Apple announced Tuesday a host of new features for the next version of its mobile operating system, iPhone 3.0.
Among the additions are two features that the company has long been criticized for overlooking: The ability to cut, copy and paste text between applications, and support for multimedia messages.
“Right now there's a [smartphone] platform war and Apple just heated it up again," said tech analyst Michael Gartenberg. “At the end of the day it's going to be about [recruiting] developers, developers, developers and Apple already has a really strong App Store."
The new features make the iPhone far more competitive with a variety of smartphone platforms, including Microsoft's Windows Mobile and the Google-backed Android operating system. It will also make the iPhone a bigger threat to Palm's yet-to-be-released Pre, which will sport a new operating system from Palm called WebOS.
In a developer-centric press event Tuesday, Apple unveiled dozens of new features that will be included in the new OS and supported by a new version of the software developers' kit (SDK). Many of the new features will give immediate benefits to end-users, regardless of which applications they use.
Among the most noteworthy of those end-user features:
Cut, copy and paste support within and between applications. MMS support.
A global search feature, which lets you search content from various applications on the iPhone from a single interface. Like the search feature in OS X, this is called “Spotlight."
The ability to compose e-mail messages, text messages and notes in landscape mode, which gives the user a larger, easier-to-use keyboard.
Support for peer-to-peer Bluetooth, which will enable the iPhone to connect with other Bluetooth devices, including stereo Bluetooth headsets. Previously, the iPhone only supported Bluetooth for connecting to monaural phone headsets.
Conspicuously missing from the list are support for video recording, the ability to tether the iPhone (so it can act as a wireless modem for a laptop) and the ability to display Flash-based websites, all features that the iPhone has been roundly criticized for lacking. Apple also refused to answer any questions about potential hardware upgrades to the iPhone.
In addition, Apple presented many upgrades aimed at giving developers the ability to create more powerful and more profitable applications.
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