New iPhone OS 3.0 Adds 100 New Features

Apple has finally unveiled the iPhone OS 3.0, its first major update to the iPhone and iPod Touch platform in nine months, which the company hopes, will allow the iconic devices to catch up with the competition.

The iPhone 3.0 update, which came exactly one year after the version 2.0 was previewed, will be free for current iPhone owners while iPod Touch users will need to pay $9.95. Apple has not announced a release date yet.

iPhone users will get a raft of new features - more than 100 - including the much-touted ability to copy and paste information including text, HTML blocks and photos, between applications. There's also the ability to rotate from portrait mode to landscape mode in all applications and MMS capabilities (ed: finally!!!), a welcomed addition given the multimedia features of the iPhone.

Other improvements include Spotlight, which like its desktop counterpart, allows users to seamlessly look for information in any native Apple applications. The new iPhone OS 3.0 also introduce the new shake-to-shuffle-your-playlist gimmick as well as turn by turn directions for iPhone's GPS.

But there are still no news with regards to application data sharing and syncing as well as video capture. Apple has also stressed out that it does indeed support tethering on the client side but mobile phone networks are still very much reluctant to the idea.

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