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Mar. 19, 2009

Late yesterday, Apple has unveiled its iPhone 3.0 operating system, displaying many of the new features of the smartphone.

Overall, beginning in June, more than one-hundred new features will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users, including cut, copy and paste, MMS, landscape view for mail, text and notes, stereo Bluetooth, syncing Notes to the Mac and PC, and finally parental controls for TV shows.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta software and SDK include more than 1,000 new APIs and are available now for all iPhone Developer Program members to use for development and testing of their apps for iPhone and iPod touch.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release also will include a new voice memo app and expanded search for all key iPhone apps.

While many iPhone fans welcome the updates, some rivals in the smartphone OS space were less impressed.

According to Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's mobile product manager, the software giant has had features such as copy and paste and MMS in its platform for years. In some ways, Apple is just catching up... (!)

“We feel real good about our continued investment in the platform,” Sullivan said.

Microsoft continues to improve its platform, with its version 6.5 Windows Mobile release expected on Sep. 30, 2009.

But Microsoft hasn’t offered a mobile applications store that's on the same level with Apple’s.

The Redmond behemoth has worked with third-party apps for years, but it will be integrating the Windows Marketplace into the phone itself so that customers have an easy-to-find link or portal from the device, Sullivan says.

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Source: Apple.