Apple iPhone 3.0: Makes It Feel Brand New

In a couple of months, Apple (AAPL) will offer an update to its iPhone operating system that promises a few substantial changes. This weekend I installed a beta version of the software, known as the iPhone 3.0 firmware, obtained through Apple’s software developer program, on an iPhone. (My highly advanced recipe management application will soon be available.)

After trying the new features for a few days, I’m pretty pleased. The install process took about half an hour, I didn’t lose any applications nor any data, and the phone has not only continued to function just fine, but it even feels a little faster (honest).

The most eagerly anticipated feature, absent for an oddly long amount of time, is the ability to copy, cut and paste text between programs. This is elegantly and unobtrusively made possible through a pop-up menu that materializes on the screen when you press with your finger on a piece of text. A rectangle highlights the text, and a couple of dots in the corner of the rectangle can be tapped and dragged to changed which text is selected. It works great.

Apple has added a quick way to search all the data on the device by typing a keyword into a textbox that pops up when you click the home button of the iPhone. For example, searching by company name will bring up a list of all address book entries for people associated with that company. My colleague Jay Palmer writes in this weekend’s Barron’s magazine that he would like the ability to sort the address book, rather than having to search. I can appreciate his point, though I find a quick search does the trick for me just fine. You can search across multiple email accounts for messages from or to a particular person, or with a particular subject line. I hope Apple makes it so we can also search the contents of messages at some point.

There are some other tweaks that really can’t be experienced before developers start shipping new software using this code. For example, iPhone programs will be able to receive notifications of new data over the wireless network so that they can continue to work for you while you’re doing other things. One new feature, minor but welcome, is the ability to have notes written on the iPhone appear in a Macintosh computer’s email program, for later editing.

There may be further improvements in store when 3.0 becomes widely available, especially when the software hits the new iPhone hardware that has been widely rumored to appear this summer. And I’ll be especially interested to try out some of the competition’s ripostes, especially that of Google’s (GO0G) Android and Palm’s (PALM) WebOS, which are the most significant new operating system software offerings since that of the iPhone.

In the meantime, the 3.0 face-lift almost makes my iPhone feel brand new.

Original post

Comments

[Roger Knights:]

The iPhone has shifted into third gear and will henceforth widen its lead.

Apr 21 11:42 AM

[SA4me:]

when will we be able to run a "VPN" ?

Apr 21 11:59 PM

[greenskyrocket:]

Try Jaadu VNC, works fine for me..

I'm with Roger Knights as well. Apple is about to lap the compeition.


On Apr 21 11:59 PM SA4me wrote:

> when will we be able to run a "VPN" ?

Apr 22 09:02 AM

[Jon T:]

Unassailable.

At least for a few years.

Apr 22 09:26 AM

[mollytjm:]

thank you for this article. i've been wondering about the beta and how it ran. this is great!

Apr 22 11:29 AM

[winindthedust:]

There are a quite a few VPN's out there... and they work quite well.


On Apr 21 11:59 PM SA4me wrote:

> when will we be able to run a "VPN" ?

Apr 22 11:49 AM

[winindthedust:]

The article actually indirectly makes my point, about buying Apple stock now, while you can....

3.0 AND new products will be coming in JUNE.

Not far away. Expect a continuous run up to June, August, & December.

Apr 22 11:51 AM

[jmmx:]

As I have said before:

You say “…absent for an oddly long amount of time, is the ability to copy, cut and paste text between programs.”
.
Even Apple has limited resources. The task of developing the iPhone OS was enormous. People seem to not understand how many thousands of man-years (and woman years) go into something like this. Apple’s first priority was to get the OS out with the new, definitive features, and to get the iPhone working properly in the real world.
.
A feature like cut/paste was not only deemed of secondary importance, but also - since it by definition it works across multiple apps - has a much higher possibility for causing problems. This is why it is being brought out so late. (In my opinion)
.
I am sure that Apple has clearly defined and very rational roadmap for the development of the platform.

Apr 22 11:56 AM

[winindthedust:]

Yea, we all knew cut & paste would come... unlike other companies vaporware. I don't know why it was such a big deal to wait... that's Apple. They come out with features that WORK!

Most companies sell features, even if they don't work, are inconvenient, or impractically implemented. Not Apple, it's not in their DNA to put out crap.

Cut & paste, to be done properly, HAD to be implemented as part of the SDK as part of the core OS services. Sure, they could have done something JUST in Mail, but that would have been a waste of time, and confusing, as they likely would have changed it later.

Doing this as a Service available to all programs, required the implementation of a clip board and access to this clip board by all programs. This means rework of the core OS code, as well as thorough testing of security, as now their user forced interaction between programs.

Don't underestimate the time it took to get the UI right, too. Unlike Safari 4 Beta, Apple wasn't about to send out a beta of cut and paste.

Now, all future Apps, have access to making use of this OS service. Nice.

Services are one of the great components that separate OSX from Windows. In windows, a great program has invent and implement it's own print, fax, PDF creation, archiving, document handling, spelling, speech, etc. OSX programs, however, simply put a call out to the OS services, where this is already implemented for all programs to take advantage of, with a common & consistent UI. Nice. With windows....well, you do have the "print screen" button :-)

Apr 22 12:14 PM

[nukldrager:]

Now if they could ditch ATT or or make their phones available on more carriers. ATT coverage is horrible in the NE.

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