Ah, another summer, another iPhone and
another iPhone OS. So many new features, some many disgruntled iPod Touch
owners (yes, you once again have to shell out $10 for the update, free for
iPhone owners). But, without further ado, here’s what you can expect from the
updated operating systm.
Copy/Past
Finally, the most fundamental aspect of
modern computer technology comes to the iPhone. With the touch screen, selecting
text is a breeze but up until this update it was not a possibility. Apple has
finally rectified this archaism and you can now copy and paste until your
heart’s content.
Spotlight Search
This new addition is accessed by swiping to
the left from the main screen. This brings up a search box and a keyboard.
Start typing and results will appear, letter by letter. Spotlight searches
through media (music, videos etc) and contacts, as well as apps and emails.
It’s a great way to browse through what can be a daunting amount of information
and what’s best is that it provides instant access, allowing you to launch
videos and play music right from the search screen. (In other search-related
updates, Apple has also added the ability to search email over IMAP, enabling
users to search, say a Gmail account, without having to launch the browser and
log into Gmail itself.)
Find My Phone
Dropping $100 a year for MobileMe? Well,
you just might have another reason to feel you’re getting your money’s worth.
Apple has added a feature that allows you to locate your phone on Google Maps
in about 2 minutes. Once you have the general area narrowed down you can tell
the iPhone to emit a beep to better track it down. In case it was stolen you
can also remotely wipe the phone’s contents, or simply deactivate the phone
entirely. Of course thieves can just as easily deactivate the feature itself
but it’s a step in the right direction.
Other Notable Updates:
-Landscape keyboard for email and SMS
-Tweaks to the camera make for better low
light photos
-Calendar syncing with clouds such as
Google Calendar and Yahoo in about 20 seconds
-Safari Autofill provides automatic
entering of common criteria
-Shake-to-Shuffle/Undo allows you to gyrate
to shuffle songs or undo actions
-Push notifications mean updates from
messenger clients can launch themselves, rather than requiring you to have the
app open to receive notification (this will also come in handy for other
applications as well)
