iPhone 2.0 Software Update

Some of the changes you will see between current iPhone software and the big iPhone 2.0 software update due out early July (most likely prior to the iPhone 3G release date - July 11).

Email

Mass email move and delete, thank you thank you thank you. Every once in awhile my home Comcast connection craps out and kills my spam-filtering solution - the fantastic SpamSieve running on my home Mac Mini. Over the course of the day my iPhone fills up with spam and I have to delete each stinking message one at a time. So, freaking, annoying. This is a feature welcomed with open arms.

In addition, you will now be able to view all Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, and now Powerpoint) and iWork documents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). Image attachment will now be able to be downloaded local to your iPhone into your photo gallery. In fact…

Contacts Searching

Not something that I will use much, I find scrolling with the letters in the sidebar works just fine, but for business type with hundreds upon hundreds of contacts may find this to be helpful, simply begin typing their name in the top search box to quickly narrow down your contact.

Download Image

Not only will you be able to download images from email attachments, but you will also be able to download images from the web to your iPhone. How this will be accomplished is not completely clear, but I imagine it only works if you have an image as the url (i.e. http://www.website.com/image1.jpg) and using the + icon already in Safari.

Calculator

Most notable is the addition of the scientific calculator, which is displayed with a simple landscape rotation of the phone. Though this is not something I have any sort of interest in, I have seen and heard a lot of people who have really wanted this and it’s great to see Apple respond to that.

In addition to the scientific calculator, the calculator itself (as well as the icon) have gotten a facelift. Gone are the cute bubbly round buttons and the aqua blue faceplate, now replaced with a more mature look with squared buttons (though with rounded edges) and neutral colors.

App Store

Finally - real games for the iPhone! And not the crappy lot you see on most cell phones, easily a contender with DS and PSP.

I cannot wait to get my hands on some of these apps… Gruber said it best:

The physical phone is not the story. A year from now, the iPhone 3G will be replaced by another new model. The platform is the story. Platforms have staying power, and, once entrenched, are very hard to displace

iPhone 3G Only Software Features

Some of the new software features will only be available with the new iPhone 3G.

Talk And Download At The Same Time

With the 3G network you will be able to receive phone calls and even talk on the phone at the same time as downloading emails, browsing the web, or watching YouTube videos. One of my biggest current iPhone annoyances is missing calls from someone (usually my wife) because I was messing around on Hahlo or something.

Geo Tag Your Photos

Obviously the GPS integrates really nicely with the gorgeous Google Maps and gives you pinpoint accurate directions, but one of the under-mentioned additions of GPS is geo-tagging. One growing trend among photographers today is the ability to geo-tag their photos with pinpoint accuracy - with iPhone 3G all photos take will be automatically geo-tagged.

I hope there is also a way to have it store data for syncing up with another camera later - perhaps there will be an application for this in the new App Store?

Ahh, the infinite possibilities of the App Store…