iPhone OS 3.0: hands-on and first impressions

iPhone side

The first thing you might notice when booting OS 3.0 for the first time is that some icons have a new « highlighted » look with subdued stripes, like Phone, iPod and Messages. Not sure I like it...

Cut/copy/paste

Of course, the first thing I did was try cut/copy/paste... Here is how it works in Safari for example:

note the neat magnifying glass that allows for precise text selection, actually I like it better than the old « circle » one, which is still present in « edit » mode. Selection is super easy and fluid. It works in any text field, and as soon as you release your finger, it pops-up controls for cut/copy/paste.

Then simply tap in any other text field and you can paste the selection

Shake your phone after pasting and you invoke the Cancel dialog (a bit weird there is NO other way to do it)

Phone app

The Call log section of the Phone app has been revamped and is way more usefull now:

A small icon indicates outgoing calls, and when you click the arrow icon on the right, you get call details for that contact: last received and passed calls with date and duration.

Speaking of the Phone app, I think this is new: you can define your own phone number in the Phone settings:

Voice memos

The Voice Memo app is simple and well thought, allowing you to quickly record something, then give it a description and trim it (super easy to do, I wish they’d use that interface for scrubbing movies in the iPod app).  

MobileMe

The MobileMe settings now offer the possibility to KEEP your data on your phone if you cancel OTA updates (before, when you did that it would erase all data, like contacts). I'm not sure how it would handle a mix of local and mobileme sync'd data, but I'm not going to try and mess everything.

You can also turn on Find My iPhone, which is pretty neat and works as advertised. Didn’t try the Remote wipe, but locating the phone and sending a message works fine. Pretty spooky actually seeing a satellite picture of your house with a cross-hair on it...

Maps

Speaking of location, Maps has been slightly updated and now 1st gen iPhones get the same glowing blue dot as the GPS-enabled 3G models.

Traffic visualization has also been activated in France:

Spotlight

Spotlight is GREAT, super-fast and returns apps, contacts, events, notes, email (subject, from, to) and acts as a de facto launcher...

A neat trick is that if a result is a TV show or an Audiobook or Podcast, it shows the usual iTunes blue dot to tell you it is « new ». Less neat is the fact that all iPod contents are thrown together with no way to distinguish songs from videos and audiobooks...

Of course, you can paste text in the spotlight field...

Safari

Safari remains mostly unchanged, appart from a setting that allows Auto-fill: you get to choose from which contact details will be taken (like name, address etc) and whether you want Safari to remember your logins and passwords:

If you allow it, when you get to a web page with a form and invoke the keyboard, an « Auto fill » button appears that allows you to do just that, field by field.

Another new thing (I think): by default there is now an « iPhone user’s manual » bookmark that brings you to an iPhone friendly website describing the main apps and settings of iPhone:

iTunes store

iTunes now allows you to purchase and download videos (TV shows, music clips, movies), audiobooks and iTunesU content OTA:

You can cancel a download by swiping your finger on the progress bar.

Clock

Oh yeah, the Clock app has a minor update: the lap timer now shows you the total time and the current lap running time... not sure why they changed this and not some other apps that need more attention but...

Conclusion

Overall, this is a really good update: nothing groundbreaking, but a lot of polishing. It feels definitely faster (scrolling lists, opening apps, webkit-based apps are quicker too), Spotlight is a great tool, the tweaks done to MobileMe sync are welcome and Find My Phone is nice, if a bit spooky. Oh yeah, almost forgot: cut/copy/paste is as it should have been right from the start: easy, simple with a brilliant implementation.

The best is that it works on the whole range of iPhone models (appart from some device-specific features) and breathes a new life in even 1st generation iPhones.