Amazon follows Apple to $1.29

 

     

 

As expected, Apple on Tuesday introduced variable pricing on iTunes, meaning that some popular tracks now cost $1.29 instead of $0.99. Less expected: Amazon.com has followed Apple into the fray. Scroll down today’s listof top downloads, and you’ll see a few tracks at $1.29.

Apple Releases Three New iPhone Ads: ‘Itchy’, ‘Office’, and ‘Student’

                

Apple today posted three new iPhone commercials to their ad gallery.

– Itchy features three apps linked by the common theme of being used on a nature walk: Compass Go [App Store, $1.99], iBird Explorer Plus [App Store, $19.99], and How To Videos from Howcast.com [App Store, Free].

Apple 3D interactive multi-touch sphere

Moixa, the maker of the innovative USBCell batteries plans to transform the way we interact with computers with the launch of a 3D interactive multi-touch sphere that can be used to display the world, browse web pages or control interactive games.

The multi-touch patent game: Who was first?

 

While Apple and Palm have tussled over who “owns” multi-touch, Microsoft has kept surprisingly silent.

According to a blog posting on ZDNet sister site BNET last week, however, Microsoft may have been first to seek a multi-touch patent application.

Apple developing ‘stealth’ biometric security for iPhone

Apple has developed a new technique that would hide a biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac and let owners lock down their systems with fingerprints or even facial recognition — all without ever having to break from their usual routine.

Published for the first time this week, a patent filing for the process reveals that Apple wants to provide a more secure method for preventing unauthorized access to a whole device — or private information on that device — than current techniques like passcodes; however, it also wants to avoid taking up the owner’s time with a separate scan or consuming extra space with a distinct reader.

The solution, the company suggests, would be to automatically use a sensor either hidden within the device or else repurposed from its usual role. Devices could recognize a fingerprint or finger vein pattern simply by waiting for the user to touch the display, which would hide the sensors on or behind the screen. A forward-facing camera could alternately look for retinal patterns or even recognize the facial features of owners when they’re in the right position for use.

Notebooks could use the trackpad, palmrest and a webcam for a similar purpose.

Apple WWDC 2009 Dates Set: June 8-12

 

Apple sent out an email and is advertising on their Developer Connection page inviting registrations for the next World Wide Developers Conference at Moscone West conference center in San Francisco California.  The dates are June 8th through June 12th. WWDC has historically been an event in which Apple (and usually Jobs himself) has revealed big software announcements, since the focus of WWDC is software rather than hardware.

 

AT&T: New iPhone will be hot

 

                    

We can’t tell you where or who, but pretty high up in AT&T’s food chain, the following was reported to be said:

• New iPhone announcement around mid-June (duh)
• New iPhone will be faster and have a more seamless experience unmatched by any device (could be just talking about 3.0, but we think it’s also a new iPhone)
• U-Verse iPhone application; will allow control of your home DVR (play, pause, rewind, etc.)

Fourth Leopard 10.5.7 test build given to developers

             

Development seems to be coming to a close for Apple’s upcoming OS X Leopard 10.5.7 build, folks. World of Apple is reporting a new test build has been released to the developers of OS X software, which is reporting only one current issue. The build notes can be found below, and as you can see, the only issue at the moment is that the Safari 4 beta only installs on the current Leopard build, 10.5.6.

Apple Safari Beta 4 for Windows and Mac

                                

Apple launched the first beta of Safari 4, the new version of its web browser for both Windows and Mac OS X computers. Safari 4 brings a lot of new features, including full history search, a smart address field, and full-page zoom. Apple also claims that Safari 4 runs much faster due to its new JavaScript engine.

 

MacBook hacked in seconds, again

Many people may remember Charlie Miller from last year’s event where he successfully hacked a MacBook and was able to take control over it within seconds, walking away with the MacBook and the grand prize.

Charlie Miller once again successfully hacked the fully patched MacBook by exploiting a security vulnerability in Safari, Apple’s web browser. The hack was accomplished by the team clicking on a link that took control of the machine within seconds. Charlie Miller walked away with the MacBook and the $10,000 top prize after successfully hacking the MacBook the fastest.

TippintPoint Zero Day Initiative has acquired exclusive rights to the vulnerability, and will work with Apple to patch the flaw. Details about the attack will not be disclosed until the patch is ready.

Charlie Miller wasn’t the only successful hacker, but a security researcher nicknamed “Nils” was able to hack into a Sony Vaio laptop running an updated Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. “Nils” walked away with the cash prize and got to keep the hardware after successfully hacking it. “Nils” was also successfully able to hack into Apple’s Safari browser being the second hacker of the day to exploit it.

by Andrew Lyle

IBM/Sun deal doesn’t exactly surprise Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, all of his family do not own Apple (AAPL) product

The Microsoft (MSFT) boss is sitting down with BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler at the McGraw-Hill media conference. Expect at least some chatter about Yahoo (YHOO) and its new boss Carol Bartz, who just happens to be visiting New York this week as well.

Following is paraphrased live notes, unless in quotes. Please refresh your browser for updates.

Starting off with an economy question: Should be believe that recent rally means things are getting better?

SB: The principle we’re operating on is that the economy will contract, reset… and we’ll begin again what I call “regular growth”. We had had abnormal growth fueled by too much debt in the system. I don’t how long that will take. It could take, two, three, four years to get there.

SA: Back to MSFT business. Why don’t you dominate search?

SB: We had to start essentially from scratch about 6 years ago. Essential thesis: Most of the innovation is still come in search. Search hasn’t changed much in the last 5 years, 10 years. “It’s gotten somewhat better, but at the end of the day you search to do something, you don’t search to find links to web pages.” We think there’s a lot of innovation yet to come. We’ve learned that cost of just getting into the game – the table stakes – is a lot higher than we realized in R&D, capex. Google (GOOG) is making that investment, Yahoo can’t, we are.

SA: Isn’t much of this a marketing question, that no one visits you for search?

SB: Yes. But it means opportunity for us. Our brand will differentiate us, and if we can just get 15 or 20% in the next few years, that’s a big step up.

SA: Please tell us about Kumo, your new search product.

SB: Not really ready to talk about it. Need a new name. We update search every 9 months. Going still call it “Live Search” for now.

SA: So not a new product, just an incremental release?

SB: “I think we could use a “set change” as they say in organizational behavior classes, and when we’re ready to release one, we will”.

SA: What’s up with Yahoo talks?

SB: Principles first: “Whether or not there’s a partnership to be had with Yahoo, we think our own innovation… it’s not about Yahoo’s technology. It’s really about getting the pooled volume, because you actually can improve your product faster if you have more users.” If you have more advertisers, you can improve the product as well. “There are returns to scale. And putting the scale together is valuable.”

“With that as context, we’re largely on the same strategy, with or without a partnership with Yahoo.” I’ve talked with Carol briefly, over the phone. “I’m sure when it’s appropriate, we’ll have a chance to sit down and talk.” I’ve known her for years. She’s straightforward and friendly “and when she’s ready, we’ll have that type of discussion. Whether a deal gets done or not, who knows.” People at our two companies talk all the time.

SA: Will there be a deal?

SB: “There are a lot of things that are fairly compelling economically in trying to put our two search efforts together in a partnership.” I thought that last year, and “I got bailed out of this economy by Yahoo on that”. [Laughs].

SA: Do you own an Apple (AAPL) products?

SB: “No. I don’t. My sons don’t. My wife doesn’t.”

SA: Why does MSFT, which is so smart have so much trouble outside of Windows, Office. Why so difficult to expand beyond that (ie against the likes of Apple?).

SB: “Most people in our industry never expand beyond one thing.” So the fact that we have Windows, Office, business software…”So beyond those three, Mrs. Lincoln, or whatever, how was the play? I think I got that backward, but you get the point.”

Xbox doing great for us. Incredible asset, opportunity. We have areas where we have our work cut out for us. No doubt that Apple does a nice job in video and music services. We’ve talked about search… but if you were a shareholder, I’d also say, it’s great because there’s lot of opportunity.

SA: Whither Zune?

SB: “We’re going to keep going with Zune”. It’s two things: Service and a device. The Zune service, that’s going to fan out its footprint. Hardware will continue to improve. “The question is whether even if we flog them heavily, is their profit upside”. We’re going to keep going “I won’t say full steam ahead, because that implies acceleration of investment, but we’re going to sustain our investment.” We like it and the future may be the software/ecosystem on other devices.

On to smartphone market:

SB: Smartphones will go from 10% to 70 or 80% of market next few years. So what will people want? Good experience built in, w/out downloading stuff. You want good price range. iPhone is very expensive phone, without a keyboard. Some people can’t afford them. Sweet spot is phones that cost $150 to $200 to make — forget retail price. iPhone is about $500. We want to provide vendors with ability to make Windows phones up and down the price scale.

Unless you assume Apple and BlackBerry are going to sell the lion’s share of most phones, which I don’t, I think the play for us is to provide broad innovation at many price points.

A $500 phone is not going to work for everybody in every market. The most popular phones in China and India cost about $25 to build. We can’t get our software on that.

SA: Do you care about “touch” on phones? The blogs say you are.

SB: Windows Mobile 6.5 has touch on it. The way Apple does touch drives cost. They way they do it on the iPhone is not an inexpensive component. We’ll do it in a way that you can afford to do it on most phones.

SA: What are you thinking with these retail stores? How different than Apple?

SB: You have an interesting case in the US. Right now there’s a range in innovation, around, by our partners. Not selling software in stores, but hardware. It is a challenge today for our partners, who do the most innovative designs, to get them to market. Because it’s too high risk for the Best Buys of the world. So we need an outlet to champion that innovation. Showcase devices that are hard to get stocked in traditional electronics retailer.

Apple actually sells about half of all Apple machines through its stores or online. We’re not going to do that for PCs. But we don’t to show off interesting stuff. It’s sort of like our enterprise consulting services, which doesn’t really compete with the big consultants. It’s a place to showcase.

SA: Back to Windows/Office. How are you adapting the Cloud – Software as Service?

SB: I think we’re doing a good job. Rattles off series of vaguely cloud-related services – things that involve the Web. “We’re doing a lot of work in the area and I see all upside from the cloud.” Do we have competitors? Sure. Is Google going to compete with us? Sure. We try to compete with them, too. Everybody makes their software really run on the client. The truth of the matter is that nothing is really a Web software — even Google Apps. Everything really runs on the local device, because it runs better there.

SA: What do you think of IBM/Sun deal?

SB: “I don’t exactly get it, but it doesn’t exactly surprise me either.” Logical exit strategy for Sun shareholders. On IBM’s side. “I think you pick up a lot of stuff when you buy Sun” and you have to figure out if you want everything you’re going to get. “It doesn’t change our fundamental” economics, strategy. “I think it gives me a year or two where they’re digesting it. I relish that year.”

SA: Recently you promised to keep investing in R&D, etc and you got criticism for that. Please respond.

SB: The feedback we’ve gotten isn’t just about the R&D number. It’s “Cut costs. Cut them more.” But in R&D, when you’re giving someone some people today, you’re really, giving them more people tomorrow. So we need to flatten that curve a bit. There are plenty of areas where we spend less than the competition. Apple, for instance, spends much more (proportionally) on marketing than we do.

SA: Those layoffs you announced may have been the first major round you did. How are you absorbing that.

SB: We feel bad about the layoffs. Nobody wants a death by a 1,000 cuts. So we really thought it through beforehand. I “revectored” my Christmas and New Years to go over this. “While it’s not fun, they’re moving forward with good attitudes.”

SA: Talk about future markets, opportunities

SB: PC market will shrink nearterm, but when it turns around Windows/Office will go gangbusters. Cloud-based services has big growth. Big possibilities in servers/mainframes. On a percent basis, fastest growth will be in search, phones. Those things will grow quickly, but we’re still in investment mode. Xbox we’ve turned the corner on. We’ve paid our upfront costs. Have big base of subscribers, and a real opportunity for it to be “more than a console” and I think you’ll see that 12 months from now.

On convergence: Zune needs to come from the cloud and support the TV. It will support the phone/mobile device, and it has to run on the PC. Right now it’s on a device but it broaden from there. LiveMessenger will work the same way.

But the PC has real advantages compared to TV or mobile. TV has no intelligence. The phone today is pretty nascent. There will be about 300M PCs sold this year, compared to 20M iphones or Windows Mobile phones. PCs are open. PCs are compatible. So importance of PC-centered innovation…most of the new media creation, the PC will actually be the primary target device, for now, and eventually the same type of opportunities will be available on three screens, from the cloud.

SA: What about M&A?

SB: “We don’t have an acquisition strategy. We have a business strategy that might lead to acquisitions.” We did 20 deals last year. We’ll do about 20 this year. Most between $10M and $400M in value. “But will be buy many things things that are $2, $3, $4B and up? We could.” But I’m not sure we will. But integration is hard. And pricing is hard. “Nobody knows what asset values should be, at least until the economy finishes resetting”. I only get involved in deals about “a couple hundred million”.

[Missed some parts about evolution in Ballmer’s management style. Apologies]

SA: Is it better now that Bill Gates is gone?

SB: “It’s different”. We’re growing, but “we miss Bill.” But everyone values what Bill is doing with this nonprofit, and everybody relishes the chance to grow. Windows 7 is a great product, that we’re building without Bill’s involvement.

SA: You recently called on government to invest in innovation. What should they be doing?

SB: “A lot of basic research in this country needs to be funded by government.” A lot of important research has come out of government, and I think it’s important that they understand it. GDP growth comes from basic transformations in science and the business cycle. “The most important thing is that the government says, he we believe , and we’re going to put our money where our mouth is” on the science side.

On the education side, anything we can do to shore up what is the best set of universities, I think the more we can keep that system healthy, the better.

“I’m not going to pretend to be the expert in how that happens.”

SA: You’ve made a lot of money [then a dig at Forbes]. What would you do if you weren’t running Microsoft?

SB: “I’m not really sure. I don’t really allow myself much time to think about it, because you might fall in love with it, if you think about it too hard.” I have kids who are 13, 14.

SA: So you’re saving for college?

SB: I mean that we’re not moving out of Seattle anytime soon. But if there’s one thing that captivates me, I think it’s education

by Peter Kafka

AT&T to Sell IPhones Without Contracts for $599, $699

                      

 AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, will begin selling the device without a contract for the first time.

The 8-gigabyte model will sell for $599 and the 16-gigabyte model will go for $699, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said today in an interview. The offer, available March 26, will let customers sign up for month-to-month plans with Dallas-based AT&T.

Until now, AT&T has required a two-year contract for iPhone buyers, charging $199 to $299 for the device. The strategy change may be an effort to attract month-to-month customers and clear space on store shelves for new products. Analysts at Piper Jaffray & Co. and Broadpoint AmTech Inc. expect new iPhone models to arrive in the next few months.

Apple may introduce a cheaper version of the iPhone this summer for $99, along with a higher-end version with twice the storage currently available, Broadpoint analyst Brian Marshall said this week in a note to clients.

IPhone customers are required to spend $30 a month on a data plan, giving them access to Web features. That’s on top of a voice plan, which starts at $39.99 a month. IPhone customers who sign up without a monthly contact will be required to pay the same amount, Siegel said.

Worth It?

The new iPhone prices might not make sense for buyers, said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at Grigsby & Associates, a New York-based securities-trading firm. Customers would be better off paying the regular contract price and getting the discounted phone, he said. Then they could cancel their contracts if they wanted to go month to month. Termination fees start at $175.

The original iPhone customers will finish out their contracts on June 30, two years after the device’s debut. About 270,000 bought the phone in the first two days it was on sale, with 1.12 million getting it in the first quarter it was available. AT&T said in July that it planned to sell the device with no contract eventually.

AT&T fell 10 cents to $25.60 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4 p.m. The stock has declined 10 percent this year. Apple rose 10 cents to $101.62 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

By Amy Thomson

Related post AT&T bringin’ sexy back, offering iPhone 3G at no-commitment price, no activation

Evidence of new iPhones, new iPod Touch?

           

We got this information from one of our awesome Apple ninjas, (yes, that one) and here’s the deal… Basically when poking around in the iPhone OS 3.0 restore ramdisk, our guy found evidence of Apple’s upcoming hardware revisions. This includes new iPhones and iPod Touches. Yes, it looks like multiple hardware units. Now, this shouldn’t be taken as fact — we’re posting it for information sake. If we had to bet however, this seems right on. From our guy:

“Apple normally makes their device IDs in chronological order, from first released to last released. Here is what I found very interesting for you. Quick, here is an example of the past devices:

iPhone First Gen – 0×1290
iPod touch 1G – 0×1291
iPhone 3G – 0×1292
iPod touch 2G – 0×1293

Then, here is what is found in the ramdisk:

iPhone2,1 – 0×1294
iProd0,1 – 0×1295
iPod2,2 – 0×1296
iPhone3,1 – 0×1297
iFPGA – 0×1298
iPod3,1 – 0×1299″

As you can see, there are multiple new hardware IDs listed which makes us believe there will be more than one new iPhone model, and there also looks like there is more than one iPod Touch as well. Hit the jump for the information we were sent:

 

<key>devices</key>
<dict>
<key>iFPGA</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4760</integer>    // 0×1298 – perhaps a test board?
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPhone1,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTPEthernet</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4752</integer>    // 0×1290 – first (edge) iPhone device ID
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPhone1,2</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTPEthernet</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4754</integer>    // 0×1292 – iPhone 3G device ID
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPhone2,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTPEthernet</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4756</integer>    // 0×1294 – New iPhone?
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPhone3,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTPEthernet</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4759</integer>    // 0×1297
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPod1,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4753</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPod</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPod2,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4755</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPod</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPod2,2</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4758</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPod</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iPod3,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4761</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>iProd0,1</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>standardMuxPTP</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>4757</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>iPhone</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
<key>unknownHardware</key>
<dict>
<key>ConfigurationDescriptors</key>
<string>unknownHardware</string>
<key>deviceID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>manufacturerString</key>
<string>Apple Inc.</string>
<key>productID</key>
<integer>20547</integer>
<key>productString</key>
<string>Unknown- Add device descriptor info for this device</string>
<key>vendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>
</dict>
</dict>

 by The Boy Genius

新增100多种功能 苹果发布iPhone OS 3.0

美国当地时间3月17日上午10点（北京时间3月18日凌晨1点），苹果在美国公司总部举行发布会，发布并演示了iPhone OS 3.0，增添新功能达到100多种。

美国当地时间3月17日上午10点（北京时间3月18日凌晨1点），苹果在美国公司总部举行发布会，发布并演示了iPhone OS 3.0，增添新功能达到100多种，而常常受到用户诟病的剪切/复制/粘贴功能、蓝牙P2P连接功能、MMS彩信功能等，都全面装备在iPhone OS 3.0身上了，应该能让用户们感到满意，而新的软件开发包（SDK）也为程序开发者提供了方便，提供了1000多种新的应用程序接口（APIs）。

苹果在会议上说，iPhone OS 3.0将于今年夏季发布，具体时间未定。iPhone用户可以免费升级，iPod touch用户则要付费升级，价格为9.95美元。此外，演示活动上苹果还公布了 App Store 的最新业绩：应用数量超过25000个，下载次数超过 8 亿次。

iPhone OS 3.0主要新增功能：

1、剪切/复制/粘帖

操作方法：用手指双击文字就会自动选中，左右两端会显示指针，用手指即可拖动到所需位置，顶部提供剪切、复制和粘帖三个标签，按下即可完成相应的操作。更重要的是，你可以在不同的应用程序中使用该功能，例如在短信中复制文字，然后在日程表当中粘贴插入。万一操作失误，只需摇动手机即可取消上一步操作。

苹果在会议上说，iPhone OS 3.0将于今年夏季发布，具体时间未定。iPhone用户可以免费升级，iPod touch用户则要付费升级，价格为9.95美元。此外，演示活动上苹果还公布了 App Store 的最新业绩：应用数量超过25000个，下载次数超过 8 亿次。

苹果在会议上说，iPhone OS 3.0将于今年夏季发布，具体时间未定。iPhone用户可以免费升级，iPod touch用户则要付费升级，价格为9.95美元。此外，演示活动上苹果还公布了 App Store 的最新业绩：应用数量超过25000个，下载次数超过 8 亿次。

同时，iPhone OS 3.0也支持图片的剪切、复制和粘帖功能，比如你可以在相册中选中复制一张或多张照片，然后到彩信或电子邮件中粘帖。

 

 

2、MMS 彩信功能

iPhone OS 3.0不仅支持短信转发和单条删除，还增加了彩信功能，用户可以在彩信中添加照片、音频、联系人和地理位置信息。不过，iPhone一代并未获得支持，即使升级了也不会增加彩信功能。

 

 

iPhone OS 3.0 还新增了语音备忘录（Voice Memos）应用，可以进行语音备忘、演讲和采访费等录音，并支持对录音进行剪裁和编辑。语音可以通过电子邮件或彩信发送。

 

 

3、蓝牙立体声

iPhone OS 3.0可以让iPhone 3G和iPod Touch支持A2DP蓝牙立体声，也就是可以连接立体声耳机或音箱了，不过这个功能不支持iPhone一代。

4、P2P 连接

虽然iPhone OS 3.0还不能让iPhone自由地通过蓝牙传输文件，不过P2P连接能够让iPhone的应用程序通过蓝牙找到其他iPhone或iPod touch，简单地说，就是可以与朋友的iPhone或iPod touch游戏对战，或者通过相同的程序互相传输资料。不过，现在还不兼容其他品牌的手机哦。

5、手机横向键盘

即使把iPhone横置，也能通过虚拟的QWERTY键盘进行输入了，该功能支持短信、电子邮件、记事本等重要功能。

 

 

6、增强搜索功能

iPhone OS 3.0的搜索功能扩大到大部分的软件，可以搜索电子邮件（包括标题、发件人和收件人），如果邮件不在本地可继续在服务器上进行搜索；也可以搜索日历和备忘录；还可以根据歌曲、专辑和艺术家名称搜索 iPod 曲库；此外，还可以搜索第三方软件的内容。

 

 

7、其他新增功能

iPhone OS 3.0的其他新增功能还有对CalDAV协议日历的支持，订阅.ics格式的iCalendar日历，新的股市功能，记事本同步，YouTube在线视频帐户，Wi-Fi自动登录，网页信息自动填充，反钓鱼等功能，可谓对苹果iPhone/iPhone 3G/iPod Touch一代和二代的革命性升级。

其他新功能特性：记事本同步，音频、视频标签，流媒体视频直播，晃动机身随机播放，WiFi自动登录，蓝牙立体声，新建iTunes帐号，YouTube评分，防钓鱼网站，家长控制等等。

 

 

 

新版SDK即日起开始测试。

 

 

 

App Store开通国家和地区新增15个，达到77个。

 

 

 

iPhone 3.0软件今年夏天问世，iPhone 3G可免费升级。第一代iPhone也可免费升级，但不支持A2DP蓝牙立体声、彩信等功能。iPod touch升级价格9.95美元。 (本文来源：网易手机 )

Apple Opens Up More Ways To Get Paid On The iPhone, Adds Key New Features. Apps Hit 800 Million Downloads

           

iPhone apps have been downloaded 800 million times, and there are now more than 25,000 apps in the iTunes store. Apple is detailing some of the new features in the next version of the iPhone OS in apress conference going on live right now. The new OS, iPhone 3.0, will support 1,000 APIs. Apple seems to be giving a lot of extra love to paid apps, which will gain the ability to sell additional levels, subscriptions, virtual goods, or extra content from right within the app.

The new APIs will also support peer-to peer applications via Bluetooth, which will be great for head-to-head games. Maps will be able to be embedded directly into the apps, and apps can now talk to accessories such as an FM transmitter or a blood pressure monitor. But Apple is not opening up background processing, which would allow more than one app to be running at once—a feature already common on Android and other phones. Apple says it takes up too much battery life.

Apple is also opening up push notification APIs for developers. This will allow apps to incorporate email, IM, and other messaging services. Meebo for instance, created a native iPhone app using the new API, which it demoed onstage. Apps will also finally be able to tap into the iTunes music library on the iPhone. (About time). And they will be able to handle streaming video as a feature.

And they save perhaps the most requested feature until near the end (’natch): Cut-and-paste. You double-tap a word to highlight it, drag the edges to highlight a block, shake to call up an “undo” button. Finally. Why was that so hard?

Another much requested feature: landscape support (when you tilt the iPhone horizontally, the screen goes into landscape mode). Now all apps can have it, including e-mail. And email will support MMS. Again, this is all just basic stuff.

Taking a cue from Android, Apple is finally adding search to every app. So now two years later, you can search your emails and think that it is a gift. But it is not just email. Apple is adding Spotlight to the iPhone: one place where you can search across all apps: your calendar, notes, iTunes library.

The IPhone 3.0 SDK is available to developers starting today. CrunchGear has a full rundown of all the announcements.

Some stats from the press conference:

• There are now more than 25,000 iPhone apps in the iTunes Store.
• iPhone apps have been downloaded 800 million times.
• 96 percent of all apps are approved
• The developer SDK has been downloaded 800,000 times
• 50,000 companies have joined the program
• 13.7 million iPhones were sold in 2008