3.0

It seems there is a hidden easter egg in iPhone 3.0. Upload Video:

What are you? In the past days we have reported speed stats, features, screenshots, and impressions on iPhone 3.0. We tested it on an iPod Touch. But something weird has occurred. And I'm pretty sure Apple is aware of it.

Remember that they said MMS and stereo BlueTooth would not be added to the first generation iPhone due to hardware limitations? Here's what I say. If you have a first generation iPhone or iPod Touch, 3.0 is bad news for you.

But we also ran this on an iPhone 3G. And it's completely the opposite of our impressions on 3.0 on the first gen iPod Touch. Though we were not able to run speed tests, or spend much time with it, it is running very well. In fact, the owner of the iPhone 3G said "it's running better than with any other 2.0 firmware I've had installed". And though he only gave us a short time to play with it, it's running much smoother than on our old iPod.

Basically, scratch out all our complains and bug reports. Boot Time is much better than the iPod Touch (first gen). It's only a few seconds slower than 2.2.1 boot time. Copy and Paste although working OK on the iPod is running much smoother on the iPhone 3G. The "Shake to Shuffle" feature we reported was not working well on the old iPod is working OK on the 3G. What's more, the owner of the phone told us he has yet to have had his phone freeze or reboot (well, he said App Store crashed once). So... this has us puzzled. Basically it seems Apple is pushing the limit on hardware and the old devices can't really keep up.

So what does this mean? It's good news for iPhone 3G and 2G iPod Touch owners. Not so good for owners of the old devices. 3.0 is supposed to come out in the summer, so Apple can still improve this. But for now, that's what's going on.

I decided to run some tests to see how iPhone 3.0 stood against current 2.2.1. Let me tell you... it's not looking too good for 3.0!

Safari is slightly slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 Syncing takes longer than on 2.2.1. Keeps saying "Syncing iPod" for a long time. A really long time. Most 2.0 apps work well on 3.0. TTR2 however does not. Loading of App Store is slightly slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 Loading of individual app description is a bit slower on 3.0 than on 2.2.1 App Store crashes. Not a lot but not a bit! I sent an email to my MobileMe account. With Push turned on, on 3.0 it took 8 seconds for it to tell me I had a new email. 2.2.1 did this while fetching in 7 seconds. Although some are buggy, 3D apps seems to have very slightly improved graphics. App Install time on 3.0: about 30 sec ; on 2.2.1: about 17 sec Reboot time: on 3.0: 1 minute; on 2.2.1: 45 sec Emoji can still be enabled at least through Typing Genius.

These are just some random stats we ran. If you want a test run for a specific function, please request it by leaving a comment below. I'm sure these issues will be fixed in the next beta or in the official release. This beta is mainly for devs to get their apps working on 3.0.

It's been pretty crazy for us since iPhone 3.0 was unveiled yesterday and we've been blogging and testing like mad men! But hey, we're not complaining; it's all we love...

We've written several posts about the new iPhone 3.0 within the last 24 hours and I thought it would be nice to do a little recap of everything that's been said. This post is aimed at making it easier for you to browse through what we wrote about 3.0 so you can access the information you're looking for more quickly.

iPhone 3.0 roundup: a summary of the most important new features of OS 3.0 (MMS, copy/paste, push notifications, etc...) iPhone 3.0 let downs: 3.0 sure is great, but it's still missing a lot of features that most smartphones already have iPhone 3.0 event video: the full video of the event iPhone 3.0 jailbreak: believe it or not but firmware 3.0 can be jailbroken undocumented iPhone 3.0 features: some new features that haven't been documented, and some that have exclusive iPhone 3.0 hands on: we got our hands on 3.0, and we're sharing it with you... screenshots included! iPhone 3.0 speed test: see how the beta 3.0 compares to 2.2.1

We're most likely gonna write a little more about 3.0 within the next few days and we'll update this post as the news come.

Blogs everywhere are reporting new features of iPhone 3.0. What they have not mentioned are the improvements to Safari options. Apple has added stuff people have wanted for a while in Safari, such as:

Autofill - "Automatically fill out web forms using your contact info or previous names and passwords" Fraud Warning - "Warn when visiting fraudulent websites"

Other stuff in 3.0 include:

Shake to Shuffle - Which appears to only work when you already are in shuffle 9 page limit is still present Current iTunes sucks with the newest firmware; slow sync. So expect an update. Most 2.x apps appear to work Minor tweak on the App Store app (apparently the screenshots are now in the page, and you scroll though them like in OS X. We'll post a screenshot when we get it) iPod Touch now has Street View. All the other stuff Apple mentioned (they told us a lot this time around) Push Notification (at least for Mobile Me) is working pretty well.

Stay tuned for more info.

UPDATE:

There are more posts with info but since this is the one for undocumented features I'll post some stuff here. There's the easter egg (there's a seperate post for that). Now:

The Stocks icon has been slightly tweaked. If you look at the current one in the bottom it's light and has the months. In the new it's complete in the bottom (still lighter) and has no months showing. Maps for the iPod Touch has all the stuff the iPhone users got in 2.2.1. But also "Locate Me" has improved but is unstable. It puts a pin and a circle around it showing my possible location. The first time the pin landed RIGHT where I was. The second time around the pin landed in the street next to me. So it's close....

Earlier today, Apple unveiled the new firmware 3.0 that will ship sometimes this summer. While there were a lot of new features announced, I think people are getting a little too excited. Let me explain myself.

Most of these features are old news

First, I think what people are forgetting here, is that most new smartphones now come with all the features showcased during the presentation today. Sure, copy/paste is nice, but my 3 year old BlackBerry can do that. Sure, push notification is great, but my 3 year old BlackBerry can do that. Sure MMS is awesome, but my 4 year old Nokia can do that. Sure allowing developers to create GPS enabled apps that can do turn-by-turn navigation is amazing, but again, my good old BlackBerry would do this 3 years ago... Do you get my point?

My point here is that we are fooled by Apple to believe that what they unveiled today is amazing. It's not! I said it before and I'll say it again, all these features should have been on the iPhone since day 1. Why didn't they do it? Because they are marketing geniuses, and if they give us everything at once, what are they gonna give us next year... Other companies can't afford to do that because they don't have the marketing and branding power to do so.

We are getting ripped off!

Now regarding the in-app purchasing... I have to admit that from a developer/commercial stand point, this is a great feature. However, from an end user stand point, this is a complete rip off! As it is currently, when you buy a game in the App Store for let's say $4.99, you know that you will get updates and new levels for free. Forget that in 3.0! Now you will have to pay for your updates and I think users are gonna get screwed.

There is still a lot missing

All these new features are pretty exciting because that's what we've always asked for, but I think there is still a lot missing: iChat, push Gmail, background multitasking, flash support, and video recording are just a few of the big features I want to see on my iPhone. The Palm Pre does all of that so why can't the iPhone too?

I don't want to sound like an asshole but again, Apple is giving us new features one drop at a time and that's very annoying. The thing is, all these missing features don't prevent me from being really excited about 3.0 and I am hopeful that it will come with new hardware (aka new iPhone) this summer.

In case you were hiding in a cave for the last week, you probably were like most of us iPhone users, excited about the new iPhone 3.0 software. While I wasn't invited in Cupertino for the event (what a surprise!), I followed several live coverages at the same time to make sure I wasn't missing a single thing of what was going on.

In-app purchase, peer-to-peer connectivity, accessories, embeddable maps, push notifications, cut/copy/paste/undo, landscape keyboarding, MMS, new app (Voice Memos), CalDAV / ICS subs, stock enhancements, search and Spotlight… just a few of the more than 100 new features and 1000 new APIs that make up iPhone 3.0.

Let's have a look at what has been said today.

The conference started with a good old "we're the shit" kind of introduction showing how great Apple is and how amazing and simple it is to develop applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Not surprisingly, the controversy about the app approval wasn't part of the presentation...

The App Store is seeing some enhancements and will now be able to support different business models: subscriptions, additional levels, and new content. Magazines will soon be able to sell subscriptions, iPhone developers will be able to sell new levels for their games, and publishers can sell ebooks. This new model is called "in-app purchase".

While in the game/app, a pop up will ask you if you'd like to purchase more levels (or more accessories. For example, you can buy a new gun for a shooting game). If you say yes, the new levels will download automatically onto the app and into the phone. Everything will be tied to the App Store, and you will obviously be billed for these purchases.

It looks very interesting to me and it completely makes sense. My main concern here is that if I buy a game from the App Store, it's understood that I get the updates to this game (new levels) for free. Well, it's not anymore. Yet another way to get a little more money from you.

A new "peer to peer" feature will be available in firmware 3.0. For example, you're playing a car racing game, a popover panel will show all other iPhones and iPods in the area. Really cool!

iPhone 3.0 will also allow developers to create accessories that talk right to the iPhone. For example, you can give the iPhone an equalizer to a speaker system. Here’s another example: FM transmitter, which would find the optimal broadcast channel and play your music.

This is a BIG one. Apple is now letting developers use Core Location as the basis for turn-by-turn directions. Devs will however have to use their own maps because Apple can't license Google’s Maps for turn-by-turn directions.

Apple admits that it's late on this one. They say that it can't let apps process in the background because it will drain your battery too fast. Instead, they will be offering unified push notification. For example, you're on Facebook, you quit the app, but it will keep constant connection to Apple's push service and will push to you 3 types of notifications: badges, audio alerts, and text alerts. This way, you are notified of new activity without draining your battery.

After this presentation, a bunch of iPhone developers went on stage to talk about how they integrated these new features in their new applications. The star here is of course notification. My favorite is the ESPN app which sends you a notification to let you know the latest scores. Pretty neat! A few other apps were demoed as well, such as a medical application that shows a glucose meter communicating to your iPhone app. After this presentation of cool new iPhone apps using the latest firmware 3.0, back on track with more features coming up...

Copy/paste is finally here. It only took Apple a year and a half for this super basic feature and apparently, they've been working really hard on it. How hard can that be? If indie developers can do it (Clippy, hClipBoard), why an army of Apple devs can't? Mystery. Anyways. They demoed the copy/cut/paste feature. Double-tap and it selects the text. There’s a cut/copy/paste bubble. Tap on what you want to do. Grab point shows up, take the drag point, drag it down and select the block of text.

Copy/paste works across all apps. The cool thing is that you can also copy web content. Holding your finger on text grabs a block of text and gives you a copy prompt.

Landscape mode is now available across all apps, including emails, notes and SMS. Yeah! Finally!

A fantastic enhancement made to the SMS app. You can now delete and forward individual text messages. Basic and simple, but it's good to have it now...

The long awaited MMS support is now available too. You can send and receive photos directly from the SMS app. When you receive a vCard, it can automatically add it to your contacts. If you receive an audio file, it will play it back! You can even send and receive locations over MMS right from maps. It’s all added directly to the existing app.

Apple has created a new application called Voice Memos. Like the name suggests, it lets you record voice notes with the internal mic or with an external microphone. The recordings are editable and shareable. That's great but I don't know why Apple developed such an application when there are already plenty of them in the App Store...

The Calendar applications has been improved too and now supports 2 calendar types: CalDAV (supported by Yahoo, Google, etc..) and subscriptions (ICS).

Apple has added the search feature to all its applications, including notes, emails, SMS, iPod. It didn't stop here and created what I think is a QuickGold killer. They created a new home screen where you can search across all apps, and they call it Spotlight. Like in QuickGold (the jailbreak app that does just this) , simply start typing something in Spotlight and it will return all available information and let you know what type of search result it is (ie. contact, email, etc...).

All these are only a few of the hundred new features in iPhone 3.0. Stereo Bluetooth, A2DP, auto-fill, WiFi auto-login, YouTube accounts, iTunes account creation, encrypted profiles.

The new SDK will be available for everyone in the iPhone developer program as of today. But you, as an iPhone user, will have to wait until this summer to download firmware 3.0. I honestly don't know if I can wait that long...

Apple enabled 3.0 to work on the original iPhone. The hardware’s changed though: MMS and A2DP won’t be available on the original iPhone. If you're an iPod Touch user, it will cost you $10 to upgrade (greedy bastards!).

Unfortunately, no announcement was made regarding a new iPhone...

After the presentation, it was time of a Q&A session. I'm gonna write some of the most intersting questions below:

Q: Why did it take so long to get copy and paste on the iPhone? A: There were a lot of pieces there we cared about, we wanted to spend time on it instead of putting out something that didn’t work right.

Q: Video is a black hole: Flash support? A: No announcements on Flash. If people use HTML5 with video tags, it’s supported. Certain encodings are already supported, like h.264. We’re adding HTTP streaming for audio and video, codecs and chunking support.

Q: Can users trade files via P2P? A: It’s possible to stream media across apps.

Q: Where do you stand on data tethering? A: There are two pieces needed: client-side, where the client needs that support; and carrier-support. We’re supporting tethering in 3.0 — and we’re working with carriers around the world. We don’t have announcements on the when and where, but we’re building it into 3.0.

Q: New iPhone? Netbooks? A: Nothing to announce today. Nothing to announce today. (Laughter)

Q: Bluetooth on the iPod touch? A: Bluetooth is a capability we can “unlock” on the latest-gen iPod touch.

Q: App Store applications are still a little mysterious, will you guys be more clear on that? There are some things we need to check for technically. That it won’t crash, etc., and there are other things we check for, like profanity, pornography, violations of privacy. With over 25k apps and 800m apps, we have a great solution that’s working.

That's it! Well, that was a lot. Needless to say I'm a little disappointed they didn't talk about a new iPhone but maybe they will in the next fea months. A big thank you toRyan Block at Gdgt for this fantastic live coverage. Note that all pictures used here were from Gdgt.

So, what do you guys think? Excited? Let us know in the comments!

No... We won't be there ourselves but we do want to keep you informed. So here is some info on tomorrow's special event. The times vary depending on where you live:

07:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern

And here are some sites that will be live blogging the event (links are correct - they will show the info on the event as show time is near).

Engadget Gizmodo CNet SlashGear Gdgt (my personal favorite)

Enjoy!

Well it seems iPod Touch Fans has some info on iPhone OS 3.0. First of all a bit ago, a member of the site found something interesting in the current 2.2.1 firmware:

I thought this is something to be brought to attention. Apple must have something up their sleeves.