The big Apple iPhone 3.0 preview event went off today without a hitch and it seems a lot of the rumored improvements are going to in fact make it into the next version of software for the iPhone. The infamous copy-and-paste will be there along with support for MMS and my personal favorite- stereo Bluetooth support. I must say the geek in me who is always looking for that next great phone was disappointed with no mention of any new model coming from Cupertino.
It is kind of amusing that the little things are often the ones that create the most buzz. The clamoring for the copy-and-paste ability has been huge and the desire for a landscape keyboard for composing email almost as loud. Both of those will be addressed in 3.0 so perhaps the “squeaky wheel” principle was in play here. A lot of the new features in iPhone 3.0 center around developers and making it easier for them to create better apps and to monetize those apps. That will have far-reaching benefits for we users so that’s important.
What is a bit surprising to me is that I didn’t see anything in the new feature list that requires a new handset. I may have missed something but it appears that most everything announced today will run on not only the iPhone 3G but even the original iPhone model (MMS messaging and stereo Bluetooth support excluded). While this is good to help those of us who invested in an iPhone extend that investment, the geek in me wants more. New handset, cool new features, new things that owners of those old handsets don’t get to play with. That’s the enthusiast in me talking now, that’s for sure.
It’s great that Apple continues to improve the phone’s software and to add features, especially for free ($9.95 for iPod Touch owners). It’s nice to know that your phone won’t get obsolete every year as we seem to think it should. It’s easy to fall into the thought process of expecting new hardware every year like on the Mac side. The truth is there is not really a need for a new iPhone handset every year. As long as Apple continues to add value to the OS that’s a good thing. But that geek in me still wants a cool, new phone.
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