iPhone 3.0 OS brings peer-to-peer, copy and paste, and a whole lot more

Phone 3.0 OS brings peer-to-peer, copy and paste, and a whole lot more
 



Apple held an event today where it previewed all of the new features coming to the 3.0 version of the iPhone OS. The new OS will include enhancements for not just developers but for consumers as well, with developers getting their hands on OS 3.0 today, while consumers have to wait until the summer.

Below are some quick highlights of the announcements from the event:

iPhone in general

iPhone now in over 80 countries
Apple has sold 17 million iPhones–30 million iPhone OS devices
800,000 people downloaded the SDK
60,000 companies and individuals joined the developer program
There are now over 25,000 Apps on the App Store
96 percent of apps submitted have been approved
iPhone 3.0 OS

1000 new APIs
In-App Purchase: you can now buy a new levels, new content, and updates, all from within a (paid) application
There’s no support for upgrading from a Free App to a Paid App with this new feature
Peer-to-Peer: Find other touches or iPhone’s running the same app, form an IP connection and game together. This happens via bluetooth (no pairing), Bonjour, and it’s not just for games
In-application embedded maps
Push notification: finally coming to the iPhone. No background process because it drains the battery too much
Cut, Copy and Paste across built-in and 3rd party applications
Landscape keyboard coming to a number of key applications
Support for MMS (on iPhone 3G)
Voice memos
More Calendar types supported (CalDAV and ICS)
Enhancements to Stocks, Calendar, Mail,Notes
Search in specific apps and across all Apps with Spotlight
A ton of other new features: Note Sync, Auto-fill, YouTube accounts, stereo Bluetooth (iPhone 3G), create meeting invitations, parental controls.
There’s definitely a lot more to love about the iPhone. While some would argue that it’s still going to be missing key features, it does sound like Apple is finally delivering not only what they promised last year, but also what the customer really wants / needs.I would have liked in-app support for upgrading from a free app to a paid version, but I’ll settle for cut and paste and a landscape keyboard, for now.


I continue to be amazed at the innovation coming out of Apple for the iPhone. Other companies are just now coming to market with their App Store, and Apple has just raised the bar yet again, with all developers being offered the APIs that make that bar achievable today.