As good as their word, Apple released OS 3.0 for the iPhone today. You’ll need to have iTunes 8.2 installed for the update, which is free for iPhone owners, $10 for the iPod Touch.

In case you’ve forgotten, the OS update brings long-awaited features to the iPhone, like copy and paste, push notification, and universal search, among other things. Finally applications will be able to alert you when you receive new messages, and copy and paste, well I think the benefits there are obvious.

Don’t forget to check back on Friday for an unboxing/review of the iPhone 3GS.

With all the excitement surrounding the new iPhone release it’s difficult not to notice the absence of a certain, rumored to be healthy CEO. Apple restructured their laptop line, announced two OS updates, and announced the newest iPhone, all without their captain at the helm. Hopefully Jobs will soon be well enough to return to his handicapped parking space.

We’ve talked Macbooks, we’ve talked iPhone, but Apple spent most of the keynote on OS 3.0 and the new options it yields for developers. All of this stuff was really old hat – landscape keyboard, copy and paste, tethering, MMS. The big disappointment so far is that tethering and MMS are both unsupported by AT&T at this time, with support apparently coming at the end of the summer. Why AT&T can’t get it together when 20 other carriers can baffles me.

One cool feature coming to OS 3.0 on the 17th is “Find My iPhone.” The service, which is only available to MobileMe customers, allows you to locate your phone on a map using a web browser. Using the service you can also send alerts to the phone, including a message stating, “This phone is lost. If found, please call me at [number you specify].” (You can actually input any message, this is just the one Apple demoed.) You can do this from a distance, allowing you, hopefully, to get your phone back. Find My iPhone also includes a sort of kill pill, allowing you to remote wipe the phone. It would be really nice if it could disable the phone, rendering it useless to whomever snags it should they not acquiesce with your return requests. The remote wipe is really there to ensure your privacy, though, allowing you to restore the phone to factory settings from a distance. I smell some nasty pranks coming with this one. Don’t leave your MobileMe password where your friends can find it.

Apple relinquished the stage late in their 3.0 presentation, allowing developers to showcase new functions like GPS navigation and in-game purchases. The developer presentations dragged on, plagued twice by technical difficulties and eating up precious minutes. By the 100 minute mark I would bet few people were hoping for an iPhone update. It came, though, fitting the remaining time slot well as more of an evolution than a revolution.

Apple’s iPhone App Store approval process has created a flurry of news with its stringent requirements, the latest of which involved an eloquent rant by Trent Reznor. It’s pretty hard to disagree with Reznor on this one, though we may have done so with more carefully chosen words (you’re too old to care so much about your rocker persona). The apps that do and don’t make it through seem arbitrary at best, and near fascist at the worst.

Developer Jelle Prins has found a way around the mess by hiding the “worst” of his app with a nifty little easter egg. Prins’ App, Lyrics, which displays the lyrics of songs in a user’s playlist, was initially rejected because it would display all lyrics, even the obscene ones. Approval came only after Prins installed a profanity filter.

That’s not the end of the story. Alongside the profanity filter, Prins scripted an easter egg that enables profanity at the user’s discretion. Just head to the “About” page on the app, swipe your fingers down three times and confirm you want to see the naughty lyrics. Prins said the egg was easy to implement because it’s a difficult thing to notice in the source code.

Prins also says the app was likely approved due to a lack of manpower on Apple’s part. Lyrics ties in to an online database to monitor usage. That database showed only one use during his approval process, meaning just one person fired up the app, searched for a few profanities, and then pushed the thing through when he couldn’t find any. Scouring lines of code for things like Prins’ easter egg isn’t even on the map.

Of course with all the attention on Prins and his little workaround, I would not be surprised to see the app pulled until 3.0 parental controls go live. So much for sticking it to the man.

Source: Wired

The long awaited push notification service that Apple’s been touting since the birth of the App Store has finally entered load testing. In case you’ve forgotten (it’s been awhile since they promised us this) push notification will allow third-party applications to update their home page icons and pop up status messages without actually opening the program.

The load testing comes with the way Apple plans to implement the system. Every notification has to actually run through Apple’s servers, which gives them a huge amount of data which can be used internally or, and this is the more likely case I’d say, sold to the highest bidder. Apple has only opened testing to App Store developers, and only for one app: a pre-release version of the Associated Press app.

Obviously developers will be jumping all over this thing, if just to see how the system works. From the looks of things, applications will each have their own settings for push notification, which could make buying apps a bit more complicated. Sort of like when you buy a new video game and have to tweak your control schemes, mouse inversion, graphic settings (shush Steam users, I know you’ll get your panties knotted here), each application will require you to set preferences for alerts.

Could we see push as early as the next iPhone release? Doubtful, but a girl can hope, can’t she?

Source: Apple Insider

According to Hardmac.com, “informations [sic] from one of [their] sources” claims the next generation iPod Touch and iPod Nano will be getting cameras added to their hardware specs. The source also suggests the next iPhone won’t change externally, despite rumors.

I’m willing to believe the first “informations,” but only half-way. A camera on the Touch makes sense. There are plenty of apps that integrate camera use, making them obsolete if used on the Touch. Also, acquiring and integrating a camera into a device already running Apple’s mobile OS should be no trouble.

But why add a camera to the Nano? The device is meant to be the ultra slim, stripped down version of the much sexier Touch. Why do you need a camera? And why introduce a camera at two price points? If it’s only on the Touch, snapping pics is just another reason to upgrade from your Nano to your Touch. I also doubt Apple would try this on an iPod not currently running the same OS as their other camera-capable devices.

On that last rumor, I could go either way. The iPhone 3G is a sleek little device, and I don’t see much reason to update it. On the other hand, Apple’s way is to make the newer, faster versions of things prettier as well. Nothing screams “buy me” like “I don’t look like your other iPhone.