iPhone OS v 3.0 Update

Posted on 18-03-2009

People who own Apple devices are often proud to a fault of owning one. For many owning an iPhone was a dream the minute details of it came out. It quite embarrassing then when you realize that the dream you just purchased falls flat on its face in a puddle of its own excrement when you try to compare it with even the simplest models of its competitor’s phones.
Over time they have tried to rectify those mistakes, and now with version 3.0 which was previewed a short while ago, they once again try to bring to the table, what should have been there in the first place. Here’s what they say we can expect them to remember to not forget to add:

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Cut-Copy-Paste: This is something you can expect even the cheapest Nokia phone today can do, but has finally been deemed appropriate to allow users to do. The OS supports copy pasting of many kinds of content, even HTML and image contents from safari.
Forward and Delete SMS’s: Not only is a wonder this wasn’t there in the first place, it shocking it wasn’t included much before. The fact that this is a touted new feature fo the OS really tells you all you could want to know.
MMS Messaging: Another feature present in my chai-walls phone, now I finally we can send him pictures of what a clean cup looks like.
Voice Memos: Applications have been available for this from quite some time, but it is nice to have an inbuilt app.
Landscape typing mode for all included apps: This is a welcome update, especially since the only mode of input into an iPhone is via touch.
Push Notifications: Another nice feature to have around. This will allow the user to get notifications even when an application isn’t active.
Shaking the iPhone shuffles songs in the playlist: Imagine what would happen if someone jogged around while listening to songs on their iPhone! Hopefully this can be turned off if required.
Supports CalDAV for calendars: Finally a feature that you can be proud of having, if you only knew how to use it…

Also included will be “a rich set of over 1,000 new APIs”. Surely a boon for iPhone programmers.

But really, how difficult is it to expect such simple things from a $200 device? When you have to sell your TV just to buy a new phone, you expect it to be at least a little entertaining.

This will come as a welcome update to many iPhone owners, who have probably been waiting for many of these things for quite long. It still seems like more of an attempt to bring the iPhone to parity with the current standards expected from smart phones; even now the only ‘killer’ feature of the iPhone is its multi-touch interface. Overall Apple is going in the right direction, some of these features are essential, and should have been there in the first place, but nonetheless better late than never, right?