The Wait is Finally Over: Scott Forstall Declares the Release of iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17 2009

Since last March, when Apple first unveiled the iPhone OS 3.0, the whole world has been waiting impatiently for the full release. Fortunately, after endless round of speculations and rumors, Apple at their Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday finally revealed the secrets of the software upgrade. Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, during his part of presentation announced that the iPhone OS 3.0 will finally be released to the world on 17th June.


Even though people will have to wait until late this summer for AT&T to activate the tethering and multimedia messaging, users of iPhone 3G S, iPhone Classic and iPod Touch will get access to all the other amazing new features that go live from next Wednesday. Within the next two days, Apple will launch their new iPhone 3G S with full update. However, Apple promises that the update will bring in over 100 new features, which will benefit both users as well as iPhone app developers. Once people get a chance to fully explore the OS 3.0, they will reveal more new and exciting features. It is important to note that the video recording and voice dialing features will only be available on the new iPhone 3G S.


At the WWDC keynote Apple declared the different notable improvement that the OS 3.0 is about to bring. Here is a gist of the outstanding features that you can now enjoy on your iPhone and iPod Touch.


Multimedia Messages – the MMS support will enable you to send photos, contacts, map locations and audio files. But AT&T will activate this feature in late summer this year.


Cut, Copy and Paste – the cut, copy and paste will work in notes, emails and text messages.


Landscape Keyboard – the landscape keyboard feature, which was formerly available only in Safari will now work in email, text messages and notes.


iTunes – the iTunes store is now updated with new functions – rent and purchasing of movies, downloading audio books and television shows and users will get a full access to iTunes U for textbooks and will also be able to redeem iTunes gift cards.


Tethering – OS 3.0 will support tethering, but it will completely depend on the carrier. Most of the carriers will support tethering except AT&T. AT&T will activate tethering later this summer.


Full Search – the search feature will allow you to search music, calendar entries, notes, contacts, emails and email messages that are stored on your mail server.


Push Notification – this feature will hugely help all the iPhone developer as they will be able to use the push notification feature accompanied with sound for text alerts as well as instant messages.


Parental Controls – with this, parents and guardians can restrict children from viewing movies and TV shows that are exclusively for adults, using apps that are not appropriate for their age and can further limit the use of browser based and YouTube apps.


Find My iPhone – this feature will allow you to track down the location of your misplaced iPhone through a map from your computer.


In-app Purchase – you can purchase an app or renew a magazine subscription without even going to the iTuunes App Store. You can directly do these when you are using the app itself.


Safari Browser – the new OS 3.0 promises a much faster browser.


Google Maps – the OS 3.0 will further allow iPhone application developers to embed Google map in their respective applications.




Well, now it is time for all iPhone users and developers to sit back and explore the new iPhone OS 3.0 to find out what amazing features Apple has stored for them.