Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Event: Ten Cool Features Revealed

Apple may not have managed to satisfy every major item on iPhone owners’ wish lists with its iPhone 3.0 announcement this morning at a press event at its Cupertino headquarters. But it certainly checked off a lot of items–and introduced some cool features that nobody was expecting. iPhone developers get access to a beta version of the OS upgrade immediately; the rest of us will have to wait until it ships. Apple says to expect it this summer: It’s a free update for iPhone owners (some features won’t work on the original iPhone model, however). iPod Touch users will pay $10 to get the new software, as they did for last year’s iPhone 2.0 update.

I’m Harry McCracken, editor of Technlogizer and guest blogger here at Laptop, and I was lucky enough to attend the event. Here’s a quick overview of iPhone 3.0 highlights in the order that iPhone software chief Scott Forstall and others unveiled them, accompanied by photos I took from my seat near the back of the darkened auditorium.

1. Subscriptions. Software developers will be able to sell items on subscription plans, as well as for the flat fees now supported by the iPhone App Store. That may give them inventive to roll out types of applications that involve regularly updated content, such as travel guides, games with new levels, and the like.

2. Peripheral support. Hardware companies will be able to design gadgets that interface with the iPhone, over either a wired connection or Bluetooth. Apple showed a mockup of an FM wireless transmitter with a slick on-screen tuning interface, for instance. On the downside, it sounds like this system still won’t allow for external keyboards, which would require a driver to send alphanumeric input to applications.

Later in the presentation, a representative from Johnson & Johnson showed how a glucose meter could interface with the iPhone, allowing diabetics to track their well-being through some exceptionally sophisticated software.

3. Maps in apps. Third-party developers will be able to call on the phone’s Maps application to do the heavy lifting of integrating geographic information into an program that can benefit from it, such as travel-related ones that provide information on local restaurants and other destinations.

iPhone 3.0 will even let developers build GPS apps that do turn-by-turn driving directions, but these will be B.Y.O.M.–Bring Your Own Maps. The licensing arrangement Apple has for the iPhone map data doesn’t permit its use in such programs.