iPhone 3.0 adds tons of new functions to the phone

Adam Pash, Lifhacker Australia

The iPhone event just ended, and the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software update adds a ton of new functionality to the iPhone—claiming over 100 new features, including long-awaited copy and paste, MMS messaging, and more. We’ve only highlighted a few of our favourite features, so be sure to check out Gizmodo’s iPhone 3.0 OS guide for everything you could ever want to know about the updates.

Copy and Paste

This one was no surprise. Copy and paste is finally available on the iPhone through a double-tap and a little dragging of the paste borders. Any text can be copied, but you can also now copy and paste photos—which means that you can also send more than one photo at a time. Developers can also integrate copy and paste into their apps.

MMS Messaging

The iPhone’s terrible multimedia messaging always seemed like us to be just as bad as the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone, requiring you to jump through absurd hoops to view photos that someone shared via MMS (you couldn’t even do it from the iPhone). Not only can you send pictures via MMS, but you can also share contact vCards and audio files using the new voice notes application. The one catch: MMS will be iPhone 3G only.

Spotlight Search

3.0 adds Spotlight to your home screen (and search to many different apps), allowing you to launch an application or find a contact or note through one central application and document launcher.

File Sharing Between iPhones

iPhones will now be able to connect directly over a Wi-Fi network for sharing files directly between phones. The first thing we’d consider sharing is music, but it seems unlikely that that’s the kind of functionality Apple will enable for this. Still, sharing a document, vCard, or photo with a direct peer-to-peer connection is pretty cool.

Turn-by-Turn Directions

Though not enabled in anything provided by Apple in this release, the 3.0 update will enable developers to create turn-by-turn apps.

Push Notification (For Real This Time?)

Apple promised this one last year—a feature that allows developers to send push notifications of updates without the cost of running the app in the background. We’ll believe it when we see it.

VoIP

It’s not clear if this means we can expect to see Skype or something like Google Voice on our iPhones or iPod touches any time soon, but Gizmodo is reporting that voice communication will be available in applications. They point out that this means users could chat with people they’re playing a game with, but we’d be much happier to see a simple VoIP application for talking with people when you’re on a Wi-Fi network without wasting your minutes.

Notes Sync

Gizmodo didn’t mention much about this one, but Notes sync is clearly listed as a new feature. Guess that doesn’t mean all that much to the guys at Giz, but we’ve been dying for this one forever.

Much More

We cherry picked some of our favourite new features, but head over Gizmodo’s exhaustive iPhone 3.0 guide.

When Can I Get It?

According to the Apple types, the public release will be sometime mid-year. However, it looks like eager early adopters may be able to join the Apple Developer Connection to start testing it today. We’ll let you know when we find out more.

What’s Missing?

We’re sort of reeling at the thought of all the new features, leaving us at a bit of a loss for what’s missing. Was there a feature you were hoping for in the iPhone 3.0 update that it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Photos by Gizmodo.