Last Tuesday, Apple previewed the new features & improvements that'll be available on the iPhone 3.0 OS when it launches in June.
The most important announcement of all. Apple made a ground-breaking invention... such an unprecedented feature that threatens to send a revolution in the mobile industry. After 2 years of immense hard work, extensive trying & testing in secret labs, Apple took the wraps off... Copy/Paste!
ROFLMAO :D
The really new features
New APIs
Yes, the new APIs give greater access to the iPhone sensors, allows more 3rd party devices & adds more interesting capabilities. Like Video & Audio Streaming, with the quality being adjusted according to the connection speed.
Peer to Peer
A much safer implementation of Wifi connection to prevent hacking your connections. The Bluetooth sniffs other devices via Bonjour, & then establishes an ad-hoc Wifi connection which can be used for multiplayer gaming, sharing music, etc.
In-app purchases & subscriptions
More ways to steal your money - app developers can now sell updates/upgrades/addons directly from their apps, without any need for accessing the App Store.
Voice Memo
Basically a voice recorder, but with editing. It can support input from mikes with adaptors. I like the interface.
Spotlight
Spotlight is exactly like Vista search or Spotlight on Mac, allows you to launch apps, search your mail, notes, calendar & iPod library (only native Apple apps). It would be great if they could add SMS as well.
Extended Parental Controls
What!?!
The not-so-new features
Landscape keyboard for all apps 
Apple have finally figured out that people have big, fat fingers in other apps as well...
Access to iPod Library
3rd party apps can now play your music. D’oh!
Turn by turn GPS
Turn-by-turn navigation only available on Maps application. 3rd party apps will have to make their own maps to use turn-by-turn.
- Send multiple images on mail.
- Contact & iPod search
- Tethering (using the 3G on your computer)
- A2DP (Stereo audio over BT)
- Transfer files via BT (all except music)
- Auto-login in Safari
- VOIP
My reaction on first reading each of the above - 'What!? It didn't have [insert feature here]!?!?'
S60v2 OS7.0 v/s iPhone
To find out how much Apple have improved the "new" features, I decided to compare them (wherever it's comparable) with my own phone, a 4-year-old Nokia 7610.
(Yes, most of these flaws can fixed by jailbroken apps, but I wanted to do a native capability comparison).
Cut/Copy/Paste 
Copy & Paste is a core functionality for all smartphones. But for some obscure reason, it took Apple 2 years to achieve it. Nevertheless, they finally did it with a pretty simple implementation - double-tap to bring up a Copy/Paste bubble & then select.
To clear/undo any action, just shake your iPhone. I see that it's going to be a real fun using the iPhone while travelling in the bus...
My take: 
Nokia solved this problem by simply adding a dedicated Pencil key for copy/paste & selection. Although that key has since long been phased out, replaced by the * key.
MMS 
iPhone 3.0 now officially supports MMS, but it won't be available in iPhone v1, because it has different radio frequencies (EDGE).
My take:
Unlike what many say, MMS is an absolute necessity for me... Why? Because I've configured Gmail to forward some of my mails directly to my phone inbox & I receive them free of charge. :)
One more thing I'd like to add is that if you have a 3G phone & the person to whom you are sending a message has MMS, better email him on his phone inbox. Sending a mail costs less than 60c (try it you'll see! It works using Nokia's built-in mail, other phones will probably work). Second reason is that there's no character limit on mails, only size in KB.
Push Notifications 
Apple have been touting Push Notifications as an alternative to background processes. In Push Notifications, apps are closed, & alerts are sent across Apple's own dedicated servers, as a badge, pop-up or sound - which can be used to bring up those apps again. As I mentioned, Apple have full control over the notifications because all 3rd party servers have to send the alerts via Apple. One reason Apple has rejected background processes is battery life. Probably they've never heard of on-demand paging...
As BGR have put it, Push Notifications is the poor man's answer to background processes. Why do we have background processes - mainly for multitasking! Seriously... what Apple hypes as the most advanced OS doesn't have multitasking? Only Apple apps are allowed as background processes. Let's say you are on Safari & want to copy parts of text to a text editor, I would be certainly pissed off to open/close the apps each time.
My take: 
Background processes if optimized do not decrease battery life - I have several mods that run in the background & they don't kill the battery at all.
Multitasking is the biggest asset of my phone. For e.g., while writing this post, I have the dictionary (& the screenshot app) in the background. Switching is as easy as Alt+Tab - hold down the menu key.
Spotlight as App Launcher
According to Apple, if you have more than 100 (useless) apps, your Home screens will stretch to infinity. The only way to launch them is by searching for them via Spotlight. Which is faster, type in a few words or tap through several screens? Probably the later, but many complain there's too much to remember on each screen. The solution is damn stupid & so obvious - it's called folders.
My take: 
I've got over 80 apps installed. Do I put them all on my main menu?
Gaming
Apple demonstrated the iPhone's PSP-like gaming abilities. A FPS?
My take: 
Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood. Take that Apple! :p
The Bottom Line
I've been wanting to do this comparison since a long time, to show how “pathetic” the iPhone v1 was (not v3). Most of the features should have already been there since 0day. Apple is just playing catch-up to the rest of its competitors.
Better late than never. The other innovations, especially the APIs are a welcome - much easier now for developers to make more powerful apps. Yes, most of the apps are useless, but it stokes the buzz, keeps the users happy & brings in the cash. So there you have it - what's now missing is the... badass hardware.
iPhone v3 Rumours
Rumour has it that there'll be 2 versions of the iPhone & iPod Touch & it'll have OLED screens... which makes sense coz Apple can't increase the size of the battery & its life.
But most important of all, it will have video recording, which means a better camera with perhaps flash.
Speaking of flash, the iPhone still doesn't have Adobe Flash & support Java apps! But IMO the biggest flaw of the iPhone remains... the lack of multitasking.
AllAboutSymbian.com have posted an excellent article on the biggest weakness of the iPhone - Look, everyone, Multitasking does work after all! And has been doing so for a decade and a half! -
Images are from Gizmodo, iLounge & AppleInsider.