Here’s what we found

1. Since it’s a major upgrade, it took some time to download and install the new software – its ~230 MB. But as always installation is as simple as you can imagine. We chose to back up our entire phone before installing the new OS 3.0. So it added to the installation time.

2. We had to realign all our apps starting from the second screen. This might have happened because the first page was full on the phone. The problem was caused by the new addition of “Voice Memos”, which by default, gets added on the home screen, pushing an existing app to second screen. Hence, apps on the second screen are pushed to the third (you get the idea!), and effectively, our second screen was left with just one app!

Tip:  If you have not installed OS 3.0 yet, create a couple of blank spaces on the home screen by moving some apps to the next screen. Then install the new software. Hopefully your existing apps might stay intact.

3. The sound quality of the “Voice Memos” application is great when compared to some of the free voice records available on app store.

4. There is no video recording facility on the iPhone 3G (we were aware of this, but it’s always good to reconfirm with a live test). This feature comes along with hardware improvements in the new 3GS.

5. Spotlight Search page is awesome, to say the least. You can search for any text across multiple apps like Notes, Email, Contacts etc., and the results are instantaneous.

6. With the new OS 3.0, you can (finally!) share/send a contact’s detail to another phone via MMS. It seemed to have been an obvious omission and many users were crying for this functionality. Even though it’s a seemingly basic feature in other phones, this was lacking in the 3G version. With the OS upgrade, you can now share a contact using MMS or email.

Tip: If you are expecting a business card from a non iPhone user, ask them to send it as MMS. Otherwise you will not receive it.

7. You still can’t forward an SMS/MMS message to other phones. But at least there is a work around available now. You can use the good old technique of “copy & paste”. Choose the message you want to forward, press on the message for a second or two. Copy option pops up. Copy it and then paste in a new message. Crude, yet workable.

8. A minor bug seems to have also crept in. Sometimes, the screen goes blank while on a call and you can’t receive the incoming second call or navigate to other applications like maps, contacts, notes. This problem was there in 2.2.X also but is occurring quite often since our upgrade to OS 3.0.

We are still continuing to test, so keep watching this space for more tips and findings!

Based on the WWDC 2009 keynote speech by Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone software, the new OS will be available for all starting 17th June. A few services like MMS will be carrier dependent (AT&T in US are still not ready), but consumers can still upgrade and start using all the new technology it has to offer.

There are over 100 new features that Apple is bringing with the new OS, including video recording and voice dialing (iPhone 3GS dependent).

Here’s a snippet of what OS 3.0 has to offer:

Cut, copy, and paste - Available on all apps, including third party developed apps.

Landscape keyboard - Formerly only available on the Safari browser, it will now be included in e-mail, messaging and notes.

Turn-by-turn directions - Still a few grey areas in this, but the principle is companies like TomTom can now provide a full GPS system right on the iPhone.

Multimedia Messaging (MMS) - A much awaited feature which has so far been available on all phones - finally comes to the iPhone. You can use MMS to send photos, contacts, audio files, and map locations.

Find my iPhone - A very handy feature if you are prone to losing your iPhone. If your handset goes missing, you can send it a message from a computer that instructs anyone who finds it to call you. It plays a sound to get attention, and it can also be tracked using GPS location.

Full search - Spotlight now searches emails, messages, notes, contacts, calender entries and music.

In-app purchase - No need to go back to the App Store. You can now purchase items directly from within your app.

Tethering - Although carrier-dependent, you will now be able to plug in your iPhone into your laptop and use it as a modem.

Peer-to-peer networking - Working via Bluetooth, your iPhone can now communicate with other iPhones in the area without pairing up.

Google maps - Integration of google maps straight into the third-party applications.

Parental controls - Parents can now control what type of movies, and TV shows are allowed to be played on the phone, including limiting the use of YouTube.

Push notification - Developers can now use push notification to alert users using sms and instant messaging.

These are just skimming the surface of what OS 3.0 has in store. Keep watching this space for more updates in the near future.

With the new iPhone arrival, Apple has beefed up its security features, inching it closer to breaking into the corporate and enterprise market. Introducing hardware based encryption, and remote data wiping.

The widespread appeal of Blackberry with corporates has been primarily down to the enterprise level security it offers, and Apple is making it clear that it wants a share of that lucrative market. Although a big deal by Apple’s standards, the new features still don’t make the iPhone suitable for most corporate environments.

Remote wipe and encryption aren’t good enough on their own inside the iPhone 3G S, said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “They have to be enforced” by the company, Dulaney wrote in an e-mail. He went on to give an example of a company with 500 employees, all running iPhones. Imagine having to send each one of them a memo asking them to turn on the security features of the iPhone. Highly unlikely.

Unless these security features can be “forced” onto the company users, widespread adoption of the device in the enterprise environment seems a tall order.

Another feature lacking on the iPhone (even with the new upgrade) is background processing. Most company users have several applications that they run simultaneously on their devices, and with a single-app limitation on the iPhone, companies have to find work-arounds which tend to be expensive and unnecessary.

Although the new data encryption support, remote wiping, and tethering have been welcomed by the enterprise industry in general, more needs to be done if Apple is to even dent the Blackberry dominated market space.

Previously circulated rumours about the upgrade and functionality have mostly proven true, and the new iPhone now offers faster processing, faster data connection and a much awaited video camera. The aesthetics of the device have remained exactly the same, with not noticeable changes.

Let’s check out some of the new features being made available:

- Magnetometer (digital compass) - This will now enable companies like Tom Tom and Google to offer turn by turn navigation on the iPhone itself. So no longer do you need to carry a separate GPS device.

- Video recording - The much awaited video recording capability is introduced to the new iPhone, with an upgraded 3MP camera.

- Increased storage - The new iPhones are going to ship in 16GB and 32GB versions, offering more room to store your videos, pictures and songs!

- Voice recognition - You can now “talk” to your iPhone and give it commands like “What song is this?”, or “Call Andy”. Goodbye handsfree kits.

- Longer lasting battery

- Nike+ Support

- Faster data access speeds

It’s been a long awaited upgrade, and Apple has not disappointed fans. The 16GB version will retail for $199, whilst the 32GB will be offered for $299 in the US.

AdMob, a mobile ad network that specialises in connecting mobile advertisers with publishers, announced the roll out of new ad formats for the upcoming iPhone. With huge growth in the mobile social networking area, advertisers are keen to exploit the user base of these devices and splash their marketing messages where possible.

Ad campaigns targeting social networks

AdMob offers these advertisers the opportunity to get their message in front of the device users, that will inturn link to branded pages on networks like Facebook and Twitter.

According to a recent AdMob metrics report, iPhone users account for 40% of mobile internet usage, even with just 8% of the smartphone market. This shows a growing trend in mobile data communication and networking, especially on Apple’s device which advertisers are targeting.

Smartphone users tend to spend more money on their phones, whether its for business or personal use. As a result, they are more open to new softwares and services that will help leverage their phone’s functionality and increase productivity - even if these softwares are monetized through advertising.

The entire mobile marketing trend is shifting, and advertisers who don’t get onto the bandwagon now are bound to lose out on the initial gold rush.

If you are Saleforce.com customer, you can leverage the Salesforce Mobile app to access your contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities, tasks, and events on your mobile phone. The company has also developed apps for other mobile devices like Blackberry & Windows Mobile, but they are out of this blog’s scope.

Salesforce.com iPhone app

Setting up Salesforce Mobile on your iPhone is a very simple process. Typically, users will follow the process outlined below:

Search for “Saleforce Mobile” in the app store and click “Install” - make sure to check the licensing agreement before using it. Mobile Lite is free but for the full version, you will need to signup

After installing the app, you have to provide your Salesforce.com username & password, and hit the “Activate” button. This will enable the iPhone to contact the Salesforce servers to download your data onto the phone.

In addition to this, you need to set a passcode to unlock the application.

Once everything is set up, navigation through the application and through your leads, accounts, contacts is a breeze

If you are used to the iPhone navigation system, the Salesforce Mobile app will seem like second nature.

A caveat for data synchronisation though - it is nicely hidden away in the inappropriately titled App Info section. The sync option synchronises your phone with the server data, and vice versa. It generally happens in the background when the app is idle, but you can also manually sync it through this option.

Companies who use Salesforce as their CRM system will find the mobile app a great addition to their tool kit. It enables on the move data access and lead capture, thereby reducing the “office-based” work load, and thus increasing productivity.

This is a fantastic example of how the iPhone is penetrating the business market, and providing greater productivity gains.

There are over 1,000 apps in the business category in the App Store. They range from small applications for logging business expenses and car mileage to large productivity applications that connect to corporate CRM implementations for leads and account management whilst on the move.

Whilst Apple has already enabled many enterprise features like Exchange Active sync and Remote corporate connectivity, many big companies like Salesforce.com and Oracle are providing iPhone apps to their customers so that enterprises can be more effective in conducting business on the move. In addition, many third party vendors are building apps for services like Microsoft Dynamics and SAP ERP amongst others.

If you have home grown CRM & ERP solutions running your business, you can still develop iPhone & iPod Touch solutions for your mobile force, or for your user base. Apple’s iPhone development program provides a simple & intuitive development platform to develop these applications, and deploy them for most enterprise level systems.

Some of the apps that we found being marketed on the App Store include:

• Saleforce Mobile
• Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant
• Oracle Mobile Sales Forcast
• Oracle Business Approvals for Sales Managers
• Oracle Business Approvals for Managers

Companies have only begun to understand the business benefits a device like the iPhone can bring them, and it is only a matter of time before more enterprise level apps are seen on the market. The iPhone is maturing, and corporates are gearing themselves to leverage its power.

Cover art created on the iPhone

One New York artist took this concept one step further, and dropped his watercolours and brushes in favour of his iPhone. Jorge Colombo used an app on his iPhone to create the front cover of The New Yorker in an hour - standing outside Madame Tussaud’s in Times Square.

Mr. Colombo bought his iPhone in February, and downloaded the app called Brushes from the app store for $4.99 as a means to keep himself entertained. Little did he realise that he would use this technology in such a creative fashion (see the video here).

This highlights a very important point that the iPhone user interface, gestures and finger tracking is created with such ergonomic and human feel that it is easy to just pick an app, and start using it. Ofcourse, the apps are created by third party developers, but they still conform to Apple’s guidelines on human interface design.

The iPhone consumer market is growing at such a rapid pace, and as the technology evolves, we are sure to see more professionals like Mr. Colombo embracing this technology and using it to further their productivity.

We’ve had a little sneak peek into the offerings of the new OS, and we are very excited about the possibilities it throws up - both for developers like us, and for companies who want to leverage their apps to the next level.

Here are some of the consumer features that you can expect from the new version:

Copy and Paste - If you’ve been an avid iPhone user and have found the need to transfer information between your text message, web browser, photos and such, you would have realised the obvious missing feature in the current version - copy and paste! Well, fret no more as the new OS finally brings copy-paste to your iPhone and with great user interface functionality. Oh, and yes, you can copy paste photos as well.

Universal search comes to iPhone

Universal Search - Unlike the Macs, the iPhone has lacked in ability to search across the entire device. With the new OS, any applications that support Spotlight will be included within a universal search feature called…. well, Spotlight!

iPhone modem - You will now be able to plug your iPhone into your laptop, and use it as a modem. Ofcourse this is carrier dependent, and costs will vary - but its a great add-on for those long train journeys where internet connection is not available.

MMS - Multimedia Messaging - Those of you that have been used to the Nokias and Ericssons should be used to the MMS feature they offered. Well, the new OS brings MMS capability to your iPhone as well. You can send anything from images, sound, vCards, and possibly even videos (though the video feature remains unconfirmed).

Other interesting features include:

• Stereo bluetooth audio support
• Shake your phone to shuffle music
• Auto login in pre-configured WiFi hotspots
• More parental controls
• Improved stocks application
• Landscape keyboard

Keep watching this space as we cover the API and developer features of the new OS 3.0 in our next post.