The iPhone 3.0 software update has been out to the masses for a full day now, and I am sure most of you know about what’s new, but I thought I would highlight a few of the biggest features that are new. See the gallery at the end of the post for pictures of some of the features.
Cut/Copy/Paste
This is probably one of the most wanted updates, this feature lets you copy and paste any text to/from most any app. It took a little while to get used to it, but it is pretty seamless and easy to use, and it makes my life much easier when people send me links in emails and they don’t quite do it right.
Push Notifications
This is a big one that was promised by Apple when the 2.0 software was released, but they finally have it working. There are just a handful of apps that have push right now, but I believe that list will get longer as time goes on. I’m anxiously waiting for the Beejive app to update to allow push, then I will be very happy.
Spotlight Search
This is also a big timesaver for me. I use this to quickly look up contacts, and use it as an app launcher because now I have 11 pages of apps. Spotlight will allow you to search your contacts, calendar, ipod, apps, notes and mail, and it is very fast. You can also customize what results come up in the settings, however I have heard that some people are able to search their Safari bookmarks, but I don’t have that option.
AutoFill
Auto fill will remember passwords and usernames for websites and does what it says, fill them in. This is very handy, and another feature that should’ve been in there from the beginning.
Mailbox Search
This is a very nice feature, you can search your mailboxes, and if you have an IMAP enabled account, it will even let you search on the server side.
Voice Memo App
This app is also handy and it picks up and sounds great. You can record voice notes and it will also sync them back to your iTunes library. The nice thing about this app as well is that you can go to the home screen and it will continue to record even if the app isn’t running.
Open Link Options
There are new open link options that I really like, it allows you to open it in the same page, a new one, or copy the link to paste elsewhere.
Camera/Photos Changes
The camera app will now show you a thumbnail of the last photo you took and if you click on it, it will take you to the photos app. The photos app will now let you select up to 5 photos to share at once.
Messages (aka the old SMS app)
This one will be nice once AT&T flips the switch, meaning that you will be able to send MMS messages, such as photos, vCards, audio, and Google Maps locations.
Shake to Shuffle on iPod
Another novel feature that is somewhat nice, but I had to shake hard to get it to work, however when I had my phone in my Griffin WindowSeat
Landscape on Everything
Not really everything, but you can use landscape mode in Messages, Mail, Stocks, Contacts (just the app and not the Contacts section of the Phone app), and Notes. This is a big improvement because the bigger keyboard is nice to type on.
Other Features and Final Thoughts
There are over 100 fixes and features, and I probably haven’t found them all, but I’ve been keeping my eyes open. One note is that you can now download videos, audio books and iTunes U content from the iTunes store app. You can subscribe to calendars and it now supports CalDAV. I highly suggest that all iPhone people upgrade, and it’s worth it for the iPod touch people to upgrade as well.
If you see anything of note that I may have missed feel free to share in the comments.
