On 17th March, Apple will show the world the first look at iPhone 3.0, according to an article at Engadget. They say a preview is coming, along with a new SDK. It’s expected the SDK will be available quite soon after the 17th, if not on the date itself, to allow developers to prepare and to begin creating new applications, while also updating previous apps. There’s no date for a public release of iPhone 3.0 as of yet, but if Apple are confident enough to show it off next Tuesday, then I’d think it’s quite close to being finished. A few months at the most, I’d expect.
Hopefully this update will bring the feature’s we’ve all been waiting for: copy and paste, MMS, the ability to have multiple applications open, and, of course, push data. We’ve been wanting these for along time, and I’d think at least some of these will feature in 3.0, if not all. We won’t know for sure until the 17th, but other than the obvious changes we’ve been looking for, what Apple could add to the iPhone OS is quite a grey area.
What are you hoping iPhone 3.0 will bring? I’m sure copy and paste is quite high on your list. How about bluetooth tethering, or would that be too much to ask?
I'm excited for some UI updates most of all. The iPhone OS has gone from looking beautiful to a little utilitarian in the sea of competition that it brought. While that's not all bad (Apple won't hurt from being called "functional" once in a while), I could certainly use a little more glitz in the OS. After a bunch of people leaving Apple and going to Palm to make the Pre's OS, I'm excited to see what the remaining iPhone OS designers can do. It's a little long in the tooth. It's a couple years old. It wasn't necessarily developed for pages and pages of Apps.
I'd love for Apple to make more apps of their own, in addition to beefing up their existing ones, also. None of the third party apps I've downloaded (except, perhaps, for Pennies) has the kind of single-minded functionality and ease that Apple's own apps have. I like that they come in and set the bar really high. It says "this is what an app can be".
Enhancements to existing apps include: To-Dos that carry over from Mail and iCal, something like TextExpander throughout the OS, Turn by turn in Maps, syncing Notes, Flash in Safari.