iPhone 3.0 Software Announced

Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 software just now in Cupertino. Here's MacWorld's live-action blow-by-blow coverage. The announcement included new features for developers and users. For developers, the big items were in-app purchasing (for example for game upgrades, map content, and subscriptions) for paid apps only; peer-to-peer connectivity via Bluetooth; giving apps access to hardware via the dock connector or Bluetooth; maps embeddable in apps; and push notifications. For users, there's finally cut-copy-paste available in all apps; search across everything in the iPhone; landscape keyboard; MMS messaging; and voice memos. Developer beta starts today and 3.0 will be available in the summer — free for all 3G phones, $10 for iPod Touch.

Comments

Re:Bluetooth Keyboard

[Andy_R]

Well, now that the phone has cut & paste, it should be trivial to write such a third party app if it is needed.

Re:Touch users have to pay???

[Sandbags]

It;s not Apple's fault, it's a federal law. They've been over this EVERY TIME with the iPod Touch (and with the Macs that post-release added Wireless N support).

You see, since revenue is collected by AT&T and Apple monthly, adding new features can be subsidized across calendar years. With point-of-sale purchases, enabling unadvertised features in a future calendar year offsets the depreciation of the cost of development, so in order to legally offset that cost into a new calenday year, there must be a transaction in that calendar year.

This is a simple explanation of this tax phenomenon, but it is in fact something Apple can not work around. It's not a new piece of software, it's the enabling of previously unaccessible hardware features now enabled. It;s like upgrading without buying parts. They MUST legally collect taxes on that transaction and their accounting people need to offset costs into current and previous calendar years.

Since the iPhone is a subscription service, they have a revenue stream to tap and aovid the issue.

Also remember, the iPhone is subsidized, the iPod is not. AT&T is footing the bill of the software upgrade to make the devices more attractive...