News: iPhone OS 3.0…It’s Pretty Much Awesome

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Apple announced the new iPhone OS, version 3.0, featuring a number of features people have been complaining about for the last 2 years. Most notably, the inclusion of cut, copy, and paste. It also includes quite a few other things.

First, the new software includes 1000 new APIs for developers, which allows things such as in-app purchases (buy more levels for a game), peer-to-peer gaming (and other apps), custom apps for accessories, integration with Google Maps, push notifications, and turn-by-turn directions. Streaming video has been tweaked, allowing it to adjust based on bandwidth.

The big news, however, is the much-anticipated inclusion of MMS and cut, copy, and paste. Other improvements include the ability to send multiple photos in an email, landscape mode in many more apps, voice memos, CalDAV and .ics calendars, more stock information, and searches on both the home screen and within apps.

It’ll be available this summer for $9.95 for the iPod touch, and free for both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. Many are expecting that to be around June, which would coincide with an iPhone release.