Cui – On My Way

Apple said there are more than 100 new features for the non-developer iphone owners like me in the iPhone OS 3.0. Same as usual, Apple doesn’t give us a document about what they are and how to use them.

Until now I myself haven’t see them all. But I do have some findings, just after playing around for a couple of days with 3.0. And I’d like to put all of them here, FYI.

Here they are, grouped by applications.

1.Phone

1.1 Phone->Recents

Much detailed Call History Info, like call number type, call in or out, calling minutes etc.

1.2Phone->Contacts

>>Delete contact info piece by piece(the red button is placed there by ME, ‘coz for some reason screenshot cannot be done at that status)

Contact Share, Tap Address will launch Google Map to search and My Number.

2.SpringBoard(Home Screen)

Press the Home key will take you to the left one of the current home screen, until you reach the most left Spotlight Search screen. And then press Home will make you switch between the Spotlight Search and the first home screen right after Spotlight.

3.Calculator

Turn the phone into landscape mode will take you to the scientific calculator automatically. Perhaps this it not a new one, i’m not sure here. Correct me if you know it.

4.Settings

Mail: Load Remote Images , Safari : Autofill,Fraud Warning, iPod: Shake to Shuffle.. Well, even though I haven’t figure out how they really works, they are the features that I haven’t seen in the previous firmwares. So just put them here for sharing.

5.Clock

Stopwatch: real time count display for each lap

One more thing, Facebook already starts taking use of the shake API brought by the OS 3.0. Here’s the setting screenshot.

P.S. It works like a charm.

BTW, if you know more undocumented featurs of iPhone OS 3.0, please leave it in the comments. Thanks.

Update(Mar 31,2009): some more findings

1.Safari -> Autofill

very nice, really.

2.Settings ->General ->Home

More choices for the double tap Home button, like to launch Camera, to Search.

i’ve just updated my iphone(BL 3.9, first-gen 4G version) from firmware 1.1.4 to the new 2.0 by the newly released winpwn. Actually I pwned the phone twice, first with winpwn 2.0.2 and second with winpwn 2.0.3(download).

I am a little bit excited about some of the new features in 2.0, even if until now I only played with it for 2 days. Here’s why i’m saying that.

1.full system-level international support

For Chinese iphone owners like me, we can choose either of Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Accordingly we have the input method and region format.Yes, we’ve got hand-writing input method too, as picture shows above.

Besides, we can read gb2312-encoded Chinese email now.

2.App Store

This is the coolest part. Tons of apps in the store and you are just one-click away to them.You may also feel surprised when you are playing with those really creative apps, like WritingPad(reviewed by ipodtouchfans.com) and midomi(youtube video). I do. I really do.

However, in order to take full use of the App Store, you need an valid iTunes account. And generally you have to provide some payment details in the registration process, like an Visa credit card info. This may block some people. Hackint0sh has a post here where i found this solution. For the phone number and address, i filled with Apple’s own info

3.some new features, like Contact Search, WiFi-only mode, Exchange support etc.

Some of you may feel more excited on Exchange support or Contact Search. Sure they deserve. But for me,I think wifi-only does help. I do have that kinda moment when I wanna browse the web while keeping the phone off. Not possible in firmware 1.1.4 and below.

These are all the reasons that drive me to do the upgrade. But, nothing is perfect. iPhone 2.0 still needs improvement as well. As to my experience, 2.0 is a little bit slower, less stable than 1.1.4. Perhaps that’s why Apple is pushing the testing on 2.0.1 now. Guess they’ll relesae it soon.

Last but not least, currently there are very fewer native 3-rd party unofficial applications in 2.0 than in 1.1.4. To update or not, you decide.

I’ve just collected all of the iphone’s published firmware features in one page here. So if you want to know what those ff version exactly means, either for fun or decision-making of whether or not to do the upgrade now, you may take a look.

And i’ll keep it up to date.

For me, I’ll do the 1.1.3 soft-upgrade once any Chinese IME(either iCosta or NativeCN) is ready for 1.1.3. Very soon, i guess.