Apple has just previewed iPhone OS 3.0, and from the way it looks, this has got to be the most feature-packed firmware release to date. It includes a lot of the features earlier predicted and some additional ones to truly make it competitive with the new set of challengers rivaling it in the market today.

Here are some of the new features you can expect once it’s released later this year:

• MMS support with message forwarding and deleting of multiple messages
• Bluetooth stereo A2DP
• Cut, copy and paste (finally!)
• Tethering (though telecoms are strongly against this)
• Phishing protection
• Form auto-fill
• YouTube account support
• New Spotlight feature for universal search on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• New Voice Memos app
• Revised Stocks app that supports landscape view and features news stories
• Landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes
• Calendar now supports CalDAV and subscriptions in the .ics format
• Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps
• Note syncing to Mac and PC
• Auto-login for WiFi hotspots.
• Unlocked Bluetooth for 2G iPod touch
• Shake the shuffle iPod playback

Likewise, Apple has opened up a new set of features on the iPhone that developers can use when creating apps. Here’s a rundown of the new features that will serve as the groundwork for the next generation of apps on the iPhone:

• Push functionality (finally!)
• Peer-to-peer Bluetooth connection for gaming and info-swapping.
• Paid apps can be subscription fee-based, and include option to buy content directly from inside the app.
• New apps can call out Google Maps to make turn-by-turn available apps for the phone.
• Developers can also integrate hardware accessory support for their apps via Bluetooth or dock
• Streaming video, audio can be included in apps as well as in-game voice use

Support for hardware accessories will definitely bring forth a whole new segment in the market that has mostly been limited to just headsets and external speakers for the iPhone.

It will be released this summer, but the SDK is now already available for developers. iPhone OS 3.0 is also compatible with 1G iPhones albeit lacking MMS and A2DP due to hardware restrictions.

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