Gallery and Initial Impressions: iPhone OS 3.0

Just announced this morning, iPhone OS 3.0 is the talk of the town. Though Apple’s SDK distribution servers had a rough time handling the initial rush this morning, things have since stabilized and developers are starting to flash their handsets to the first beta copies of the new software. In turn, the first screenshots and early impressions have started to trickle in to our inbox.

Note: This software is still in a beta state. It’s expected to be broken. They have months to fix it.

Update: We’ve also found a few new features lurking around in the Podcast player.

What we’ve heard so far:

• There’s a reason us common folk won’t see it hit our handsets till Summer. It’s slow, and it’s buggy – but remember, it’s beta.

• There’s a “Find my iPhone” option under MobileMe – We don’t recall ever seeing this before, and it wasn’t mentioned by Apple today. We’re not 100% sure what it is. Skyhook-powered lost/stolen iPhone locator
  perhaps?

• Voice Recorder stays open behind the scenes if you close it while recording. Getting a screenshot of it was tough for some reason, but Update: Got a screenshot of it – see the last one in the gallery below. It looks just like when you close the phone app while you’re on a call, with a small bar running along the top of the screen. No sign yet if it will allow you to record calls, as the app crashes if you try.

• Copy and paste works well already. Shaking the iPhone brings up the undo button, and it does this fancy little animation on its way in as if it had momentum from the shake. It’s a small touch, but we like it.

• Picture messages can currently be created, but don’t seem to send properly in this beta build

• Update: You can now set the home button to jump directly to the camera or search page when double-tapped.

Stuff is still a bit shaky overall, but Apple has plenty of time to fix these issues up before it goes live for everyone. We’ll update you if any more little gems turn up.

mobilecrunch.com