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As most iPhone owners already know, the iPhone rocks. More importantly, what makes it come alive isn't so much the svelte touchscreen form factor but the software. The great thing about the iPhone is Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) dedication to improving it, and Apple's third major version of its iPhone operating system is definitely an improvement.
Like millions of other iPhone owners, I downloaded and installed it almost immediately -- though I did it later in the day, so I didn't run into any of the traffic jams that slowed Apple's servers.
Since then, I've been messing around with iPhone OS 3.0, and there's lots of little interesting updates that make it better than ever before. If you haven't yet taken the plunge -- and millions of iPhone owners haven't yet -- you need to. Here's why.
Spotlight Search
There are several big new applications and enhancements in iPhone OS 3.0 that fill in the gaps, the most notable of which is Spotlight, Apple's search feature.
Spotlight basically searches all the contents of your iPhone or iPod touch, and wow, is it fantastic. Here's how it works: Spotlight is located to the left of your home screen -- instead of swiping pages to the right to access various applications, swipe to the left and you'll arrive at a keyboard screen with an open search field. You can also get there by clicking once on the home button while looking at your home screen. Once you're in the search utility, type in any search term -- say, a person you want to call -- and Spotlight will deliver the person's contact information. However, Spotlight is far more powerful than finding contacts -- it also delivers results from your email and all applications. Type in a song title, and it'll appear in the results. Tap it, and it'll start playing.
Spotlight hasn't gotten the raves it deserves. For users who fill up their iPhones with gobs of apps and content, it's astounding. For everyone else, it's amazing. Seriously. You can't say enough good things about Spotlight. Play around with it for a while, and pretty soon using it will become second nature. Great job, Apple.
Cut, Copy and Paste
Bringing up a close second in the "big new features" category is cut, copy and paste. This feature is really one of those minor things that most people probably don't actually use all that often, but when it is needed -- to copy a long Web address, a long code number, a shipping tracking number, or just snag a paragraph of text -- but not available, it can be really frustrating. How could Apple deliver such a fine instrument and forget copy and paste?
For power users, the lack of copy and paste has been a sore point from day one. But whether you need it often or just once in a while, Apple has delivered a way to cut, copy and paste with the company's characteristic ease of use. I first found the feature by accident -- I was trying to expand a Web page that wasn't cooperating, and boom, a little magnifying glass circle popped up -- and when I lifted my finger, a bit of text was selected with a popup "Copy" button pointing to it. Two little blue bars with small round blue circles on the ends surrounded the text, and by touching and dragging the bars, you can change the amount of text to highlight and copy.
Plus, for small text that's hard to read, the magnifying circle reappears to give you precise selection.
To paste, simply find an available spot for text -- a note, an email message, etc. -- and touch and hold the place where you want the text. A similar popup "Paste" button appears. Tap it and the text is pasted. In addition, the cut/copy/paste feature will let you select individual words or all text. And you can hold your finger on a photo to copy a photo, and then paste it, too. You can even copy an image from a Web site and then paste it into an appropriate app. Very nice.
Photo Messages
The the ability send MMS messages -- like text messages, but with photos -- has also been maddeningly absent since day one. While other low-end feature phones could send out MMS messages with ease, the most advanced cell phone in the world could not. Receiving them -- at least in the U.S. -- was a painful process that involved getting a text message with a link to an AT&T (NYSE: T) Web site that held the sent photo. It also included a hard-to-remember password -- and until recently, you had to transfer that password without the benefit of cut and paste.
Unfortunately, MMS is not yet complete in the U.S. AT&T doesn't support it yet, but will likely start this summer, perhaps even in July.
Landscape Keyboard
Apple added a landscape keyboard function to Mail, Messages and Notes (it's in Safari as well), giving users with big fingers bigger keys. Just turn the iPhone sideways, and the window flips accordingly.
It also makes the iPhone more intuitive to your needs. If you're viewing something in landscape mode, you're probably doing it on purpose. This is a handy refinement.
Voice Memos
One of the truly new apps is Voice Memos -- in fact, it may be the first new thing you notice when you upgrade.
Voice Memos basically turns your iPhone into an audio recorder. It's not groundbreaking; in fact, it singlehandedly makes several other third-party voice recording apps essentially irrelevant, though some have more features than the basic Apple Voice Memos app.
Voice Memos lets you record audio, play it back, and share it via email. It's easy to use, and here's what I found surprising: The audio quality is darn good. I tested it outside, walking uphill, with a bit of wind. Not only could I understand my message when I played it back, I could also hear my slightly out-of-breath voice and a bit of the wind -- but the core audio that I wanted to capture was remarkably clear. I have used dedicated digital recorders that aren't this good.
Buy, Buy, Buy
Media that you couldn't previously buy directly on your iPhone is now available. You can download movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks from the iTunes Store directly to your iPhone. However, there's one familiar catch: If the file is over 10 MB, you'll have to download it via a WiFi connection, just like users have had to do when downloading large apps.
Some users have reported that you just have to start the download over WiFi -- once you travel out of WiFi range, the movie will continue to download over a 3G connection. I haven't tested this personally, and I wouldn't expect it to work seamlessly or forever -- but hey, it might work for you.
Internet Tethering
Tethering is when you use your cell phone's Internet connection with your Mac or PC, usually via Bluetooth or a USB connection between your phone and computer. Other smartphones have been able to do this for years, even with AT&T, and generally it's been a costly proposition. While some users simply need anywhere-anytime laptop connectivity, most question paying US$60 per month when they could easily survive on free WiFi, hotel WiFi, or a cheaper home-based DSL or cable service. Plus, tethering plans usually have limits on the amount of data you can download, which means they aren't suitable if you plan on downloading movies or TV shows.
Still, tethering is a darn handy option, particularly for those who travel a lot. There have been several hacks and even a short-lived app available for tethering the iPhone, but it's never been officially supported by AT&T or most other carriers in the world. With iPhone OS 3.0, however, Apple is making the feature officially available via the iPhone itself. It's up to the carriers, now, to support it (very likely with additional fees). In the U.S., AT&T has expressed interest in delivering an iPhone tethering option, but the company has been non-committal on delivery timeframes and costs. However, someday, hopefully this year, iPhone owners will at least have the option officially open to them.
Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe
If you've got MobileMe service, you can remotely locate a lost iPhone and even wipe it clean of data in the event it's been stolen. This is a feature that's so far been limited essentially to enterprises, but Apple has brought the feature down to everyday consumers.
To find a lost iPhone, the iPhone must be running 3.0, of course, and you must intentionally set it up to be accessible by the Find My iPhone MobileMe service. To do this, you have to make sure it's set to receive "push" content (via settings for Mail on the iPhone) and that your MobileMe account has the Find My iPhone setting turned on.
This was a bit confusing when I first tried to find my MobileMe account on my iPhone, because it's listed as ".Mac" -- the name of the service MobileMe essentially replaced. Once found and selected, however, the process worked well; I was able to hone in on my location -- the MobileMe online app used a Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) map to show me the approximate location of my iPhone, within a radius of a hundred yards or so. Not perfect, but not bad.
Improved Calendar
Apple has also improved the Calendar app, allowing it to support more than one calender, as well as adding support for creating meetings via Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Exchange ActiveSync. You can subscribe to calendars, too, via new CalDAV support.
Much of this, of course, is for business users who need to connect to their enterprise calendaring systems.
Lots of Little Refinements
There are several smaller refinements that are worth noting. Safari is a bit faster and can autofill user names and passwords, but it's still not nearly as fast as when it's running on a new iPhone 3GS. Apple has also added stereo Bluetooth, which makes listening to music via a compatible set of Bluetooth headphones actually worthwhile. WiFi login is easier and more "automatic;" parental controls let parents censor various content and apps; you can now sync your Notes to the Notes in Mail on a Mac; and like the iPod nano, you can now shake to shuffle your music collection as you listen. The built-in Stocks app has more features and information about companies, including links to some of the latest news stories.
The App Store shows your account info (scroll down, it's at the bottom), and logging in lets you modify your account details, including your payment information. If you're using a third-party app and you receive a phone call, after you end the call, you're returned to the third-party app (this may not work with all apps).
For the really App-hungry users out there, there are now 11 pages for your apps (up from 9), and some extremely prolific app users have reported that there's no limit on the number of apps you can buy and install. If there's not room for them in the 11 pages, the apps will still install, and you can find them via Spotlight. There are even little improvements for heavy texters, like the ability to send a second SMS message while the first is in the process of sending. Or how about this one: If you want to delete a note in the Notes app, simply swipe it to the right and you'll get a Delete button, which is the same method for deleting mail messages when viewing them in a list.
Personally, though, the tiny little refinement I appreciate the most is that visual voicemail displays the phone that the voicemail originated from. For instance, for any given contact I have, I often have more than one phone number -- work, home or mobile. New voicemail messages now indicate which number the call came in from, which is handy when you decide to tap the Call Back button.
All in All
Taken together as a whole, there's nothing truly groundbreaking in iPhone OS 3.0 ... and yet it still manages to extend Apple's lead in delivering the most consumer-friendly and powerful smartphone ever.
If you haven't downloaded and installed iPhone OS 3.0 yet, fire up iTunes on your computer and get it done. Odds are, you'll stumble across something small and neat that'll make your iPhone experience even better.
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