When Apple revealed the upcoming iPhone Software 3.0 on Tuesday, they said that they only had time to discuss some of the over 100 new features. Since then, even more new features in 3.0 have come to light. Here are a few of them being discussed on other sites that look particularly interesting: [UPDATE 4/1/09: Added Nos. 8 through 10.]
- Find my iPhone. There is a new option in the Settings for MobileMe called “Find my iPhone” that you can turn on or off. AppleInsider describes this feature, as does Engadget, and MobileCrunch has a picture of that screen on their website. The best guess is that this is a feature for those who subscribe to Apple’s $100 a year MobileMe service whereby if you ever lose your iPhone, you can log into your MobileMe account from a computer and MobileMe will tell you where your iPhone is located (using the GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation on your iPhone) and then show you the location on a map. It would be great if Apple could also add this feature to my keys.
Voice Memos app runs in the background. I mentioned the new Voice Memo app yesterday and wondered what it would offer that is different from the numerous voice recorder apps currently sold by third parties. Now we know the answer. Unlike third party apps, which are not allowed to run in the background, the Apple Voice Memo app can. Thus, you can exit the app and check your e-mail, calendar, etc. and the app will continue to record. A red bar appears at the top of the screen when you are recording. MobileCrunch has a picture of that, as does iLounge. iLounge reports that this new app cannot be used to record phone calls.- Text messages send in the background. MacRumors reports that when you hit send, you can start typing your next new message while previous message is being sent. This is not much of a feature for text messages, which send quickly, but is more important when you use the Messages app to send photos via the newly enabled MMS.
- Encryption of backups. Your iPhone is backed up on your computer whenever you sync in iTunes. iLounge discloses
a new feature that allows you to encrypt that backup file, presumably so
that someone else using your computer cannot access any confidential
information backed up from your iPhone — something that, frankly, never even occurred to me as being possible. - More home button shortcuts. Currently, you can double-click the home button to either go to the
Home screen, your Phone Favorites, or the iPod. In 3.0, you can also make a
double-click bring up Search or the Camera. 
Shake to undo. When Apple revealed cut, copy and paste on Tuesday, they pointed out that if you make a mistake, you can shake the iPhone to bring up a dialog box that lets you undo the cut, copy or paste. But apparently the shake to undo feature can be used elsewhere. For example, if you type a few words in an e-mail, Notes, etc., apparently you can shake the iPhone to undo the last thing you typed — similar to using the undo command in a word processor. Engadget shows this in a video posted here (at around the 9 minute mark).- Media scrubber. On a slide quickly displayed during Apple’s presentation on Tuesday, one of the phrases that appears as a new feature is “Media scrubber.” Apple didn’t reveal what this means, but MobileCrunch reveals that there are new high-speed and low-speed scrubbing modes to make it easy to quickly find a specific point in a podcast. There is also a new button that appears when you are listening to a podcast that you can tap to quickly rewind 30 seconds, which would be useful any time you find yourself thinking “wait, what did he just say?”
- These go to 11. Spinal tap would be proud; 3.0 adds two more screens to the home screen, so instead of 9 screens you get 11. That’s space for another 32 apps.
- New Safari link options. Currently if you hold your finger down on a link in Safari, the URL appears below your fingertip. In 3.0, you get options to open the link, open in a new window and copy the link (so you can paste it into something like an e-mail).
- Load remote image. Like many desktop e-mail programs, Mail on the iPhone adds a “load remote image ” option to help you guard against spam.
Here’s one more link: Andy Ihnatko published this article on the Chicago Sun Times site describing 3.0. It is both informative and, as is the norm for Ihnatko, humorous.
Finally, here are the two slides Apple displayed during its Tuesday presentation listing new features for users and for app developers, some of which were discussed on Tuesday, some of which were not:
“Find My Phone” – another potential use could be as a tracking solution, for example, keeping track of your children. Sure it requires you giving them an iPhone, but if MobileMe provides real-time location tracking of your iPhone, this could replace the location trackers/services that are currenlty on the market.
One reason I really enjoy this blog, besides the fact that it is written by an attorney, is that all the articles are very positive about the iPhone. I’ve owned an iPhone since the first week it was out and upgraded to 3G a week after that became available. Before that I owned numerous Palm OS devices. My experience with the iPhone, contrary to the conclusions of so many others on other blogs, has always been great.
In reality, the device is a small, powerful computer with a phone in it. I’m 51 years old. I’ve witnessed firsthand the evolution of office computing. I used Wordperfect 4, Windows 3.1, DOS file transfer, and modems much slower than 56k.
How anyone can complain about things like OS 3.0 being full of retrofit apps and features is beyond me. The iPhone is a powerful, reliable device that has more features and capabilities that most people will ever need on a regular basis. It does everything that I need and want it to do. It never leaves my side and when I sometimes do leave it behind, I realize it fairly soon because I need it for something productive.
So many people complain about battery life. I don’t have any battery problems because I have a charger at home, in my car, and my office. It’s as simple as that. How someone can complain about battery drain with a device that competently and consistently performs powerful functions is disingenuous.
I read an article the other day after 3.0 was revealed where the author complained that Apple has yet to make available a docking station, a separate keyboard, and a port to hook up a monitor. That poor fellow’s needs are so misplaced. The portability of the iPhone is one of its greatest features. Apple could give me those items for free and I wouldn’t use them.
The other day I conducted an ADR in a domestic case. One of the issues was the value of an auto bought during the marriage. The parties’ and their attorneys’ opinion of the value varied widely. I whipped out the iPhone, got on Kelly Blue Book’s website from my home screen and that issue was settled 5 minutes later. That was 4 minutes after both attorneys’ jaws dropped. And both of them are much younger then me.
Thanks Mr. Richardson for taking the time to keep up your blog and for the positive light it shines on our mutual friend.