As a proud iPod Touch owner, I was counting the days until last week's release of the iPhone OS 3.0 update. Though the Touch is sometimes treated as lowly sibling to its bigger brother iPhone, it boasts many of the same features and received a similar update. But unlike iPhone users, we iPod Touch owners had to shell out $10 for the 3.0 facelift. Was it worth it? I took my iPod Touch for a spin after installing 3.0 and here's what I uncovered.
I know some users had trouble downloading the update the first day, but it worked smoothly and relatively quickly for me. I also heard the update disabled Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on some units, mostly the first generation Touch. But all key functions on my Touch 2G survived the upgrade intact. Speed and performance also felt the same.
New Features:
Cut, copy, paste--This was the one of two features I most craved. In the past, copying, or moving notes, reentering appointments, and rekeying URLs meant loads of retyping. No more. I like the elegance of the new copy and paste. Just double-click the text, move the handles to select more or less of it, copy it, and paste it into the new spot. Using Cut instead of Copy also means I can delete a large chunk of text without keeping my finger on Backspace. Nice job, Apple.
Greater Landscape support--This is the other feature I most wanted. Whenever my wife "borrowed" my iPod Touch, she'd complain about having to type e-mails with one finger--in portrait mode, you need microscopic thumbs to use both hands. No longer. Though Landscape mode was always available for Safari and a few other apps, support now extends to e-mail, Notes, Contacts, and more. Typing e-mails is almost a pleasure with two fingers. Except now I'm having a harder time getting my iPod back from my wife.
Landscape Mode
(Credit: Apple)Spotlight Search--I discovered the new Spotlight search tool by accident when I dragged my finger to the left of the main app screen. I dove right in, searching for e-mail, contacts, calendar information, applications, even songs, videos, and podcasts. All came through. A definite time saver and nicely integrated.
Voice Memos--We now have a Voice Memos feature to record audio. I already use a free app called iTalk, so this wasn't critical for me. But I discovered two cool options. Voice Memos lets me trim recorded audio right on my Touch, and it will back up the recordings to my iTunes desktop.
Bluetooth--The one frustrating feature for me was Bluetooth, mostly due to a lack of understanding on how it works (or doesn't) with the Touch. The 3.0 update was supposed to unlock Bluetooth capability (the chip was already on the Touch but just not enabled). I was anxious to use my Bluetooth headsets to make VoIP calls via Skype. But, as I learned, this was not to be.
After trying in vain to pair both of my Bluetooth headsets with the Touch, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar at my friendly neighborhood Apple store. At first, the Apple tech wasn't sure why my Touch wouldn't detect either of my headsets. Nor would it pair with any of their devices.
The first assumption was that my iPod wasn't working right. So the tech reinstalled the 3.0 update. Still no pairing. They he tried a new iPod with the update. Still no dice. Finally, the tech figured out that none of the Bluetooth devices we were using supported AD2P, a standard for streaming audio. Only Bluetooth devices that support it will work with the Touch. And it provides only audio. No microphone support, meaning no VoIP calls via Bluetooth. Disappointing, but not a deal breaker, as I can still use my regular wired headset for VoIP calls.
I should have realized the need for AD2P ahead of time. (My wife keeps telling me I need to read the directions beforehand.) But from the message boards I checked, many people seemed confused over Bluetooth in the iPhone and iPod Touch. Even the Apple tech didn't initially think about AD2P when testing my iPod.
I've only covered a few of the new features in the 3.0 update. Lots more to discover and play with. Despite the Bluetooth affair, the update was well worth my $10. A small price to pay to get a wide range of solid new features.
For a full critique of the iPod Touch and its 3.0 update, check out Donald Bell's review, his latest column, and video review.
Apple's customers have wasted no time scooping up its latest smartphone and operating system update.
More than 1 million iPhone 3G S smartphones have sold in the three days since the new model hit the stores Friday, Apple announced Monday. In addition, 6 million people have downloaded the new iPhone OS 3.0 update in the five days since its release.
iPhone 3G S
(Credit: Apple)The sales figure even prompted Apple CEO Steve Jobs to make his first public comment since going on medical leave early this year.
"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning," Jobs said in a statement. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."
The 1 million mark outpaces the estimate of at least one analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, who predicted that 500,000 3G S phones would sell in the first weekend. The original iPhone sold about 270,000 units over its first weekend in June 2007, while the iPhone 3G sold around 1 million when it launched in July 2008. (And while Apple sold the iPhone 3G in 21 countries in its first day last year, the 3G S was available in only eight countries at launch.)
The 3.0 update for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which hit the iTunes store on Wednesday, has also found a wide audience among users who were awaiting new features, including copy and paste, landscape mode support for more applications, and the Spotlight search tool.
Despite the strong first-weekend sales, Apple is facing new competition in a crowded smartphone market. Palm recently debuted its new Pre, though it sold somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 units in its first two days. And Research In Motion will unveil its new BlackBerry Tour later this summer.
Apple watchers are also awaiting the return of Jobs. Recent reports say the Apple CEO received a liver transplant two months ago.
Jobs is expected to return to Apple later this month but initially may just take on a part-time role.
The ability, with iPhone OS 3.0, to cut and paste content across applications will mean a huge boost in traffic for Twitter.
(Credit: Apple)The iPhone world is rejoicing over the "it's about time" cut-and-paste feature in the just-released 3.0 version of the device's operating system. But I'm willing to bet that another group breaking open the champagne right now is the team at Twitter.
Not to mention the makers of Twitter iPhone apps.
And why?
Everyone knows that the reason that cut-and-paste was the most-heralded new feature in iPhone OS 3.0 was that for the first time, it would allow people to move content around between applications, be it between a browser and a note, or from a weather app to a text message and so on. Clearly, then, being able to paste content into Twitter means that for the first time, using the service on an iPhone will approximate the depth of using it on a computer.
(Credit:
Twitter)
And that means that just as global Twitter awareness is going through the roof because of its role as the primary communications platform for rapid fire news developments from and related to post-election Iran, the service is going to get another massive boost from what I'm predicting will be a new huge influx of iPhone users.
Think about the tens of millions of first-gen or iPhone 3G owners, not to mention iPod Touch users, who are going to migrate to OS 3.0. And then add all the iPhone virgins whose first experiences with the device will be on a $99 iPhone 3G with OS 3.0. Or who will go straight to the 3G S.
I would argue that many of those people either have never used Twitter before or have had limited exposure to it, either on their existing iPhones or other mobile devices, or online. Now, with what is sure to be a rush of attention to the fact that it will offer never-before-seen possibilities to someone using an iPhone to participate fully on Twitter--meaning sharing ideas, copying URLs and so forth--I think Twitter is about to see a giant spike in usage.
To be sure, many people will move their already significant Twitter use from their computers to their iPhones. And already, many people are using Twitter on their iPhones every day. But adding the element of being able to paste content into your average Twitter app from elsewhere on the iPhone is going to make the service one of the biggest winners of all.
People may argue that Twitter has yet to reveal a business model, but they certainly can't argue its growth. No one knows how many new users the Iran election has brought, or will bring, Twitter. But with OS 3.0 coming hard on the heels of the turmoil in the Middle East, it's hard to imagine any one service going through two such potentially game-changing events in such a short period time.
No one, of course, could have predicted the situation in Iran. But the release on Wednesday of iPhone OS 3.0 was on everyone's radar. So I wonder if, when the Twitter team blogged about the "significantly increased" network capacity that came as a result of Tuesday's now famous server maintenance-related downtime--famous because the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to postpone the downtime in order to facilitate continued #IranElection posts--they were really hinting at the service's ability to handle any iPhone 3.0-related rush of traffic and new users.
Of course, even as Evan Williams and Biz Stone, et al., are toasting Twitter's latest good fortunes, one would imagine they're also praying to the god of server stability.
On June 21, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
What's coming? We only can guess.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Forgive us for repeating rumors, but when you're writing about future Apple products like the next version of the iPhone, rumors are all you have until the thoroughly tight-lipped company officially spills the beans.
Today's rumor--well, actually it's yesterday's rumor--comes courtesy of AppleiPhoneApps.com. Through its very own Deep Throat--aka a source who is "closely connected to Apple's hardware development team"--the Web site posted some details on just what the third-generation iPhone will offer. What's more, it names Friday, July 17, as the release date.
We can't verify anything right now, but some of the predictions make more sense than others. A July 17 release date is very plausible. Both the iPhone Classic and the iPhone 3G went on sale on Fridays (June 29, 2007, and July 11, 2008, respectively). Apple likes to respect tradition.
Here's a list of what the new iPhone could offer, along with my comments. AppleiPhoneApps is also predicting that the $199 and $299 price tags will remain.
... Read more
Apple could have more than the iPhone and iPod Touch in mind with the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 beta.
(Credit: Apple)It's probably safe to assume that if they really do exist, Apple's marketing group doesn't plan on letting the iProd and iFPGA ever hit the market under those names.
As developers have gotten their hands on the iPhone OS 3.0 beta released earlier this week, they've started to turn up interesting tidbits while splashing around in the code. Ars Technica reports that an iPhone developer has uncovered references buried deep in the OS code to two possible Apple products: the iProd and the iFPGA.
For the uninitiated, it's possible to find references to Apple products inside code strings in the iPhone OS, such as the iPod 2,1 reference that correctly predicted the arrival of a new iPod Touch, and a more recent reference to an iPhone 2,1 model that seemed to indicate another revision to that product would be arriving soon. The iPhone 3G is listed as iPhone 1,2 in those code strings.
Now Steven Troughton-Smith claims to have found references to four new Apple products: iPhone3,1, iPod3,1, iFPGA, and iProd0,1. The iPhone and iPod references are self-explanatory (although it's not clear what happened to iPhone 2,1), but iFPGA and iProd are not.
The early speculation is that the iProd is the tablet-like device that has been rumored for quite some time as a possible second-half 2009 product from Apple. It makes sense that Apple would introduce a new naming and labeling convention for such a product, even if iProd isn't the name that passes final muster with the branding people. The 0,1 label could mean that it's not ready for prime time just yet, at which point it would get the 1,0 label as used on the original iPhones and iPod Touches.
FPGA is a chip-industry term for a "field-programmable gate array" chip, or one that can be configured to work in different ways after the manufacturing process is complete, unlike ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits. Could this be what P.A. Semi is working on, a custom chip for a new type of phone or tablet that could be programmed with software to tackle different tasks? No one really seems to have any idea.
In any event, the code strings seem to indicate that Apple plans to run iPhone OS 3.0 on hardware other than an iPhone or iPod Touch. We'll just have to see what that turns out to be.
roundup The company isn't making as big a leap forward as it did last year with its iPhone 2.0 software, but neither will it lose any ground to increased competition.
What iPhone OS 3.0 promises users, developers
Apple's released its third-generation smartphone operating system with two constituencies in mind. Here's how it's likely to fare on both counts.• Work begins on iPhone OS 3.0 jailbreak
• Report: AT&T ready with no-contract iPhone offer
(Posted in Apple by Tom Krazit)
March 17, 2009 3:09 PM PDT
News.com Poll
iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know
The latest version of the iPhone's system software is coming soon to an Apple handset near you. Here's a breakdown of what's new.• iPhone OS 3.0: More hits than misses
• iPod Touch gets Bluetooth after OS upgrade
(Posted in Apple by Josh Lowensohn)
March 17, 2009 11:48 AM PDT
Live blog: iPhone OS 3.0 preview
The OS update will offer peer-to-peer networking, plus in-app purchases, access to the Maps API, push notification -- and yes, cut, copy, and paste.• Now playing Steve Jobs: Scott Forstall
• iPhone OS 3.0 event video added to iTunes Store
(Posted in Apple by Tom Krazit)
March 17, 2009 11:48 AM PDT
Video: iPhone OS 3.0: Copy and paste
At long last, iPhone users will soon be able to copy and paste text and images. Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, Scott Forstall, demonstrates the new tap-and-drag feature. Other video demos:• Video: Search on iPhone OS 3.0
• Video: Long-awaited MMS
• Video: In-app buying
• Video: Leaf Trombone World Stage
• Video: Peer-to-peer networking
• Video: Push notification
March 17, 2009
Is iPhone OS 3.0 a boon for the accessory market?
Donald Bell offers insight into the potential opened up by Apple's announcement of hardware-dependent applications in the third version of its mobile operating system.(Posted in MP3 Insider by Donald Bell)
March 17, 2009 11:35 AM PDT
An iPhone 3.0 software wish list
CNET editors (and readers) have made no secret of their desire to see Apple deliver on features that the iPhone ought to have. Here's a full list, in no particular order.(Posted in Crave by Kent German
March 13, 2009 1:56 PM PDT
Apple ready for third generation of iPhone
Company plans to give a preview of its iPhone 3.0 software next week. What might Apple have decided to include in the new release?• Apple holding iPhone 3.0 special event next week
(Posted in Apple by Tom Krazit)
March 12, 2009 11:14 AM PDT
Related coverage
Spinning out iPhone apps at SXSWi
Despite Apple's reluctance to take part in developers' event-oriented launch deadlines, at least five companies got their apps out for the tech-centric confab.(Posted in Apple by Daniel Terdiman)
March 16, 2009 1:14 PM PDT
The iPhone: SXSWi's enfant terrible
Everybody both loves and hates their iPhones at the annual Austin geekfest, as new apps and rumors flood the scene but service takes a turn for the worse.• Facebook: It's party time for the social Web...on the iPhone
• AT&T drops the ball on iPhone service at SXSW
(Posted in The Social by Caroline McCarthy)
March 16, 2009 8:41 AM PDT
Apple's Scott Forstall proved Tuesday he pull off a Steve Jobs-style presentation.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)Apple's second major event of 2009 without CEO Steve Jobs at the helm was much more interesting than its first, and shed a bit more light on what Apple's presentation strategy sans Jobs might look like.
Jobs, of course, is on medical leave until June, and therefore wasn't present to host the iPhone 3.0 software event on Tuesday. So Apple's Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, did the majority of the talking during Tuesday's event, accompanied by vice president of iPhone and iPod marketing Greg Joswiak and senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller.
Unlike January's Macworld event hosted by Schiller, Tuesday's event had actual major news, the first time Apple has rolled out major news without Jobs present in recent memory. One of the key questions around Jobs' medical leave was whether or not Apple could continue to pull off its signature marketing bonanzas without Jobs, perhaps the most dynamic public speaker in the tech industry.
Forstall is no stranger to the stage, having played prominent roles in the demonstration of Mac OS X Leopard in 2006 and the iPhone 2.0 software event last year. With Tuesday's performance, he established himself as Apple's iPhone spokesman for some time to come, perhaps even after Jobs returns.
It's not that he was dazzling, or distorted everyone's reality. In January, everyone's attention was on the fact that Schiller, and not Jobs was before them on stage. On Tuesday, Forstall kept the focus on the new software by demonstrating an ability to smoothly explain complex topics (and gloss over shortcomings) with confidence and a sense of humor.
Most members of the public would be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of executives at any tech company, but Apple has for almost a decade made Jobs its single-most visible executive as part of its marketing strategy. Now, with Jobs sidelined, other Apple executives are having to step up.
Jobs is irreplaceable as a public speaker, salesman, and leader, but Forstall showed Apple COO Tim Cook that he can be counted on to be the public face of the iPhone.
Now all Apple has to do is find someone who can do that for both the iPod and the Mac.
Last year, Apple set itself apart from the mobile computing world with the release of the iPhone OS 2.0. This year, Apple won't make quite such a leap forward, but neither will it lose any ground to increased competition.
When it arrives this summer, Apple's third generation of the iPhone operating system will correct some of the most glaring omissions to date. These include the lack of background processing, any kind of system-wide search, and yes, copy and paste. In case you missed the live blog, check out some of the highlights of Apple's presentation Tuesday.
There were two audiences for the iPhone 3.0 preview presentation: developers and iPhone users. Users were more interested in the features, while developers were anxious to learn about the new software development kit.
Let's examine the users first: Apple's competitors will be quick to point out (Microsoft was particularly eager to comment Monday and Tuesday) that the most prominent features introduced with iPhone 3.0 are features that are found on many other smartphones.
It's a reminder that while most everyone in the mobile industry would give Apple credit for igniting a smartphone revolution with the original iPhone, Apple can't leave anything to the competition if it wants to keep the growth of its most profitable product on track. With iPhone 3.0, Apple is showing that, just like last year, it listens to complaints about the iPhone's capabilities and works to overcome those objections.
For the most part, however, iPhone users seem satisfied with their devices without those features. Key additions such as copy and paste, a landscape keyboard, real search capabilities, and MMS (multimedia messaging system) will make the iPhone even easier to use.
Developers are the ones who will probably be most excited about the new iPhone OS. The ability to use background notifications, for example, will make for much more compelling iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as was immediately apparent from some of the demonstrations Tuesday.
In addition, developers will have 1,000 new APIs (application programming interfaces) to play with that will unlock parts of the iPhone previously off limits or unavailable to third-party applications. Apple didn't get into all of them, but talked about how developers can now stream audio and video, send e-mail from inside applications, and use the iPhone's proximity sensor, which means Google will once again be in compliance with the iPhone SDK.
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This is the kind of development that users won't immediately grasp until someone develops a game or other kind of application that does exactly what they've always wanted a mobile computer to do. An important consideration when evaluating these developments, however, will be whether or not Apple's push notification service works as advertised in the real world: the company admitted its first attempt at building such a service would have failed under the load generated by millions of iPhones, and Apple's single-point-of-failure architecture for this service opens it up to potential outages that Research in Motion's BlackBerry customers occasionally face.
Lost in all the discussion about the features themselves, however, were some of the steps Apple is taking to help developers work with the iPhone. For example, with the release of the new SDK (a beta version is available today, but developers flooded Apple's Web site Tuesday) Apple will host discussion boards for developers to exchange tips and get help with their work, six months after threatening them with legal ramifications for merely talking about their applications.
Apple also seemed sensitive to all the complaints over the "black box" approval process that many developers have found in trying to get their applications onto the App Store. Around 96 percent of all applications are approved, and around 98 percent of application submissions are approved within seven days, Apple said. Those may be recent numbers as opposed to a picture encompassing the whole year of iPhone development, but after months of silence on the topic, Apple's willingness to acknowledge those issues show it's aware how important that part of the iPhone development experience is to those trying to build businesses around the iPhone.
It's interesting to note that Apple is taking somewhat similar approaches in 2009 to both Mac and iPhone operating system development.
Just like Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which is expected to focus on stability and performance rather than the addition of new features, iPhone OS 3.0 is more about giving developers a more capable platform on which to base their applications rather than any single killer feature. And that's despite the fact that competitors plan to have major releases (Microsoft's Windows 7 and Palm's WebOS, for example) that could change the playing field.
Apple gave itself a lot of wiggle room in promising to ship iPhone 3.0 "this summer," which technically gives it until September 21st. With competitors fighting back, Apple needs to make sure it ships iPhone 3.0 on time and without incident to keep iPhone growth on track.
A new iPhone with souped-up hardware probably wouldn't hurt.
(Credit:
Apple Inc.)
Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of the operating system that powers the iPhone, dubbed version 3.0, at an invite-only event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. It will be available for developers beginning today, and to everyone else "this summer." It's a free upgrade for iPhone users; those who own the iPod Touch will again have to pay for the upgrade (Apple is charging $9.95). Here's a quick recap of what was announced:
New features
Systemwide search
Apple has integrated its Spotlight search technology across the entire device. This will let users search for specific e-mail messages, applications, contacts, and any other data from within those applications in one place. Users get to it from a new menu that's to the left of their first home screen. Swiping to the left brings up an open search box that brings in results as you type, similar to Spotlight search on Mac OS X.
Copy and paste for text, photos, and SMS
One of the most-wanted features, the ability to copy and paste text will be making its way to OS 3.0. Users will be able to select sections of text and take them to other applications. This is one of the new APIs that Apple is releasing to developers.
Users will now be able to copy and paste text from one app to another.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)To copy text, simply double-tap the screen, and it pulls up an option to cut, copy, and paste. Then simply drag a start point, and an end point, over the text you want, and then double-tap again. The phone will save the text in a clipboard, from which it can be taken elsewhere. You can also grab entire sections of text using a large rectangle that can be moved around to include paragraphs at a time.
Additionally, copy and paste will work with photos and SMS messages. For instance, if you feel like selecting multiple photos to send in an e-mail you can now select the ones you want, then send them together in one message. Previously you had to select them one at a time--through the Photos application, over to mail. The same goes for SMS messages too, so if you feel like relaying a text message to another contact you can simply forward it.
MMS
You can now send and receive multimedia messages (MMS). This means text messages can be sent with photos and voice recordings, all without using the built-in mail application to do it. Missing, however, is any kind of video support, which is an MMS feature found on many other phones with built-in cameras.
Push notifications
The feature that was supposed to appear in September of last year will finally be making its way to phones in version 3.0. Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development, noted that Apple had been late on this, and blamed the delay on scaling, saying that the original system was too taxing on both the handset's battery and its processing power.
The new system works just like old one, but has been optimized for over-the-air data transfer. It still relies on Apple's servers as a go-between to send audio alerts, text messages, and badge notifications. Users still have to fire up the application to get at the data though.
... Read more
This is the spot for live coverage of Apple's iPhone 3.0 event later today from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., which kicked off at 10 a.m. PDT.
This is a play-by-play account of the presentation. For a summary of what got announced, including the long-awaited cut-and-paste and MMS, click here.
9:53 a.m. PDT: Welcome to Cupertino and Apple's Town Hall auditorium for the iPhone 3.0 software preview. Everyone's settling into their seats, undeterred by a 9:10 a.m. fire alarm that briefly evacuated the building. A mixture of press, analysts, developers, and employees are expected to attend--somewhere around 250 to 300 people. Classic Apple build music at the moment: Jack Johnson.
10:01 a.m. PDT: Dave Mathews Band's "Everyday" at ear-splitting volume takes us into the start of the event, remarkably on time at 10 a.m. compared to the last several of these events. Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone and iPod marketing, takes the stage to kick things off. "We're going to give you a preview of iPhone OS."
10:02 a.m. PDT: Joswiak starts with an update on the iPhone: It's in 80 countries, 13.7 million iPhones were sold in 2008, and there was a clear uptick following the launch of the iPhone 3G. Apple has now sold 17 million iPhones.
10:03 a.m. PDT: He points out that the iPod Touch also runs iPhone OS, and that Apple has sold 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches combined through the end of 2008. I believe that's the first time they've broken out iPod Touch sales figures. The SDK, unveiled last year at a similar event, has been downloaded 800,000 times, and 50,000 developers are in the iPhone Developer Program.
10:05 a.m. PDT: 62 percent of those developers were brand new to Apple, Joswiak says. He says the App Store levels the playing field for developers, pointing out the success of both Gameloft and Steve Demeter, an independent developer. We're treated to one of those slick corporate-produced videos, a fixture at the last several Apple events but a rarity during any Steve Jobs-led events.
10:07 a.m. PDT: Demeter is basically talking about his experience over the last year, and he's done well. CNET editor Kent German and I didn't catch the name of his app, but it sounded like Drizzle. The video ends, and Joswiak notes "we've had a lot of curiosity about the App Store approval process," which is quite an understatement. 98 percent of apps are approved, he says, and 98 percent of those are approved within seven days. (Editor's note: In a Q&A after the presentation, Apple later said 96 percent of apps are approved. We probably mistyped it here.) The App Store has seen 800 million downloads to date, he says.
10:08 a.m. PDT: Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development who reports directly to Jobs, takes the stage for the business end of the presentation. "I'm here to tell you about iPhone OS 3.0, and this is a major update to the operating system."
10:10 a.m. PDT: He starts with the news for developers. He reviews the current iPhone SDK (software development kit), introduced a year ago and allowing developers to use the same APIs that Apple developers use. "We've spent the last year working hard to make this SDK even better." Apple has unlocked more than 1,000 APIs (APIs are communication standards that developers use to have their application interact with the iPhone).
10:12 a.m. PDT: Forstall reviews the App Store policies, such as the pricing on the App Store and the developer's cut. Some developers, however, were interested in other business models, such as subscriptions. Forstall gives the example of magazines or game developers who want to sell game levels from within a game, or content sold within an application, such as that much-discussed application of the last month: the e-book. With iPhone 3.0, Apple will support all those business models.
10:14 a.m. PDT: They're calling this In-App Purchase. The example is a magazine where you can renew a subscription within the app. Or, say, a game has 10 levels, but you want to keep going: the game will download the new levels automatically upon prompting from within the app. Everything works with your iTunes account, it's sort of the same thing as when you download an update to an iPhone application, prompting you for your iTunes password and sending the download after verification.
10:15 a.m. PDT: Developers still get to pick their prices, and they still get 70 percent of any revenue generated inside an app. This only applies to paid applications, not free applications. Some developers had expressed interest in distributing free applications to try, and then buy, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen.
10:16 a.m. PDT: The next thing? Support for peer-to-peer networking. This should be interesting. You can find other iPhones and iPod Touches in a given area that are playing the same game as you; Forstall gives the example of two kids in the back of a car. iPhone 3.0 will automatically discover other applications over Bluetooth, and there's no pairing. "Completely seamless," he promises. Bonjour is the back-end technology behind this, and it's not just for games.
10:18 a.m. PDT: Accessories is the next topic. Lots of companies have been working on iPhone and IPod Touch accessories, such as speakers. Accessory companies will now be able to build applications that talk directly to the accessory, such as an EQ built into an application that controls a speaker's sound from the iPhone.
10:19 a.m. PDT: Medical devices are a telling example, Forstall says. Take a blood pressure cuff that could be hooked up to an iPhone and send your blood pressure to your doctor from your iPhone. This works through the dock connector and wirelessly over Bluetooth. Standard protocols are supported, but custom protocols are also supported.
10:20 a.m. PDT: Kent German notes: "The peer-to-peer through Bluetooth profile is welcome, though it would be nice to send contacts and other data files through Bluetooth without needing an app."
10:21 a.m. PDT: The Maps application is the next topic. Apple and Google developed this application and developers want to be able to add a map into their application. Developers are going to get access to the Maps API with iPhone 3.0 and embed maps in their apps. That means you can take advantage of all the views and zooming capabilities in the Apple/Google Maps in your application. Location information is also part of this.
10:23 a.m. PDT: "But there is one more thing we're doing with apps." Core Location, the GPS technology, will let app developers finally build turn-by-turn directions, but there's a catch: they can't use the Maps application due to licensing problems, Forstall said. Developers who want to build that will need to use their own maps.
10:24 a.m. PDT: Push Notification is next. "We're late on this," Forstall admits. Apple was supposed to roll out a quasi-background notification system last September, but it never appeared. The company was caught off guard by the growth in iPhone apps, and the system they had built couldn't scale. They took six months to build a truly scalable system, he said.
10:25 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Applause for turn-by-turn apps. Previously, the SDK had prohibited this, so it makes sense that developers will need to use their own maps."
10:26 a.m. PDT: Those hoping for true background processing, however, will be disappointed. Forstall talks about how true background processing saps battery life, up to 80 percent in a test Apple ran. Performance is also an issue, he says. Other phones do offer true background processing, but Apple seems to be sticking to its original plan.
10:27 a.m. PDT: How does it work? Notifications pass through an Apple server and are then passed to a phone. You can pass badges (letting users know if things are waiting for them, like IMs), audio alerts, or text-message alerts. "The reason we're doing this is because it scales." Forstall also says this is optimized for mobile networks, which was probably a concern on the part of Apple's carrier partners when they discussed true background processing.
10:29 a.m. PDT: Forstall briefly goes through a few other new APIs, such as in-app e-mail or iPod library access. You can play music in an app directly from your library, for example. All told, more than 1,000 APIs will be available to developers with iPhone 3.0.
10:29 a.m. PDT: Apple showed off the new SDK to some developers a few weeks ago, and let them build new apps using the new SDK. Meebo is the first app to be demoed, and they plan to move it native to the iPhone.
10:32 a.m. PDT: Meebo's Seth Sternberg takes the stage to explain the app. He's the co-founder and CEO. Meebo lets you talk to friends across IM networks. The company was waiting for push notifications to build a native iPhone app, Sternberg says. He demos the application, showing how the application provides a background notification that a new IM is waiting.
10:35 a.m. PDT: EA is the next company to take the stage. They've developed 10 games for the iPhone thus far, and EA's Travis Boatman comes up to talk about their new app. The Sims 3 for iPhone was developed with the new SDK. "Scott" is the Sims character that they're using, and this appears to be a demo of the in-game purchase capabilities, using the "simoleans" that serve as money in the Sims. "Scott" buys a stereo, which lets you play your iPod library in the game through the virtual stereo.
10:38 a.m. PDT: Forstall promises everybody that he doesn't dance like Seinfeld's Elaine in real life, unlike EA's "Scott." Now Oracle's Hody Crouch is crashing the party, bringing an enterprise tinge to the iPhone 3.0 software. He's demoing an Oracle app that uses the background notification systems to let him know when Oracle Business Systems has a new alert. That information can be used by traveling businesspeople to fill inventory needs, adjust to outstanding orders, and access other business data.
10:42 a.m. PDT: ESPN is next. Forstall praises the ESPN Web app, but ESPN's Oke Okaro will show us the Worldwide Leader's new native iPhone app. The new SDK is letting ESPN deliver better notifications of scores or news to play that ubiquitous "dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah" ESPN tone, using the custom sound capability. Okaro is showing how game highlights can be delivered to the iPhone, rather than pulled by the user. The app uses the new video-streaming capability in the SDK.
ESPN delivers over 50 million alerts a month.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)10:46 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Push notification is a good add, though I'd prefer it to be a native feature rather than driven by individual apps. I'd like to see one umbrella push system for all linked e-mail accounts. The functionality seems to be a bit scattered as they're currently describing it."
10:47 a.m. PDT: ESPN's app was one of those that forced Apple to rebuild the push notification system to make sure it could handle the traffic, Forstall says. LifeScan, owned by Johnson and Johnson, will bring Anita Mathew up to discuss the company's diabetes iPhone application. The app works with glucose monitoring hardware, a blood sugar reader, to transmit a patient's data back to a database, and allow the patient to note how they feel or what they've eaten to better manage their blood sugar.
10:49 a.m. PDT: The data is sent from the blood sugar reader to the iPhone over Bluetooth. Within the app itself, patients can track blood sugar levels over the course of the day, allowing them to plan future meals by checking sugar levels in certain foods. The patient can also e-mail or text that blood sugar information to others, such as parents, helping them monitor their kids' health.
10:54 a.m. PDT: Ngmoco is the next company, a start-up that builds games for the iPhone and iPod Touch and that received money from Kleiner Perkins' iFund. Neil Young (not that one) from Ngmoco starts talking about their new game built with the new SDK. They built two apps, a virtual pet game and a first-person shooter. That's diversification. The virtual pets game allows you to set play dates with virtual dogs, believe it or not. You take the role of a dog, interacting with other dogs, taking on missions, and, of course, buying accessories.
10:56 a.m. PDT: LiveFire is the other game, which is slightly different. This lets you play a first-person shooter game over a WI-Fi network with other players, allowing you find friends over a network and play against each other. Kent German: "Buying apps and game levels without going through the iTunes Store will be easier, but like the gum in a supermarket check-out line, I suspect that it will lead to a lot of impulse buying."
11:02 a.m. PDT: Smule is coming next. Ocarina is a very popular iPhone app that lets you use the iPhone as a musical instrument. Ge Wang is talking about their new app, called Leaf Trombone World Stage. It's a social gaming experience geared around music, Wang says. The app lets you create music by blowing into the microphone, like Ocarina, but you can have a backing track and you can synchronize with another player over Wi-Fi. Wang and another Smule developer demonstrate the app by playing Phantom of the Opera on Leaf Trombone, harmonizing more or less in time.
11:04 a.m. PDT: Forstall retakes the stage, saying that Apple created the SDK to make developers successful. (They probably also wanted to sell more iPhones.) Now Forstall will talk about some of the new features in iPhone 3.0. And yes: copy and paste is coming to the iPhone.
11:05 a.m. PDT: "We've been working really hard to design an easy-to-use, straightforward user interface for cut, copy, and paste," Forstall said. He opens an e-mail message, and double-taps on a piece of text to select it, with grab points at the end of the text bubble and three buttons overhead the bubble with cut, copy, and paste options.
11:06 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Now the good stuff...Hallelujah for cut, copy and paste."
11:08 a.m. PDT: Copy and paste works across all applications, not just mail. The Notes application is also demonstrated, showing how you can "select-all" from Notes and paste into an e-mail. You can also copy Web content, such as text from a Web page. This looks sort of like the text selector used in a PDF document, with four buttons on the four sides of a text bubble that let you expand your text bubble by dragging the button. If you messed up, shake the phone to undo any of the actions: cut, copy, or paste.
11:10 a.m. PDT: SMS messages can also be copied, as well as text from third-party apps. Photos are also included, with the ability to select a certain photo, copy it, and paste into a mail message. Kent German: "Cut, copy and paste seems easy to use, particularly with the movable grab points...like the shake to undo. Wondering if you can access a clipboard and if you can copy images on Web sites."
11:12 a.m. PDT: Landscape is the next feature Forstall plans to show. He's showing how you can read a Web page, for instance, in landscape mode, rather than the iPhone's usual portrait mode. The landscape keyboard that could be used in Web pages can now be used in all applications, particularly mail. That will be a key addition for e-mail addicts, and perhaps a concession that some people were finding the portrait keyboard difficult to use.
11:13 a.m. PDT: The text message application has also gotten a few new features, such as forwarding and deleting individual and multiple messages. "But the big news, for the messaging application, is that we're adding support for MMS."
11:16 a.m. PDT: There's a new voice memo application from Apple. Several third parties have built voice recorder applications in the meantime. Calendar is also getting an update. Last year, Calendar got support for Exchange synced over-the-air, and this year, Apple is adding support for CalDAV, a standard supported by Yahoo and Google used for shared calendars. The other is support for subscriptions, such as adding a sports team's schedule to your iPhone's Calendar.
11:17 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Can't describe how needed the multimedia messaging functionality is. Though, I'm wondering if it's shameful that I'm getting excited about such a basic functionality."
11:18 a.m. PDT: Search is next, it's getting added to all main applications, including Mail. You can search text and headers in Mail as well as on the server. Calendar is now searchable, as well as your song library in the iPod.
11:20 a.m. PDT: Apple's Spotlight technology from Mac OS X is what's coming into the iPhone. A search bar will appear when you flick the home screen to the left, bringing up a search engine. Enter your search term into the Spotlight box, and it takes you right to that application, such as a contact, where you can dial or e-mail. Forstall notes that this is a much better way for iPhone owners with dozens of applications to launch specific application, rather than flicking through the various home screens to find the app you need.
Spotlight search added on home screen.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)11:22 a.m. PDT: Forstall reminds the crowd that 100 new features will arrive with iPhone 3.0, but that he doesn't have time to go through them all. You can sync notes with your Mac, use the "shake to shuffle" feature on the iPod Nano, and stereo Bluetooth, a much-requested missing feature from the current iPhone. Safari will have antiphishing technology and auto-fill. Parental controls can now be applied to the App Store, perhaps allowing you to block your kids from using those naughty fart applications. (Editor's note: After the presentation, Apple said it would not issue the complete list of the 100 new features today. So far, they're just making public the ones they announced during this presentation.)
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11:23 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Surprised we get stereo Bluetooth. Surely an Apple stereo Bluetooth headset can't be far behind."
11:24 a.m. PDT: Forstall recaps the day's major news: the new SDK features and the new user features. Hopefully he's getting to the "when" question: when will this be ready?
11:25 a.m. PDT: Joswiak is coming back to announce when this will arrive. A developer beta will come first, and that's available today, and available to everyone in the iPhone Developer Program.
11:26 a.m. PDT: Interesting to note that they keep calling this "iPhone OS 3.0," which they had done informally for a while but seems to be coming into parlance now as an official term, distinct from Mac OS. Joswiak says the App Store is coming soon to additional countries in which it is now available.
11:27 a.m. PDT: "But how about the rest of us?" Joswiak promises to ship it "this summer," free to IPhone customers, and it will work on the original iPhone. Not all features will be available on the original iPhone, such as MMS and stereo Bluetooth.
11:27 a.m. PDT: It will cost $9.95 for iPod Touch customers, in keeping with the different accounting treatment Apple uses for the iPod Touch.
11:28 a.m. PDT: Kent German: "Too bad iPhone Classic users can't get MMS with the update. Interesting that the hardware changed that much."
11:28 a.m. PDT: Joswiak winds down by thanking everybody for coming. Developers are getting a little party upstairs, and the press is going to hang out for Q&A. Five-minute break, everybody.
11:33 a.m. PDT: Phil Schiller joins Forstall and Joswiak on stage to take questions. The first question, "Why did it take so long to get cut and paste on the iPhone?" Forstall says it's not obvious on how to do it, taking into account security issues and making it work nicely with the touch interface.
11:34 a.m. PDT: The next question concerns Flash, and Schiller says they have no announcements about Flash today. But Forstall says that HTML 5 video is supported, as well as h.264. There's now HTTP streaming for audio and video: "We actually think there are a lot of great video solutions for a single clip and live streaming solutions."
11:37 a.m. PDT: Another reporter wants to know about the peer-to-peer functionality. Forstall says the P2P connection is about a device-to-device Bluetooth connection, about using Bluetooth and Bonjour to make an IP connection. The accessory piece of this is handled differently, Forstall says.
11:38 a.m. PDT: The logical next question is whether you can trade files or music over this peer-to-peer capability. Joswiak says you can stream music to other apps, but he says it would be "confusing" to have applications that could download music from outside the iPod capability.
11:39 a.m. PDT: "Where do you guys stand on tethering?" That was a rumored capability for this release. Forstall says there are two pieces to support that, client side and carrier side. Client side support will be built into 3.0, but the carrier part is a work in progress, Forstall says. That sounds like it's coming as soon as the carriers decide to make it ready.
11:41 a.m. PDT: Apple is not going to make any kind of uptimes guarantees to developers regarding the push notification service, Forstall says in response to my question. Our own Larry Magid wants to know if external third-party microphones can be used with the voice memo application, and Joswiak says yes.
11:42 a.m. PDT: "Do you plan to deal with some of the performance issues in the current hardware?" Forstall says Apple takes performance very seriously, and that some of the units used in the demos suffer a bit because of the way they are tethered. No suggestions of better hardware on the horizon, as might be expected.
11:44 a.m. PDT: The original iPhone uses a different radio, which is why it can't support MMS. Forstall wonders how to respond to a question about access to another person's iPod library with the peer-to-peer connection, and Schiller isn't quite sure how to answer that either. That sounds like Apple hasn't exactly decided how the peer-to-peer application will interact with the iTunes/iPod franchise.
11:46 a.m. PDT: Harry McCracken wonders if Apple plans to get a bit more open about the App Store approval process, a well-documented source of frustration for developers. Schiller notes the growth of the App Store has been amazing and that customers want quality. He says they've improved the turnaround time, and let me correct something from earlier: Apple is quoting a 96 overall acceptance rate, not 98 percent we said above.
11:47 a.m. PDT: Schiller says Apple watches for profanity in the applications, as CNET's David Carnoy knows. The ability to use parental controls with applications should help get around some of the issues around objectionable content, Schiller says.
11:48 a.m. PDT: That's going to be the last question, and that's going to be all for this live blog. Stay tuned for all kinds of followup and reaction from across CNET, and, as always, thanks to everybody back on Second Street who make it possible to bring you these live blogs.
