who has to die? If Obama gets an iPhone I might be inclined to “maybe” use it. But I prefer my blackberry. Sure its has a great browser but mainly that’s all. Its a pocketsized netbook for browsing. Get a netbook! Checkout Sony!
lol @ David…I’m wit u…if Obama got an iPhone I’d switch too! lmao
Besides I don’t like the idea of having my phone being touted by 7th graders across the country. Its time you got an adult phone…
@ Likeabite:
What? HAHA No need to say anything as your stupid comments stands by itself for all to see how much of a foul-mouthed uninformed moron you are! HAHAHA
Does anyone actually know when this update be available??
awesome, all the features my blackberry had…three years ago…and my blackberry still has more.
awesome!!
but hey, the internet turns sideways, and teenagers LOVE it….big ups to mrketing.
I take function over form any day, I liek to work, not LOOK like I am working….like most americans.
The method which a worker/user is willing to use to get their shit done becomes the method which most suits improved productivity. Neither you nor I [nor anyone] can prejudge the suitability of ‘method’ and personality. That techno-fascism shit simply don’t fly, kid.
So does that mean I can use my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with this dang thing? Please don’t flame me
– I actually think a keyboard is a better way to answer email if I want to do more than type “k”.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say Apple has had most of these features completed, but were waiting for someone in the wireless industry to finally come out with a Iphone Clone type device that could do all the things we’ve been bitchin about for the 2years. So when Palm announced the Pre, Apple must have tested it, and said to themselves, ok, someone finally came out with a competetive device, lets roll out SDK 3.0 now!?!
That said, I can’t wait until they release SDK 3.0 for the public. Yeah!!
@ Jose and @ Backbeat…I concur
Ha ha ha I own your souls forever!
I updated my NEW (1-day old) iPhone 3G to 3.0 and what a let down with the MMS feature. First, it doesn’t work yet as the sending always fails on AT&T. But the MMS interface is terrible and has only add picture feature.
MMS is a fun feature on cell phones and it’s addictive. I like to add smiley’s, animations, pictures, video, and audio. With iPhone I can only send pictures, UNFORTUNATELY.
The only thing that is very very impressive with iPhone so far is their cool touch interface and browsing. Rest all lack other dumb phones. No smart dialing, no fancy call-logs (home, office, cell icons to identify numbers), Gmail Push still not working well, can’t use Google Latitude (probably needs multi-tasking), and iTunes for everything.
Thethering is availabble on jailbroken phones.
look up iphonemodem all one word. its not that they can’t do it .. its moe the fact that AT&T is a poor network to begin with, couple thousand people tethered and surfing p0rn or limewire will destroy the bandwidth for others; severly degrading AT&Ts allready choppy network.
cycorder for video if brave enough to jailbreak. wonderful toy unlimited video length .. decent quality.. free
i’m ready to dump this stupid iphone.
you still can’t copy a freaking phone number out of contacts and text it to someone! come on, apple!
blackberry here i come.