iPhone 3.0 Features Announced

It has been a long time coming, but Apple today announced the features to be included in the iPhone OS 3.0. The features are impressive. First the to-date statistics:

• iPhone is now in 80 countries; will be adding 15 mor countries to the 62 that already have the iPhone (math is evidently not their strong point)
• Sold 13.7 million iPhones in 2008
• 17 million iPhones sold total so far
• Including the iPod touch, sold over 30 million iPhone OS units to date
• Now over 25,000 apps in the AppStore

The new SDK will open up an additional 1,000 APIs to developers. The same tools are used for Apple internal development. Features of the new SDK and OS 3.0 include:

• Copy-and-Paste capability (at last!). As presented, it works exactly the way Kevin Rose described in Diggnation. Double-tapping a word brings up the copy/paste menu; dragging two icons allows the user to select the amount of material to copy or paste; then tapping a spot brings up the magnifier allowing the user to select the location for pasting. The capability will work across all iPhone applications. A nice touch (no pun intended) is the action can be undone be shaking the iPhone.
• iPhone 3.0 allows multiple photograph emailing. Before, only one photo at a time could be emailed. A photo icon allows the user to bring up a selection screen to select multiple photos to attach.
  
• Introduced a new Messages application that enables MMS for voice, photos, contact cards, location information, etc. The application also allows forwarding messages, and recording and storing voice memos. The application will support both the internal and a plug-in external microphone. It will also allow editing the voice memo, including trimming content. Finally, the memo can be emailed.
• Can now subscribe to additional calendars. In addition, the calendar application adds new support for Microsoft Entourage. Supports all .ics format calendar files.
• iPhone 3.0 has added more search capability by implementing a Spotlight search application for comprehensive search including address book search; email search (by from, to, subject, and headers); calendar search; and notes search (by title and body content). Will allow search across all applications.
  
• Landscape support for both email and notes (again, at last!).
  
• Improved Stocks application with stock news access and more details about stocks.
  
• Notes application sync with the Mac or PC through iTunes.
• Wi-Fi automatic login when a hotspot has been detected.
• Stereo Bluetooth now supported.
  
• Safari has added features including anti-phishing filters, remembers log-in credentials, and has implemented additional parental controls for movies, TV, and applications.
  
• Can now purchase additional content from the AppStore from within an application. It is no longer required to leave the application. This enables an application to sell a basic version and then sell incremental add-on content and capability as the user desires. Examples include purchasing additional "levels" for a game; location-specific content for an application (dining guides, maps, other information); or additional features.
• Peer-to-peer connectivity through bluetooth for gaming and external device control. Bonjour-powered and does not require pairing. This allows multi-user gaming on iPhones without the need for WiFi or 3G. It also allows iPhone users to control everything from equalization on a speaker (that supports such control) to managing medical devices from the phone. Another example is that for an application such as the musical Ocarina, multi-players can now simultaneously play multiple instruments.
• Apple has opened the Maps API to developers, but developers have to bring their own maps. This API allows geolocation, reverse geolocation, cell-tower triangulation, turn-by-turn directions, and similar functions. The reason for the developer needing their own maps is a licensing issue.
• Apple is implementing third-party push notification and background application activity. It will be mediated through Apple servers which will allow it to be more power-efficient than Blackberry or WinMobile (only 23% additional power drain versus 80% power drain with background applications activated). With the push API, developers can push sounds and alerts to the iPhone.
• Other APIs include using proximity sensors for iPod library access; built-in VoIP API; APIs to allow access of a second application's controls from within the first application (for example, a SIMs game character playing music from the iPod library).
• YouTube application has been enhanced to allow account log-in, subscribe to channels, and save videos.
• Features for tethering are included in the 3.0 update, but they are not implementing them at this time. It appears there are still issues with the carriers.
  

The iPhone 3.0 beta is available to developers immediately and will be rolled out to users this summer. It will work on both EDGE and 3G versions of the phone, although some features will not work on the older phones (example given was stereo Bluetooth). The update will be free to iPhone users and will cost $9.95 to iPod Touch users.

With these features, it is evident that Apple is expanding the iPhone's reach both vertically and horizontally. First, the vertical expansion is in the form of reaching further into a business' supply chain. The example given was an Oracle inventory management application on the iPhone that would allow immediate notification of stock-out situations and enable the user to immediately send a notice to a customer. There were numerous examples of business and medical application support demonstrated that provides insight into how Apple sees this platform progressing in the corporation.

Horizontal expansion is in the area of reaching further down the user chain. With the demonstration of networked "pets" and pet social networks, it is obvious that Apple is positioning the iPhone to a younger and younger crowd. This is probably setting the stage to additional iPhone models at the lower end.

With the features introduced in the iPhone 3.0 update, Apple has laid down the gauntlet to other phone makers that it intends to not just become a substitute for their products, but to create a totally new market. This market will be the "broad spectrum" smartphone with capabilities and cost to make it attractive across the entire mobile phone range.

Your additional insights and comments are welcomed.

iPhone: Two Month Check-up--Part V

In my last post, I finished up the second row applications by giving my impressions of the Maps and Weather capabilities. This post will be concerned with the applications on the third row: Clock, Calculator, and Notes (the Settings will be covered in a separate post).

Clock: The clock application does a good job for which it is intended. I found it easy to add cities as long as the city is one listed in the built-in list. However, a nice to have would be the ability to look up virtually any city (or town) in the world using the Internet (or Maps) and be able to set up a clock for it. That said, there is a robust choice of locations to choose from that are built-in.

Adding a clock is easy. When there are multiple clocks, the user can use the edit button to rearrange the order of cities. Rearranging the order is easy. In the edit mode, simple tap with the finger, drag,and place in the order you want. Apple, why don't you make this capability available in all of your applications? It just doesn't make sense.

The format of the clocks are easy to read with analog on the left and digital on the right. All-in-all a good application. A few tweaks and it could be a great application.

Calculator: There is not a lot to say about this application. It's your basic calculator with a memory function. Since I often have the need to calculate in the billions, it has limited use for me. To make this a must have application, I would like to see a larger display register (say 100 billion?), and at a minimum basic financial functions. To be an appealing application for students, a square root function is a must. If Apple really wants to make this a differentiator, supply a menu where you can choose the type of calculator: basic, financial, scientific, trig, electronics, hex/octal, time, and conversions. Apple, make us want to use it.

With that said, the buttons are large enough and are easy to manipulate. It just doesn't do enough.

Notes: As you will see, I tend to be a little demanding of the Notes application simply because there are no alternatives on the device (I suppose you could use email, but as you will see in a future post, it shares most of the same shortcomings). For capturing brief thoughts, snippets of information, lists, and similar items, Notes is more than adequate. The auto-correction feature improves typing speed and output quality. However, it doesn't catch everything and a separate spell-check function would be a great plus. Similarly, typing with the device vertical almost forces the user to one finger entry as the keyboard is small. Two fingers are possible if you position the iPhone horizontally, but that capability is not available in the Notes application. Apple, enable landscape mode for this application so the user has access to a larger keyboard suitable for true two-finger manipulation.

My list of notes is getting quite large. It would be nice to have some type of organization capability such as folders to categorize, store, and retrieve notes. As the title is too long and the first words are the same (as in the title of these posts), it is difficult to differentiate among Notes without opening them. Again, if the application worked in the horizontal or landscape mode, longer titles would show in the index list.

Hopefully, at some point Apple will provide a simple word processor for the iPhone. Until then, the ability to upload a note to an application such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets or Zoho and then be able to manipulate the document in those Web-based applications would be a giant plus. The problem with Web-based applications is that disconnected from the Internet (such as on an airline flight), the applications do not work. If Notes were beefed-up with basic formatting and spell-check, it could serve as a good draft application if enabled to easily interface with a Web-based application. However, even if Notes had this capability, there is an issue that would still have to be addressed in the Safari browser. That will be discussed in a future post.

In my upcoming posts, I'll start tackling the bottom row applications-- Phone, Mail, Safari, & iPod. In the meantime, if you have additional comments or suggestions for Apple, please let me know.

Walter W. Casey, Ph.D.
Sent from my iPhone