Live Coverage of iPhone OS 3.0 Event
- March 17th, 2009
- Apple News, iPhone, iPhone Apps / Development, iPhone OS 3.x
- Alex Brooks
At approximately 10AM Pacific time Apple will hold an event to give an “advance preview” of the next iPhone operating system. World of Apple will not offer live coverage but a summary of events will be posted on this page.
For a list of sites with live coverage see here.
Live coverage can be seen below.
- Event due to start soon
- Journalists are seated and the lights are dimmed.
- Greg Joswiak on stage, going to show us some future plans.
- 17 million iPhones sold through December 2008. 30 million iPhones and iPod touches sold.
- Over 800,000 downloads of free iPhone SDK, 50,000 developers signed up to iPhone paid program.
- 96% of applications submitted to App Store have been approved, with over 25,000 apps available.
- 800 million app downloads in the 8 months the App Store has been operating.
- Scott Forstall on stage to show off iPhone OS 3.0
- 3.0 software a major update for ALL iPhone and iPod touch devices
- Taking a look at how Apple is helping developers, making the SDK even better.
- 3.0 brings 1000 new APIs to developers
- Enhancement to the App Store called In-App purchase. The ability to renew subscriptions, buy new game levels and purchase ebooks from within an application.
- Purchasing is done with an “intrusive” pop-up
- Tied to App Store, when user hits buy a standard iTunes authentication panel appears.
- This is or paid apps only.
- Next up, support for peer to peer connectivity.
- Peer to peer connectivity adds the ability to game over Bluetooth using Bonjour.
- Isn’t just for games, for example business cards can be exchanged in a handshake manner.
- Next up accessories.
- With iPhone 3.0 SDK developers can get an application to talk directly to an attached accessory.
- Accessories can talk to applications via dock connector or Bluetooth.
- Next, Maps.
- Maps can now be embedded into apps.
- Maps are fully interactive with pinch-zoom, custom annotations, satellite views and location tracking.
- Developers can now build turn-by-turn applications but must use their OWN maps due to licensing issues.
- Next up, Push
- Push is late because Apple felt the need to re-architect the server stricture. “Now we’re good to go”
- When testing background applications running Apple saw an 80% or more drop in battery life when the phone was in standby.
- Apple says background processing “not good for the customer”
- Using Apple’s Push Notification System battery life dropped by 23% when for example an IM app is listening for messages.
- Showing how the Push Notification System works.
- Push preserves battery life, maintains performance and is optimised.
- APIs now allow in-game voice chat, access to iPod library, use of proximity sensor, audio recording, streaming audio and video, data detectors and text selection.
- Showing some applications built using 3.0 SDK.
- Applications such as Sims 3 and Meebo being demoed.
- Previewing future games from ngmoco:)
- iPhone OS 3.0 has over 100 new features including cut, copy and paste.
- Demoing cut/copy/paste. Double tap on text and it is selected, bubble appears above the selection with the ability to cut/copy/paste.
- Shake to clear selections.
- Photos can now be copied and pasted into an email.
- Landscape viewing in key apps such as Mail, SMS and notes.
- Landscape keyboard in these apps too.
- Forward SMS messages and delete multiple messages. Added support for MMS.
- Ability to send photos, audio VCards and your location over MMS.
- Ability to take voice memos.
- Added CalDAV to Calendar app, ability to subscribe to calendars (.ics format)
- Support for headlines as well as highs and lows and PEs in Stocks app. Also landscape view.
- Also added Search to Mail. Searches from, to, subject and all headers.
- Search in other key applications such as calendar and iPod.
- New app called Spotlight allows iPhone wide searching.
- Demo of search.
- Spotlight can be accessed by scrolling left of the iPhone home page.
- Other new features include shake to shuffle, WiFi auto login, notes sync, YouTube acounts, VPN on demand, Anti-phishing, auto-fill, EAP SIM, LDAP, Stereo BlueTooth and loads more.
- Greg Joswiak back on stage.
- Developer beta available today.
- Adding 15 more countries to the App Store for a total of 77.
- iPhone OS 3.0 will be available to all this Summer. A free update to iPhone owners but 1st gen devices will lose functions such as MMS and A2DP. iPod touch users can update for $9.95.
- Short Q&A with Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller.
- Q: Why did copy/paste take so long?
A: Forstall: It’s not that easy. There were security issues. - Q: How about Flash?
A: We have no announcements on Flash today - Q: Will peer to peer work with other devices?
A: It’s limited to Bonjour. - Q: What’s with tethering?
A: Tethering is in iPhone 3.0, working with carriers to get it in all countries. - Q: Netbooks?
A: Nothing to announce today. - Q: Allowing BlueTooth input devices such as keyboards?
A: Nothing to announce. - Q: Is OS “lagginess” being addressed?
A: Yes, definitely - Q: Is it a physical issue that prevents first gen iPhones using MMS?
A: It’s a different radio, so yes. - Q: With peer to peer can you access another iTunes library?
A: You can see them but not sure if they can be played from. - All done.