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.
Omg the Paul vs. Like-to-Spin saga is back. *makes popcorn*
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: State College United States
The only thing that REALLY seems to separate the iPhone from the Pre right now is that the Pre has background process capability. Let’s not put the horse before the cart here. NEITHER ONE of these things are on the market yet. The Pre is still months out, as is iPhone 3.0. Things can and will change. When the Pre was first announced, they touted the tethering capability. They then quietly removed that line. Apple touted their push notification service coming out in September 08, and never happened. They didn’t even give an explanation until now.
When the Pre and the iPhone 3.0 update come out, then we can compare them and really determine what’s better. Spec sheets don’t make the product!
And just why can’t a 2g first gen phone send an MMS? could it be greed? forcing us to purchase a plastic second gen phone in order to increase revenues? What a crock of CR@P! I am so mad right now that i am thinking about switching to another phone on another provider. If ATT can’t exert a little more control then this, why should i bother paying them 120 bucks a month?
No need for the snark, I was genuinely asking the question.
At any rate, thank you for the answer.
You bunch of idiots! You guys are a fucking lame!!! Instead of joying the reasearch and jobs created behind this products you have to fight like retards. The first Pre will not be the first and last iPhone will not be last. Please do something for you fucking lives!!! Everyone should be happy with their own, stop messing around. Os los maldigo con vuestra ignorancia y al mismo tiempo os doto con sed de conocimiento, pero jamais tendrais la verdad y asi sin más verán morir su almas, vacías y ciegas quedando solo en este mundo la verdad absoluta creada por su mismo creador!
It seems that your penis will fall apart if someone owns something you don’t like. Give a chance to every Co. In this messy world to grow, but how you can understand this if you are a bunch of little kids playing around with nothing good to say. No grown ups in here. I support every single device in this planet! And by the way no matters how they look or how they work, every of them uses the same way to dial, every of them must be holded in your ear, every of them must “listen” to your voice!!! And so on!!! So what!!!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).
what about video capability?
Does anybody know if the new version supports WAP push?
Bluetooth will be supported by 2G iPod touch
Listen to the fanboys cheer.. they almost have a phone that can do what ours have been doing for years.
Y3K-Bug Sorry for not giving you the benefit of the doubt, I guess I was being somewhat of a snark ><
Everyone that keeps saying phones have been doing this for years are f-ing idiots. The razr and Q could a couple years ago but they sucked. The iPhone does those things now BUT now even better
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).
Firstly I use an iPhone and I love it. I bought it because it does exactly what I want it to do. The fact that Apple keeps making these upgrades to improve the product is a great benefit, I consider it an added bonus. Here’s the real nuts and bolts of my post, call me whatever name you like, I am an adult, it doesn’t bother me.
1) My hat’s off to Palm for at least attempting to do something great. For all the iPhone users like me out there, the Pre isn’t out yet and look at what they have done, forced Apple to get off their high horse and implement features that we want / need. Just like Apple did with the original iPhone. Competition is great for you and I, the consumer.
2) I’ve had a blackberry for years and hated it. Not to say that it was a bad phone, I just hated pressing “2″ three times just to make the letter C. And then most of the time I inadvertently hit more than one key because they were so little and had zero space in between them. Here’s the other thing… and this is big. NO one forces / forced me to buy an iPhone, but I was forced to have a Blackberry. RIM’s CEO said touchscreen keyboards are not good and that they would never make one. But the iPhone’s popularity forced them to create then Storm. And I personally know people that now love their Blackberrys (Storm) flaws and all. Remember no phone (or anything for that matter) is perfect.
People love their Blackberrys, iPhones, Nokias, Treos, and whatever else they own for one reason… its the product they chose for reasons that best suit them.
I am a fairly intelligent individual, but for the life of me I cannot understand why there is so much hatred for the iPhone. It’s not like you work for a company that is forcing you to purchase it with your own money. If you do not like it do not buy it. If you are upset that Apple does not have all the features that brand x has, remember one thing… Apple is the new kid on the block with only 1.5 years of experience in the phone industry and they are being compared to very mature products. This is very good for Apple. That’s like a one year NBA player being compared to Jordan and the greats.
All in all, the Pre is not out yet but I am excited about it. That conductive / magnetic charging is sweet! Does that mean I’ll buy one, nah, but there is nothing wrong with giving props to a company for doing something great.
this will be fun–
someone said 2gen iPod touch will get Bluetooth- is that true, and will we b able to use it with headphones and such??!! I hope so
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Ottawa Canada
Well stated BatMax!
I am not an Apple fanboy, but Apple’s iPhone will be the benchmark for a mobile communicator for years to come. It’s the first Apple device I’ve bought and I had my gripes about most of the features coming in 3.0, but even prior to all this being announced, I love my iPhone! Pre might be nice, but it’s still after the iPhone! Most others will be too! Go iPhone!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Stockton United States
Do you think the release of 3.0 software will be coupled by the release of the new iPhone. I’m a avid reader of a ton of sites and haven’t seen much to suggest this. Love to hear some opinions on the matter…
I have a 32gb itouch. I believe it is 2nd generation. If there is a bluetooth radio in there and I can get it working for $10 bucks I’m all over it. I can’t stand having these stupid wires hanging all over the place when I listen to my ipod. Bluetooth headsets rule. (Even though they don’t sound quite as good as the best wired headsets)
It still can’t multi-task? Wtf apple. All these FAN bitches say that apple is soooo sick. They can’t even develop a business capable smart phone.
nobody said they can’t, they just don’t need to…
there’s 2.5 billion cell phone users out there and apple has been capturing roughly .5% of the market every six months with its iphone/touch users(50 million)since its inception which means there is enough of a market out there for different niche lineups…
my sidekick II was a messaging monster to me and even when I upgraded to my MDA, Wing, curveS, blackjack, fuze and iphoneS, there were still some things about my weaker sidekick that I liked better, but they were intended for different segments…
take it from somebody who paid the termination fee to switch my wife from a G1 to an iPhone because she, like the overwhelming majority of users, are not technophiles. my wife could care less about the difference between a spec sheet and sheet rock, but she knows what she likes better and what is bad enough to be a deal breaker…
I told her yesterday that her iPhone is going to be able to do more of the things her “old phoneS used to do” you know what her fangirl, I wanna bite the apple and wash it down with the Kool-aid, super happy joy-joy response was…
oh yeah, cool…
Apple believes that the differences between the current 2.2 OS and the 3.0 OS update will be enough to consumers and developers, (100 new features & 1000 new API’s), that Apple will market it more as the new version of the iPhone instead of just an ‘update’…
and in an attempt to distance itself from it’s lagging to the 3.5G and 4G phones thats on the market right now, they’re going to try to spin off the reference to what generation of carrier signal its using in its name to what major software revision its using. so what used to be the 2G* & 3G iPhone is going to become the iPhone 3.0, 4.0, 5.0,(…iPhone X)
interesting anology…
when Dodge decided to add things like A/C, a radio and roll-up windows to it’s Viper line-up…
I guess it was time to say, “hey dodge, welcome to the 1930’s”
again I ask–> WILL TOUCH USERS BE ABLE TO USE BLUETOOTH HEADSETS OR NOT?!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Ottawa Canada
and will “push” for the 2g touch be just fetch, or will it actually be push?
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Ottawa Canada
So true sicwitit, good point.
@ Sauce – Well I’d be happy to oblige…Hey Paul AKA Stupid bitchboy…I won’t be dragging this out because you already proved you’re a bitch when you didn’t come see me like you told everyone on BGR you would when you found my address and I personally gave you my contact information. You also threatened to have me fired and you’re bitch ass didn’t do that either so all this is going to lead to are stupid meaningless threats on your end and you still looking like a BITCH all over again. I think BGR’s had enough of that don’t you think? lol…
Well enjoy you’re *new* features and when Apple finally adds background processes 3 years from now come back and tell me that they’ve invented something new and that Apple’s still the best…3 years later and I still haven’t see anything that Apple came up with on the phone front in terms of features…aside from a good ui and a useless app store…
like a friend said, “anyone who uses an iphone it tells me that you’re a bitch and you have no backbone cause you couldn’t think for yourself to keep the phone you had that did everything you just got now.” And if you don’t think you’re a bitch then come see me lol. You have the info pussy.