By Grace Chng
Senior Correspondent
chngkeg@sph.com.sg

 

FINALLY, my cellphone can forward text messages and send MMSes. 

It’s been a challenge since I’d bought my iPhone over a year ago. To forward messages, I’ve had to re-type or summarise text messages received from one friend so that I can forward it to another person.

The latest software upgrade iPhone 3.0, released on Tuesday, has these two essential features. However, I can only upgrade them mid-this year. Apple said this upgrade will only be available “from the summer” which I estimate could be anytime from June onwards.

The upgrade is only for iPhone 3G users. For the iPod Touch, users would have to pay US$9.95 for it and they can buy this probably through the App Store. 

Before I say what the other key features are, here’s some interesting trivia.

Apple has sold about 13 million iPhones in less than two years since it was first launched in June 2007. There are an astounding 25,000 applications on the online App Store and - hold on to your chair - there’ve been 800 million downloads! Some apps are free (including the ST.com application) while others are priced from US$0.99 and up. 

Analysts estimate about 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches in use globally right now. For developers who’ve sold their apps in the online App Store, it’s going to be financially rewarding. I’m sure Apple has this in mind when they make new business models available for developers (as I'll explain in a bit). 

For users, the new features – about 100 of them – will make it easy and convenient for iPhone 3G and iPod touch users to retrieve email, look for info on their devices, play games with people nearby, and send photos easily in text messages. 

Users of other cellphone brands may not understand what the brouhaha about the forwarding and the MMS feature because these are routine features available on all phones today.

Except for the iPhone. Hence the celebration.  

From the demos that’re available on the Web, Apple’s implementation of the forwarding feature is different. You first copy by double tapping on the word, phrase or sentence. Then you paste the text on the new email message you want to send. 

At the bottom left-hand corner, you can choose whether to attach a photo. You can take a fresh photo or you can choose to append one from your phone’s photo library. So the MMS feature is also relatively painless. 

What is also neat is that you can now type messages or see stock quotes (not that many people will want to see their stock charts during these gloomy times) in landscape mode.

Spotlight, the search function on Mac computers, is now available for the iPhone with the upgrade. This is great because you can use it to search for anything in your phone including e-mail messages. 

What is definitely a plus is that now Apple has incorporated push technology. Apple has been adamant about including this in the first versions of the iPhone because of  battery issues.

Everyone who has used a Blackberry know how convenient it is to get e-mail because the messages are sent to you without you having to go into the e-mail application to extract the new stuff. But this “pushing” of e-mail has a disadvantage: Battery juice dries up quickly.  

According to Apple, it spent the last six months strengthening their server technology so that they can offer push technology without draining battery life. For consumers, it means you can read e-mail messages as they get delivered into your phone. For corporate users, this is definitely a big plus. 

Another feature is that iPhone users now can pair up with other users near them to play games or exchange information. Apple is using Bluetooth technology which uses less battery power but only has a radius of about 3m. Kids who want to play games in a restaurant, or between two siblings in a car, can just send a request to each other and receive approval to join the game. 

For developers, the iPhone 3.0 provides them a seamless way of getting paid for upgrades to their software, extra game levels or fresh content on an app without having to exit the application.

I’m glad that Apple has promised that if an app is initially listed as free in the App Store, the developer can’t turn around later and say upgrades have to be paid. 

Unfortunately for me, a copy of the software is not available for testing yet. So I’ve to wait a while to get my hands on it.