Copy and Paste – Since the introduction of the iPhone by Apple, many users felt that the lack of a Copy/Paste feature was a huge inconvenience (Including Myself). No More! The new 3.0 Update has added Copy and Paste features you have all been waiting for. To use these features, you have to double-tap on a word and you are presented with a Copy/Cut Dialog that allows you to expand your selection and choose to copy. Then when you need to paste, you double-tap an area that you want to paste the text and choose paste. This is a great feature for those of us that do a lot of mobile emailing and texting.

Horizontally Oriented Keyboard – While this may not seem like a big deal, having the ability to type easier with both thumbs makes writing emails and text messages (and basically anything) much easier. To use this, when composing an email/text, turn the iPhone on it’s side – Viola!

Voice Memos – While there are a lot of free apps in the App Store to accomplish recordings, Apple has decided to build this feature in to the standard set of Apps on the iPhone. This is useful for those of us that are forgetful in our old age or who would like to record meeting notes (Or Blackmail someone Ha HA). I find this particularly useful when driving and trying to write down information.

Spotlight Search – One of the features that has been added that I find most useful is the new Spotlight Search. This makes it easy to find any type of information on your iPhone from one handy location. Simply start typing your query and the results will be displayed on the screen. This is great as I store a TON of information on my phone and have over 500 contacts. To use this, when at the home screen, slide to the left and you will see a search bar, you can also hit your home button when on your home screen to take you there.

Tethering – This is a cool feature that allows you to tether your iPhone to your laptop and use it as a 3G modem when on the road. From past experience, if you wanted to accomplish Internet Sharing using your iPhone and a laptop, your iPhone had to be jailbroken and you had to install a Proxy and set up an AdHoc (Peer-to-Peer) wireless network, setting your browsers proxy settings to the IP address of the iPhone. What a Pain!. As with the MMS feature (Mentioned below) AT&T will not support this feature at launch of the new 3.0 Software (and probably never will so that they can sell more of their Air Cards).

MMS – Ahh, the long awaited (and apparently we must wait longer) MMS messaging support. One of the biggest drawbacks that I found when I first purchased my iPhone was the inability to send/receive(easily) MMS messages. Apparently this new feature will be built into the new update but it is not yet supported by AT&T until late this summer (so I have heard). I cannot wait!

Improved Calendar – I am not sure how this will apply to users that do not have their iPhone connected to a Microsoft Exchange environment but mine is so – This feature Rocks. You now have the ability to use Free/Busy as well as send invitations to colleagues from the calendar app. This is a great improvement for those of us with Exchange and Busy corporate schedules.

Recent Calls – The recent calls list now includes a bit more information such as if the caller/called number was mobile, home or work as well as if it was outbound or inbound. This is pretty useful.

Camera Preview – The camera now has a small “blank spot” where the camera roll button used to be in the lower left of the screen. This is now a preview of the last photo taken. Check it out, take a picture and it appears in the blank spot.

Mail Folders to Push – Once again, another improvement for those using Exchange. You can now select what mail folders (Folders other than Inbox) to push to the phone automatically. This is a great feature, better than having to look in each folder individually to see if messages have arrived.

Improved iTunes – With the new update, you now have a more robust iTunes application in which you can redeem Promotional Codes as well as purchase music (and other media) directly from the iPhone with no need to use iTunes. This is handy when you are at a party and want to purchase an Album or download a Movie or other media.

All in all, the new update has a lot of great new features. I am a bit disappointed that the MMS and Tethering do not work but I hope to see MMS available by the end of the summer (Tethering may never happen with AT&T). I am also surprised that Apple is not including the Voice Dial Features and Video Camera to users updating to 3.0 (as opposed to purchasing the 3G s). I guess there will still be a need to Jailbreak your device if you had your heart set on these features and do not have the scratch to buy the new model.

As usual with the iPhone, it is (and always has been) a great phone – It is just a bit better now.

On top of the 140 MPH Trip around the rally course in the Panoz GTS, we also went around a drifting course in a ALMOST stock mustang. Very cool sliding around in this puppy!

Jason (Digitalkid)
www.954network.com

Jason (Digitalkid)
www.954network.com

Jason (Digitalkid)
www.954network.com