6 ms·

IPhone 3.0 has copy/paste, subscriptions, micropayments, P2P, maps, push, MMS, etc

138 points by sama 18y ago

charlesju 18y ago
Shouldn't we wait until this conference is done before posting?
- sama 18y ago
  too exciting
comatose_kid 18y ago
SDK access to bluetooth? Awesome, I have a client who is dying for this...
raptrex 18y ago
yay for turn by turn apps in the future
- briansmith 18y ago
  It will be interesting to see what happens with the pricing for those apps. On other phone platforms, they usually cost over $100 per year. A very bad deal, IMO.
  - pieter 18y ago
    I came across http://sygic.com/press/press_12.3.09.html http://sygic.com/press/press_12.3.09.html which says it'll release its software for the 3G for $79
bemmu 18y ago
In-app sales will create huge new opportunities.
- wvenable 18y ago
  From the talk: "Would you like to purchase one rocket launcher for $0.99?" Oh yeah, that sounds like fun. Clearly a great way to be nickle and dimed to death in every application and game.
  - henning 18y ago
    Clippy resurrects himself from the grave and pops up in the lower right-hand corner It looks like you're trying to copy and paste. Would you like to pay $0.05 in order to continue? (Continue/Cancel) It looks like you're trying to exit the application. Would you like to pay $0.10 in order to continue? (Exit and pay $0.10/Stay for free) It looks like you're shocked to see one of Microsoft's worst creations pwn your smartphone. Would you like to buy a copy of iLithium(R), iXanax(TM), or iProzac(TM) to soften the blow for $14.99? (Yes/No)
    - mechanical_fish 18y ago
      I have no idea why this is getting downmodded. I think it's funny. Maybe I'm just the right age for this joke. Obviously, this in-app payment feature was deliberately designed to be irritating and intrusive. Apple understands that, to most paying customers, the word micropayment carries a connotation of being slowly and imperceptibly bled to death by vampires. So perhaps Apple is going to provide an API which turns in-app charges into such an ugly, flow-shattering experience that nobody could possibly miss it -- which will also compel app designers to avoid using this feature unless they really have to.
      - wensing 18y ago
        It's possible to abuse any feature. I can see this being a win-win for apps that provide layers of value (depth).
      - ashr 18y ago
        This is an extremely myopic perspective of a feature that opens up possibilities. Like somebody said, everything can be abused. But then people have the supreme authority to reject those who do.
trezor 18y ago
From the report: No backgrounding, no multitasking, no unobtrusive notifications. No copy and paste (yet), no MMS, no video. Really pretty minor stuff thus far. Ah well. So we have push notification, better hardware access and the maps API opened up for apps. Not totally shit but not revolutionary either.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- fortes 18y ago
  Peer to peer communication and device apis are nice too.
  - Timothee 18y ago
    Device API is what interests me the most! (even if I'm nowhere close to be a hardware engineer) I feel like it really opens a new field for the iPhone. I'm not quite sure what would be a great application for this yet (the examples were ok but not ground-breaking), but I really like the idea of the iPhone being able to control a bunch of stuff...
- jonursenbach 18y ago
  We just got copy & paste.
- zaveri 18y ago
  Added support for MMS!
- Maktab 18y ago
  They've also added copy & paste, landscape view in Mail and other key apps, CalDAV support and MMS so far. Looks like they've made an effort to address most of the criticisms of the phone while laying the foundation for a huge amount of additional functionality from apps, especially with the p2p API. I'm quite pleased with what's been unveiled.
- jws 18y ago
  You really should watch the live coverage by someone other than engadget. I get the impression their person is only there because someone threatened to fire him if he didn't go. If you are looking for information the Grumpy Mystery Science Theater version of the live cast is the wrong place to be.
pxlpshr 18y ago
Apple really nailed it with version 3.0, and this is going to be great for us. I suspect you'll start seeing app acquisitions as companies look to acquire an 'install' base to leverage. Time to get crankin' on more apps before gold rush 3.0!
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  Actually, hmm.. I wonder how the subscription will work for apps that were formerly free. I assume users will be able to 'opt-in' for subscription payment, otherwise the application is deleted.
  - GHFigs 18y ago
    In-application payments are not available for free applications.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
- ryanwaggoner 18y ago
  They've added both copy/paste and search. Happy?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
tocomment 18y ago
So you can embed Google maps in your app, but you can't use their maps? Isn't that kind of worthless?
- peregrine 18y ago
  You can use their maps just not for turn-by-turn. Read the article. :)
ryanwaggoner 18y ago
"Now as I said before, 3.0 brings a lot of new features for devs, but for customers as well... starting... with cut, copy, and paste." Freaking finally!
- jgfoot 18y ago
  > Q: Why did copy paste take so long? > A: Scott: It's not that easy. There were security issues. What does this mean? Could it be that with the iPhone, letting the user extract his own data from the device and sending it elsewhere is a "security" issue?
  - wallflower 18y ago
    I wonder if the buffer is outside the normal application sandbox.
  - jws 18y ago
    I think perhaps it is more "bypassing of security" issues. On the iPhone applications don't get to interact with each other, so a breach must be made in that protection, and once breached it must be guarded.
    - staunch 18y ago
      Who cares about how big a step it is conceptually. The real question is why it was so hard technically.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    You download a game. You play it once. It sucks. Meanwhile, it has stolen your mail and phoned it back home to a server in Uzbekistan.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
    - jonursenbach 18y ago
markessien 18y ago
Lovely. This was a good platform choice for me to specialize in. I'm going to start consulting almost exclusively for the iPhone, I think it's a platform that will be here for a good number of years.
nanexcool 18y ago
"So, copy/paste in iPhone 3.0." Applause. Applause for a feature that every other device in the world has. Odd. I like the iPhone, but this sums up what I usually feel about Apple products.
- wensing 18y ago
  Don't you think the genius is that they created an interface where it wasn't absolutely essential from the get-go?
  - nanexcool 18y ago
    I often found myself wanting to copy stuff from my to-do list to an email message. Or a URL from Safari.
    - wensing 18y ago
      But you still enjoy the phone. Companies that create products that people enjoy tend to benefit from loyalists who will applaud your every move. It's an advantage that entrepreneurs covet as long as they're not blinded by it.
- axod 18y ago
  They take time to get it perfect :/
- sounddust 18y ago
  Applause because the iPhone went from being the best mobile phone despite lacking major features, to the best mobile phone which lacks no major features.
  - pietro 18y ago
    Except for video recordings, a decent camera, and built-in TV. Those are standard features in high-end phones in Europe and Japan.
sama 18y ago
Search mail on the server!
ObieJazz 18y ago
3.0 SDK beta is available today. Can't wait to try it out.
- kylec 18y ago
  Is the new OS just for registered developers? How hard would it be for a non-developer to obtain and install it?
  - ROFISH 18y ago
    It's just the normal $99 developers. Originally the betas were limited to whoever Apple liked.
- lpgauth 18y ago
  Downloading now! wheee
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  If I upgrade to the developer's 3.0 (I'm in the program), can I restore my 2.0 OS? edit: just checked, you cannot restore the old version.
dustineichler 18y ago
What was the report on streaming video? if it's what i think it is, this is a huge win for qik and others.
ajju 18y ago
How good the micropayments feature is depends on what their cut on it is. 30% off of 10 cents hurts a lot more than 30% off of $10.00
- cubicle67 18y ago
  um... in what way does it hurt more?
  - ajju 18y ago
    That was a stupid comment made in haste that makes no sense as written. Paying apple 30% of repeated micropayments would hurt me more than the alternative, but it's only true in my context - which is probably not the context Apple designed their system for. I am building a web based service which can also be accessed via an iPhone app. I get paid via micropayments which I aggregate till they reach a certain dollar amount and then process via a payment processor that charges me in single digit percentages. I have the option of using iPhone's own micropayment service but that would hurt me more.
    - cubicle67 18y ago
      Thanks for the decent response. So for payments received from other sources (non iPhone), you get the full amount, but if you were to make use of the new micropayments in OS 3,0, you'd be down 30%? I can see how that would hurt
    - pieter 18y ago
      The advantage of using the app store micropayments is that users don't have to create a new account somewhere and put their account info in your app. They can use an existing system and have a one-click buy option. It'd be interesting to see what will result in more profits. My guess would be that the increased sales on the iPhone outweigh the higher profit margin with the alternatives. This depends on your costs too of course (e.g. copyright fees for eBooks)
Hexstream 18y ago
96% of apps are approved? I thought the percentage was much lower. Vocal minority, I guess.
- jedberg 18y ago
  That doesn't say how many times the app had to be resubmitted before approval. I'd like to see the rate of first time rejections.
  - jshen 18y ago
    A lot of first time rejections are for things like version numbers not matching. I'm not sure why that stat would be meaningful.
    - wizard_2 18y ago
      Well obviously we want to know more about the procedure and why apps get rejected. We want to know what Apple's "moral" objections are and what values they're trying to impose. Its more a fear of some agenda (beyond no apps that don't work or do harm) that we may not agree with then stats. It also doesn't hurt to know what your chances are to have trouble.
- eyeraw 18y ago
  Misleading statistic - developers are probably just getting better at self-censorship. They don't bother submitting non "politically correct" apps anymore.
- tocomment 18y ago
  They should have reported to wait time too. It's been 3 months and counting for my first app.
jonursenbach 18y ago
I'm pretty pissed about MMS not being available on the 2G, but at least now with copy & paste I can finally copy those fucking username/password combinations that AT&T sends me.
- gamache 18y ago
  If I understand correctly, MMS will be available on all iPhones once they are updated to iPhone OS 3.0. It was never a hardware issue.
  - jonursenbach 18y ago
    Nope. ---- Engadget ---- 11:27AM "What about the rest of us? iPhone OS 3.0 will be available this Summer. A free update to all of our iPhone 3G customers. And it works on the original iPhone. Now the hardware has changed between these two devices. For instance, A2DP and MMS won't be available on the iPhone 1st gen. It's also available for the iPod touch... for $9.95." ---- gdgt ---- 11:27AM - “As a bonus, we’ve enabled it to work on the original iPhone. The hardware’s changed though: MMS and A2DP won’t be available on the original iPhone.” iPod touch users: $10. 11:27AM - App Store will be in 77 countries. 3.0 ships this summer for free.
    - generalk 18y ago
      This sounds like bullshit to me: maybe I'm just naive, but I can't for the life of me figure out how a cell radio could be unable to transmit MMS. Especially the radio in a phone released after 2002.
    - gamache 18y ago
      Oops, I stand corrected. All the news I read skipped that part. But I too can't imagine how the original hardware would not be able to handle it...
- tocomment 18y ago
  I tried to go to the URL from those but it always says the server is down :-( does that thing work for anyone?
asciilifeform 18y ago
Micropayments: death by a thousand cuts. Mark my words.
- icey 18y ago
  Well, that's kind of the nice thing about capitalism. If you don't like it, vote (or rather don't vote) with your wallet.
  - asciilifeform 18y ago
    This would be true in a market driven by competition between near-equals. The iPhone does not live in such a market. It has no competition. It is a qualitatively different product from other mobile phones. The cell phone market is divided into two categories: the iPhone, and inferior crud. If Apple were to begin charging $0.05 per "click", you would have to cough up the dough or switch to a vastly inferior product. Therefore, your ability to "vote" with your money is academic in this case.
    - icey 18y ago
      Don't you think that a decision to begin charging 5 cents per click would significantly reduce the perceived quality of the iPhone? I know it may be hard to believe, but we're just talking about cellphones here; I'm sure Apple is aware of the fact that doing something like that would be suicide in a very competitive market.
    - GHFigs 18y ago
      You're conflating the third party iPhone application market (which can now use micropayments) with the cell phone market as a whole. That's very odd.
      - asciilifeform 18y ago
        Micropayments could easily become a standard, expected part of iPhone use. In that case, there will be no escape. I suspect that this is the reason why Apple users complain about (even potential!) misfeatures to the extent they do. In the product categories where Apple is a player, from the standpoint of a dedicated Apple user, they have zero competition. All of the supposedly competing products are far below the quality-of-user-experience Apple users are accustomed to. Hence the perception that there is nowhere to run to.
martythemaniak 18y ago
The app store upgrades look like they might be useful for many devs, but to be honest it's pretty hard to get excited over features other smartphones have had for many years. And of course, users still don't have access to their own data.
- ftse 18y ago
  To be honest it's pretty hard not to get excited over features on the iPhone 3.0.
jodrellblank 18y ago
Soooo ... how long until people pull the SDK apart looking for indications of a new iphone with new hardware in June? Software streaming video support, the recent release of an Apple patent on a front facing camera behind the screen - are we likely to see a videophone iPhone?
- briansmith 18y ago
  What would a new iPhone be like? Slightly smaller? Better battery life? Better camera? It would be hard for many people to justify dropping $600+ for just those features. And, Apple has demonstrated with these major firmware revisions that they can upgrade the device substantially; I think consumers will get angry if they start withholding firmware updates as an incentive to buy more hardware. That is exactly what Nokia does, and I don't think Nokia's customers are going to take it anymore after seeing what Apple's doing here. Very soon the typical smartphone lifespan will be close to 5 years and the average computer lifespan will be close to 10 years. The Nokia N95 was released in 2006 and there are still tons of people rocking that device. There will probably be millions of people using the iPhone 3G and the Nokia N97 in 2014 (maybe as hand-me-downs).
  - jodrellblank 18y ago
    Apple released new iPods year on year pretty much just for storage space upgrades for a while. What could it have that couldn't be done in software? How about: More storage (always more storage), more RAM, maybe a faster CPU if they could do it without ruining existing software by running it too fast, the new more precise more responsive multi touch screen design that was demo'd on recently, a front facing camera, new radio support (e.g. 4G), reduced power consuming components (3G/bluetooth/gps processors), improved internal speaker for music/handsfree use, new WiFi standard support, more CPU features, camera flash. What about manufacturing changes? If they apply what they've done to the Macbook range to the iPhone, could they get a casing with fewer seams? Better looking? Cheaper to make? With more room for components inside? And these are just basic predictable potential improvements without going as far as a projector or an nVidia 3D card or a physical keyboard or some new never seen before innovative change.
  - 18y ago
ftse 18y ago
I'm most impressed with support for integrating the iPhone with miscellaneous hardware. I believe from this space the century's first killer app will emerge.
jodrellblank 18y ago
Does the MMS and voice notes support mean you could record a voice message and 'text' it to someone? Like the best bits of voicemail and SMS combined? Because that would be brilliant.
- modoc 18y ago
  Yes, it does exactly that!
  - dans 18y ago
    Wow. How very revolutionary! You have been able do that with any standard Sony Ericcson phone, for the last 2-3 years, and probably Nokia, HTC, Samsung too. My phone has a button that says "reply with voice-message" and then using some sort of black voodoo it gets sent over mms. I like it when apple make a new product, strip it of most basic features and then when they finally add the long missing features... It's like the second coming of Jesus.
    - modoc 18y ago
      I never said it was revolutionary. It's a feature that seems useful, is new to the iPhone, and will be a free upgrade. As a very happy iPhone owner (and yes I've had Sony Ericcsons, Motorolas, Nokias, HTCs, etc...) this upcoming feature (and the others) are something to look forward to. If Sony Ericcson offered a software upgrade that did over the air sync of all my MobileMe data, that would be great, and I can't imagine saying "well I've been able to do that for ages with my iPhone" to a happy Sony Ericcson owner. Why does it have to be a battle?
    - jodrellblank 18y ago
      Yes revolutionary - and end to typing and interpreing txt spk. What's really funny though is all the people saying "but my Sony motorola windows mobile bzjqrrZzz73000 has had this for ages" as if that mattered. Isn't this evidence that it's not the list of features that sells, but the quality of the device and the user interface to the features that matters? Not proof that the iPhone is crap because it lacks these features, but proof that it's extra good for thriving even without these features because the rest of it is so good. Sent from my iPhone. Written awkwardly on an annoying keyboard in a too small space. But I don't mind!
quilby 18y ago
Why does apple not just release new features once they finish working on them? Why do they have to do these we-got-new-features press conferences and only release new features on those dates?
- Angostura 18y ago
  Not suprisingly, Apple releases the SDK ahead of the OS release, so that developers get some lead time. When the SDK is released it also announces the new features.
zhyder 18y ago
Lots of great updates, but still missing voice-activated dialing, which -especially with a bluetooth headset- is very useful when driving.
mattmaroon 18y ago
As a serial app developer (though not yet on that platform) here's what I heard from Apple's announcement: crap, crap, crap, IN GAME PAYMENTS!!!, crap, crap, crap. P.S. background notifications I guess that list would probably be a little less bland were I an iPhone user.
phd_student 18y ago
is iphone 3.0 only for the iphone, or is it supported on the ipod touch too?
- robotron 18y ago
  There is a fee for Touch users to upgrade.
jhatcom 18y ago
Can someone tell me why cut and paste is so much in demand? I've been using my iPhone for months and never once needed it. Are folks editing documents on their iPhone?
- sounddust 18y ago
  What I need it for the most is when someone sends me the details of a social event via mail/facebook (location/time/phone number) and I need to SMS it to my friends. Currently, the only way to do so is to flip back and forth between the apps and rely on your short term memory. It's also a pain the other way: When you receive an SMS and you need to facebook/e-mail/SMS others (although SMS forwarding solves 1/3 of this problem).
- dkokelley 18y ago
  What I would use it for is to log in to my my school's wireless network. Not the actual network itself, which is open, but the gateway afterwards that requires you to enter your student email address and password. It's quite long and I usually end up turning wifi off when I'm on campus so I can still get emails. If I could save even just the email address in a note I could copy-paste it and save at least 30 seconds of time (which is surprisingly long when you need to want to catch something before the professor enters and starts lecturing).
ivankirigin 18y ago
30% cut to Apple isn't a micropayment, which I define as tolerating small amounts without getting killed on overhead. You could just charge their credit card and get better rates. I wonder if they'll block services like http://tipjoy.com http://tipjoy.com from working on the iphone. This sounds like an awesome release though.
- auston 18y ago
  I agree. If I wanted to sell an ebook or mp3 or something at a competitive price it would be impossible!
statictype 18y ago
Wait - the iPhone didn't have bluetooth before this update right? Which means it was enabled entirely through a software update. Is that right? I know it operates on the same frequency as wifi but still, that's pretty impressive, isn't it?
- allenbrunson 18y ago
  the iphone had bluetooth before this update, but it was very limited in scope.
pieter 18y ago
I wonder how the dock accessoires will influence the app review process.. Will you be required to ship your accessoire to Apple before they can review your app?

138 points by sama 18y ago

charlesju 18y ago

Shouldn't we wait until this conference is done before posting?

sama 18y ago
too exciting

comatose_kid 18y ago

SDK access to bluetooth? Awesome, I have a client who is dying for this...

raptrex 18y ago

yay for turn by turn apps in the future

briansmith 18y ago
It will be interesting to see what happens with the pricing for those apps. On other phone platforms, they usually cost over $100 per year. A very bad deal, IMO.
- pieter 18y ago
  I came across http://sygic.com/press/press_12.3.09.html http://sygic.com/press/press_12.3.09.html which says it'll release its software for the 3G for $79

bemmu 18y ago

In-app sales will create huge new opportunities.

wvenable 18y ago
From the talk: "Would you like to purchase one rocket launcher for $0.99?" Oh yeah, that sounds like fun. Clearly a great way to be nickle and dimed to death in every application and game.
- henning 18y ago
  Clippy resurrects himself from the grave and pops up in the lower right-hand corner It looks like you're trying to copy and paste. Would you like to pay $0.05 in order to continue? (Continue/Cancel) It looks like you're trying to exit the application. Would you like to pay $0.10 in order to continue? (Exit and pay $0.10/Stay for free) It looks like you're shocked to see one of Microsoft's worst creations pwn your smartphone. Would you like to buy a copy of iLithium(R), iXanax(TM), or iProzac(TM) to soften the blow for $14.99? (Yes/No)
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    I have no idea why this is getting downmodded. I think it's funny. Maybe I'm just the right age for this joke. Obviously, this in-app payment feature was deliberately designed to be irritating and intrusive. Apple understands that, to most paying customers, the word micropayment carries a connotation of being slowly and imperceptibly bled to death by vampires. So perhaps Apple is going to provide an API which turns in-app charges into such an ugly, flow-shattering experience that nobody could possibly miss it -- which will also compel app designers to avoid using this feature unless they really have to.
    - wensing 18y ago
      It's possible to abuse any feature. I can see this being a win-win for apps that provide layers of value (depth).
    - ashr 18y ago
      This is an extremely myopic perspective of a feature that opens up possibilities. Like somebody said, everything can be abused. But then people have the supreme authority to reject those who do.

trezor 18y ago

From the report: No backgrounding, no multitasking, no unobtrusive notifications. No copy and paste (yet), no MMS, no video. Really pretty minor stuff thus far. Ah well. So we have push notification, better hardware access and the maps API opened up for apps. Not totally shit but not revolutionary either.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
fortes 18y ago
Peer to peer communication and device apis are nice too.
- Timothee 18y ago
  Device API is what interests me the most! (even if I'm nowhere close to be a hardware engineer) I feel like it really opens a new field for the iPhone. I'm not quite sure what would be a great application for this yet (the examples were ok but not ground-breaking), but I really like the idea of the iPhone being able to control a bunch of stuff...
jonursenbach 18y ago
We just got copy & paste.
zaveri 18y ago
Added support for MMS!
Maktab 18y ago
They've also added copy & paste, landscape view in Mail and other key apps, CalDAV support and MMS so far. Looks like they've made an effort to address most of the criticisms of the phone while laying the foundation for a huge amount of additional functionality from apps, especially with the p2p API. I'm quite pleased with what's been unveiled.
jws 18y ago
You really should watch the live coverage by someone other than engadget. I get the impression their person is only there because someone threatened to fire him if he didn't go. If you are looking for information the Grumpy Mystery Science Theater version of the live cast is the wrong place to be.

pxlpshr 18y ago

Apple really nailed it with version 3.0, and this is going to be great for us. I suspect you'll start seeing app acquisitions as companies look to acquire an 'install' base to leverage. Time to get crankin' on more apps before gold rush 3.0!

pxlpshr 18y ago
Actually, hmm.. I wonder how the subscription will work for apps that were formerly free. I assume users will be able to 'opt-in' for subscription payment, otherwise the application is deleted.
- GHFigs 18y ago
  In-application payments are not available for free applications.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

ryanwaggoner 18y ago
They've added both copy/paste and search. Happy?
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

tocomment 18y ago

So you can embed Google maps in your app, but you can't use their maps? Isn't that kind of worthless?

peregrine 18y ago
You can use their maps just not for turn-by-turn. Read the article. :)

ryanwaggoner 18y ago

"Now as I said before, 3.0 brings a lot of new features for devs, but for customers as well... starting... with cut, copy, and paste." Freaking finally!

jgfoot 18y ago
> Q: Why did copy paste take so long? > A: Scott: It's not that easy. There were security issues. What does this mean? Could it be that with the iPhone, letting the user extract his own data from the device and sending it elsewhere is a "security" issue?
- wallflower 18y ago
  I wonder if the buffer is outside the normal application sandbox.
- jws 18y ago
  I think perhaps it is more "bypassing of security" issues. On the iPhone applications don't get to interact with each other, so a breach must be made in that protection, and once breached it must be guarded.
  - staunch 18y ago
    Who cares about how big a step it is conceptually. The real question is why it was so hard technically.
- tptacek 18y ago
  You download a game. You play it once. It sucks. Meanwhile, it has stolen your mail and phoned it back home to a server in Uzbekistan.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - jonursenbach 18y ago

markessien 18y ago

Lovely. This was a good platform choice for me to specialize in. I'm going to start consulting almost exclusively for the iPhone, I think it's a platform that will be here for a good number of years.

nanexcool 18y ago

"So, copy/paste in iPhone 3.0." Applause. Applause for a feature that every other device in the world has. Odd. I like the iPhone, but this sums up what I usually feel about Apple products.

wensing 18y ago
Don't you think the genius is that they created an interface where it wasn't absolutely essential from the get-go?
- nanexcool 18y ago
  I often found myself wanting to copy stuff from my to-do list to an email message. Or a URL from Safari.
  - wensing 18y ago
    But you still enjoy the phone. Companies that create products that people enjoy tend to benefit from loyalists who will applaud your every move. It's an advantage that entrepreneurs covet as long as they're not blinded by it.
axod 18y ago
They take time to get it perfect :/
sounddust 18y ago
Applause because the iPhone went from being the best mobile phone despite lacking major features, to the best mobile phone which lacks no major features.
- pietro 18y ago
  Except for video recordings, a decent camera, and built-in TV. Those are standard features in high-end phones in Europe and Japan.

sama 18y ago

Search mail on the server!

ObieJazz 18y ago

3.0 SDK beta is available today. Can't wait to try it out.

kylec 18y ago
Is the new OS just for registered developers? How hard would it be for a non-developer to obtain and install it?
- ROFISH 18y ago
  It's just the normal $99 developers. Originally the betas were limited to whoever Apple liked.
lpgauth 18y ago
Downloading now! wheee
menloparkbum 18y ago
If I upgrade to the developer's 3.0 (I'm in the program), can I restore my 2.0 OS? edit: just checked, you cannot restore the old version.

dustineichler 18y ago

What was the report on streaming video? if it's what i think it is, this is a huge win for qik and others.

ajju 18y ago

How good the micropayments feature is depends on what their cut on it is. 30% off of 10 cents hurts a lot more than 30% off of $10.00

cubicle67 18y ago
um... in what way does it hurt more?
- ajju 18y ago
  That was a stupid comment made in haste that makes no sense as written. Paying apple 30% of repeated micropayments would hurt me more than the alternative, but it's only true in my context - which is probably not the context Apple designed their system for. I am building a web based service which can also be accessed via an iPhone app. I get paid via micropayments which I aggregate till they reach a certain dollar amount and then process via a payment processor that charges me in single digit percentages. I have the option of using iPhone's own micropayment service but that would hurt me more.
  - cubicle67 18y ago
    Thanks for the decent response. So for payments received from other sources (non iPhone), you get the full amount, but if you were to make use of the new micropayments in OS 3,0, you'd be down 30%? I can see how that would hurt
  - pieter 18y ago
    The advantage of using the app store micropayments is that users don't have to create a new account somewhere and put their account info in your app. They can use an existing system and have a one-click buy option. It'd be interesting to see what will result in more profits. My guess would be that the increased sales on the iPhone outweigh the higher profit margin with the alternatives. This depends on your costs too of course (e.g. copyright fees for eBooks)

Hexstream 18y ago

96% of apps are approved? I thought the percentage was much lower. Vocal minority, I guess.

jedberg 18y ago
That doesn't say how many times the app had to be resubmitted before approval. I'd like to see the rate of first time rejections.
- jshen 18y ago
  A lot of first time rejections are for things like version numbers not matching. I'm not sure why that stat would be meaningful.
  - wizard_2 18y ago
    Well obviously we want to know more about the procedure and why apps get rejected. We want to know what Apple's "moral" objections are and what values they're trying to impose. Its more a fear of some agenda (beyond no apps that don't work or do harm) that we may not agree with then stats. It also doesn't hurt to know what your chances are to have trouble.
eyeraw 18y ago
Misleading statistic - developers are probably just getting better at self-censorship. They don't bother submitting non "politically correct" apps anymore.
tocomment 18y ago
They should have reported to wait time too. It's been 3 months and counting for my first app.

jonursenbach 18y ago

I'm pretty pissed about MMS not being available on the 2G, but at least now with copy & paste I can finally copy those fucking username/password combinations that AT&T sends me.

gamache 18y ago
If I understand correctly, MMS will be available on all iPhones once they are updated to iPhone OS 3.0. It was never a hardware issue.
- jonursenbach 18y ago
  Nope. ---- Engadget ---- 11:27AM "What about the rest of us? iPhone OS 3.0 will be available this Summer. A free update to all of our iPhone 3G customers. And it works on the original iPhone. Now the hardware has changed between these two devices. For instance, A2DP and MMS won't be available on the iPhone 1st gen. It's also available for the iPod touch... for $9.95." ---- gdgt ---- 11:27AM - “As a bonus, we’ve enabled it to work on the original iPhone. The hardware’s changed though: MMS and A2DP won’t be available on the original iPhone.” iPod touch users: $10. 11:27AM - App Store will be in 77 countries. 3.0 ships this summer for free.
  - generalk 18y ago
    This sounds like bullshit to me: maybe I'm just naive, but I can't for the life of me figure out how a cell radio could be unable to transmit MMS. Especially the radio in a phone released after 2002.
  - gamache 18y ago
    Oops, I stand corrected. All the news I read skipped that part. But I too can't imagine how the original hardware would not be able to handle it...
tocomment 18y ago
I tried to go to the URL from those but it always says the server is down :-( does that thing work for anyone?

asciilifeform 18y ago

Micropayments: death by a thousand cuts. Mark my words.

icey 18y ago
Well, that's kind of the nice thing about capitalism. If you don't like it, vote (or rather don't vote) with your wallet.
- asciilifeform 18y ago
  This would be true in a market driven by competition between near-equals. The iPhone does not live in such a market. It has no competition. It is a qualitatively different product from other mobile phones. The cell phone market is divided into two categories: the iPhone, and inferior crud. If Apple were to begin charging $0.05 per "click", you would have to cough up the dough or switch to a vastly inferior product. Therefore, your ability to "vote" with your money is academic in this case.
  - icey 18y ago
    Don't you think that a decision to begin charging 5 cents per click would significantly reduce the perceived quality of the iPhone? I know it may be hard to believe, but we're just talking about cellphones here; I'm sure Apple is aware of the fact that doing something like that would be suicide in a very competitive market.
  - GHFigs 18y ago
    You're conflating the third party iPhone application market (which can now use micropayments) with the cell phone market as a whole. That's very odd.
    - asciilifeform 18y ago
      Micropayments could easily become a standard, expected part of iPhone use. In that case, there will be no escape. I suspect that this is the reason why Apple users complain about (even potential!) misfeatures to the extent they do. In the product categories where Apple is a player, from the standpoint of a dedicated Apple user, they have zero competition. All of the supposedly competing products are far below the quality-of-user-experience Apple users are accustomed to. Hence the perception that there is nowhere to run to.

martythemaniak 18y ago

The app store upgrades look like they might be useful for many devs, but to be honest it's pretty hard to get excited over features other smartphones have had for many years. And of course, users still don't have access to their own data.

ftse 18y ago
To be honest it's pretty hard not to get excited over features on the iPhone 3.0.

jodrellblank 18y ago

Soooo ... how long until people pull the SDK apart looking for indications of a new iphone with new hardware in June? Software streaming video support, the recent release of an Apple patent on a front facing camera behind the screen - are we likely to see a videophone iPhone?

briansmith 18y ago
What would a new iPhone be like? Slightly smaller? Better battery life? Better camera? It would be hard for many people to justify dropping $600+ for just those features. And, Apple has demonstrated with these major firmware revisions that they can upgrade the device substantially; I think consumers will get angry if they start withholding firmware updates as an incentive to buy more hardware. That is exactly what Nokia does, and I don't think Nokia's customers are going to take it anymore after seeing what Apple's doing here. Very soon the typical smartphone lifespan will be close to 5 years and the average computer lifespan will be close to 10 years. The Nokia N95 was released in 2006 and there are still tons of people rocking that device. There will probably be millions of people using the iPhone 3G and the Nokia N97 in 2014 (maybe as hand-me-downs).
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  Apple released new iPods year on year pretty much just for storage space upgrades for a while. What could it have that couldn't be done in software? How about: More storage (always more storage), more RAM, maybe a faster CPU if they could do it without ruining existing software by running it too fast, the new more precise more responsive multi touch screen design that was demo'd on recently, a front facing camera, new radio support (e.g. 4G), reduced power consuming components (3G/bluetooth/gps processors), improved internal speaker for music/handsfree use, new WiFi standard support, more CPU features, camera flash. What about manufacturing changes? If they apply what they've done to the Macbook range to the iPhone, could they get a casing with fewer seams? Better looking? Cheaper to make? With more room for components inside? And these are just basic predictable potential improvements without going as far as a projector or an nVidia 3D card or a physical keyboard or some new never seen before innovative change.
- 18y ago

ftse 18y ago

I'm most impressed with support for integrating the iPhone with miscellaneous hardware. I believe from this space the century's first killer app will emerge.

jodrellblank 18y ago

Does the MMS and voice notes support mean you could record a voice message and 'text' it to someone? Like the best bits of voicemail and SMS combined? Because that would be brilliant.

modoc 18y ago
Yes, it does exactly that!
- dans 18y ago
  Wow. How very revolutionary! You have been able do that with any standard Sony Ericcson phone, for the last 2-3 years, and probably Nokia, HTC, Samsung too. My phone has a button that says "reply with voice-message" and then using some sort of black voodoo it gets sent over mms. I like it when apple make a new product, strip it of most basic features and then when they finally add the long missing features... It's like the second coming of Jesus.
  - modoc 18y ago
    I never said it was revolutionary. It's a feature that seems useful, is new to the iPhone, and will be a free upgrade. As a very happy iPhone owner (and yes I've had Sony Ericcsons, Motorolas, Nokias, HTCs, etc...) this upcoming feature (and the others) are something to look forward to. If Sony Ericcson offered a software upgrade that did over the air sync of all my MobileMe data, that would be great, and I can't imagine saying "well I've been able to do that for ages with my iPhone" to a happy Sony Ericcson owner. Why does it have to be a battle?
  - jodrellblank 18y ago
    Yes revolutionary - and end to typing and interpreing txt spk. What's really funny though is all the people saying "but my Sony motorola windows mobile bzjqrrZzz73000 has had this for ages" as if that mattered. Isn't this evidence that it's not the list of features that sells, but the quality of the device and the user interface to the features that matters? Not proof that the iPhone is crap because it lacks these features, but proof that it's extra good for thriving even without these features because the rest of it is so good. Sent from my iPhone. Written awkwardly on an annoying keyboard in a too small space. But I don't mind!

quilby 18y ago

Why does apple not just release new features once they finish working on them? Why do they have to do these we-got-new-features press conferences and only release new features on those dates?

Angostura 18y ago
Not suprisingly, Apple releases the SDK ahead of the OS release, so that developers get some lead time. When the SDK is released it also announces the new features.

zhyder 18y ago

Lots of great updates, but still missing voice-activated dialing, which -especially with a bluetooth headset- is very useful when driving.

mattmaroon 18y ago

As a serial app developer (though not yet on that platform) here's what I heard from Apple's announcement: crap, crap, crap, IN GAME PAYMENTS!!!, crap, crap, crap. P.S. background notifications I guess that list would probably be a little less bland were I an iPhone user.

phd_student 18y ago

is iphone 3.0 only for the iphone, or is it supported on the ipod touch too?

robotron 18y ago
There is a fee for Touch users to upgrade.

jhatcom 18y ago

Can someone tell me why cut and paste is so much in demand? I've been using my iPhone for months and never once needed it. Are folks editing documents on their iPhone?

sounddust 18y ago
What I need it for the most is when someone sends me the details of a social event via mail/facebook (location/time/phone number) and I need to SMS it to my friends. Currently, the only way to do so is to flip back and forth between the apps and rely on your short term memory. It's also a pain the other way: When you receive an SMS and you need to facebook/e-mail/SMS others (although SMS forwarding solves 1/3 of this problem).
dkokelley 18y ago
What I would use it for is to log in to my my school's wireless network. Not the actual network itself, which is open, but the gateway afterwards that requires you to enter your student email address and password. It's quite long and I usually end up turning wifi off when I'm on campus so I can still get emails. If I could save even just the email address in a note I could copy-paste it and save at least 30 seconds of time (which is surprisingly long when you need to want to catch something before the professor enters and starts lecturing).

ivankirigin 18y ago

30% cut to Apple isn't a micropayment, which I define as tolerating small amounts without getting killed on overhead. You could just charge their credit card and get better rates. I wonder if they'll block services like http://tipjoy.com http://tipjoy.com from working on the iphone. This sounds like an awesome release though.

auston 18y ago
I agree. If I wanted to sell an ebook or mp3 or something at a competitive price it would be impossible!

statictype 18y ago

Wait - the iPhone didn't have bluetooth before this update right? Which means it was enabled entirely through a software update. Is that right? I know it operates on the same frequency as wifi but still, that's pretty impressive, isn't it?

allenbrunson 18y ago
the iphone had bluetooth before this update, but it was very limited in scope.

pieter 18y ago

I wonder how the dock accessoires will influence the app review process.. Will you be required to ship your accessoire to Apple before they can review your app?