iPhone OS 3.0 to offer features of less sophisticated phones

Sadly Neoseeker wasn't among those present today at Apple's iPhone SDK conference which was suppose to include a "sneak peek" at the iPhone 3.0 OS. The sneak peek turned into more of a feature announcement and there were plenty of other sites available with coverage. 

The SDK is said to offer 1,000 new APIs and the OS will contain over 100 new features. Here is a rundown of what we know so far...

Copy & Paste - This is one of the most sought after features for the iPhone, so I'll go ahead and give it to you up front. Double tap on a word, and the word will highlight along with options to cut, copy, or paste. This will also work across applications so you can copy from an email and paste it into a text message.

Mail changes - Apple will enable a landscape mode for the email client. You will also be able to search through parts of your email by subject, sender, or recipient.

MMS - Those of you with an iPhone 3G will be able to finally send audio or photo MMS messages.  1st generation iPhone users won't be getting this feature due to the "differences in the radio" between the two versions of the iPhone.  Looks like this is what Apple (and AT&T) are counting on.

Spotlight - Apple will be implementing a "Spotlight home screen" to the iPhone that allows you to search for apps, contacts, email, and more. Just type in the name of the app you want to launch instead of scrolling all the way to home screen 6 to click the icon.

A2DP - That's right, Bluetooth Stereo support. This should be a big thing for the accessory market.

Custom Accessory Controls / API - Imagine connecting your iPhone or iPod Touch to an FM transmitter and using the iPhone to change the frequency of the transmitter. With the new set of custom accessory controls hardware manufacturers can now create apps specifically for the hardware.

App upgrades inside the app - Developers will now be able to create an app, say for example a game that contains it's own store. The example shown at the event was The Sims 3 where you could purchase in game items (furniture, clothing, etc.) without ever leaving the game. Everything still goes back to your iTunes account, and the payout to developers remains the same; 70%.

Calendar - Support will be added for CalDAV and .ics. This should make things easier for anyone who uses Google Calendars, Yahoo, etc.

Safari improvements - Safari is getting anti-phishing protection and will now remember log in details. With any luck 1Password and similar apps will be able to tie into this.

Peer-to-peer support - Create a peer to peer wifi connection with Bluetooth auto discovery. Multiplayer iPhone games here we come!

Flash - During the Q&A session that followed the event, Apple basically blew off flash support saying "We have no announcements on Flash today." The good news is, this wasn't a "no".

 Push notification - It's finally coming. Yes, this time for real. Don't plan on background processes though, that isn't going to happen.

There are some additional things announced for the iPhone 3.0 OS, but those were the major items presented today.  Again, the new SDK is said to offer 1,000 new APIs and the OS itself has over 100 new features. I'm sure we'll be getting lots more detail between now and this summer when the new OS is released. 

Thanks to Gizmodo and Engadget for the live blog coverage of the event.