Apple iPhone OS 3.0 Preview Liveblog

Welcome to PhoneNews.com coverage of the Apple iPhone 3.0 Preview Event.

9:56-Just a few more minutes before we start and setting up.
10:04-Greg and Scott Forstall will be the ones presenting today.
10:07-Going over the success of the iPhone as a development platform with case studies.
10:08-As expected Scott Forstal has stated that iPhone 3.0 is an update for all models of iPhone and iPod Touch.
10:13-Scott begins discussing the SDK which gives developers almost the same APIs and tools that they use, stating that the 3.0 updates gives developers 1,000 new APIs.
10:15- Scott announces first major enhancement to App Store with In App Purchase which is the capability to offer other types of transactions such as subscriptions for magazines, additional levels for games, and eBook publishers, who want to sell one app and sell inside the app.
10:19-The transactions will use the same transactions steps for purchasing other items in iTunes with the same login information.
10:20-iPhone 3.0 will now support Peer to Peer connectivity for any type of application with the main focus of the functionality on games and other types of native P2P functionality. The functionality also extends to accessories with independent control.
10:24-Maps and CoreLocation have been updated to support Google Maps API integration and turn by turn functionality respectively.
10:26- Push Notification has been completely rebuilt since its first implementation and has is implementing it as a way to allow apps to run in the background instead of allowing typical multitasking which drains battery life significantly. Apple claims that by using Push Notifications, battery life is significantly increased by not running the app in the background directly.
10:32-The Push notification service has a persistent connection to the phone. The three things you can send are badge alerts, text alerts and audio alerts. Text alerts appear like SMS alerts, badges show up on the app icon, and audio alerts play in the background.
10:32-Some of the APIs now allowed for developer use include in game voice chat, iPod library access, proximity sensor, audio recorder, battery API, streaming audio and video, data detectors, text selection, UI alert view, shake API (for rumble/vibration) and GPS.
10:32-Meebo and EA demonstrate new apps (Meebo IM, Sims 3) using the Push Notification and In App Commerce API implementation respectively.
10:42-Oracle debuts their new enterprise customer management app that pulls data from their CRM server solutions in real time in order to contact reps.
10:46-ESPN debuts their first native iPhone application with ESPN Alerts which makes use of Push Notification and plays the SportsCenter or ESPN jingle when pre defined alerts are triggered as well as a built-in media player that optimizes video depending on connection.
10:49-Johnson & Johnson subsidiary LifeScan debuts glucose monitoring using the Peer to Peer API with a blood sugar detector that sends the data from the detector to the iPhone over the dock connector or Bluetooth.
10:51-The application also allows people to send notifications with data to keep family or medical personnel up to date.
10:56-Developer ngmoco debuts two new games that utilize the Peer to Peer and Push Notification API in Touch Pets, a social pet simulator and LiveFire, a multiplayer first person shooter over 3G or Wi-Fi.
11:01-LiveFire also uses the In App Purchase API to purchase new weapons with real currency (much like an MMORPG) and also allows for multiplayer.
11:05-Developer smule debuts Leaf Trombone which is a musical instrument app in the vein of the original Ocarina which now uses the Peer to Peer API two have two people perform in tandem.
11:06-Scott Forstall debuts the long-awaited Cut Copy and Paste functionality for OS 3.0 with a demonstration.
11:11- A photo icon is embedded into the SMS app (being referenced as Messages by Scott) on 3.0, which alludes to MMS functionality but is not confirmed.
11:15-The upgraded Mail app in 3.0 will allow for multiple images to be attached and sent.
Cut and paste can work across multiple apps, has undo support, can work with developer APIs, and can use Cocoa Touch support for regular text.
11:17-3.0 will now support usage of the keyboard in Landscape mode across all major apps in the iPhone/iPod Touch including Mail.
11:19-MMS has now been confirmed with no video capture, along with voice recording sending of Contacts (VCard), Audio files, or location information.
11:24-Calendar now supports the CalDAV calendar standard, Stocks supports news headlines and detailed charts information along with Subscriptions, and Search now functions across the devices key applications with new home screen integration.
11:28- More New Features: Notes Sync, audio/video tags, live streaming, shake to shuffle, Wi-Fi auto login, Stereo Bluetooth, LDAP, iTunes account creation, YouTube ratings, Anti-Phishing, Call Log, Parental Controls, Media Scrubber, OTA profiles, VPN on demand, Languages, YouTube subscriptions, YouTube accounts and Encrypted profiles along with auto-fills.
11:31-OS 3.0 will be available to all developers today as a fully-functioning beta with more details later on in the day on the Apple Developer Connection site.
11:33-OS 3.0 will be available this summer to consumers for iPhone and iPhone 3G for free while both generations of the iPod Touch can be upgraded for $9.95. The biggest caveat however, is that the first generation iPhone will not support MMS or stereo Bluetooth.
11:43-Tethering capability has been confirmed on the software end for 3.0, but no announcements on carriers have been made.
11:46-A rather dubious claim has been made in terms of the lack of support for MMS on the first-gen iPhone which is summed up by blaming it on the cellular radio being different hardware than the unit found on the 3G.
11:50-The event’s over but stay tuned to PhoneNews.com and our sister site CentralGadget for more analysis form the event,