Is your must-have iPhone feature included?

Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of the operating system that powers the iPhone, dubbed version 3.0, at an event at Apple's headquarters in California.

It is available for developers now and to everyone else "this summer". Here's a recap of what was announced.

Systemwide search

Apple has integrated its Spotlight search technology across the entire device. This will let users search for specific email messages, applications, contacts, and any other data from within those applications in one place.

Copy and paste for text, photos and SMS

One of the most-wanted features, the ability to copy and paste text will be making its way to OS 3.0. Users will be able to select sections of text and take them to other applications.

More iPhone titbits

1. Original iPhone users will not be getting all the new features.

2. Apple sold 13.7 million iPhones in 2008, and 17 million iPhones in total.

3. There have been 800,000 downloads of the iPhone SDK.

4. Shake to shuffle is coming to the iPhone.

5. The Safari browser is getting anti-phishing and auto-fill.

6.Parental controls will work on the App Store. This could mean a new 'explicit-content' rating for applications.

7. No Adobe Flash for the iPhone, although the device will play HTML 5 video, and developers now have API access for streaming audio and video in their apps.

Copy and paste will also work with photos and SMS messages.

MMS

You can now send and receive multimedia messages (MMS). This means text messages can be sent with photos and voice recordings, all without using the built-in mail application to do it. Missing, however, is any kind of video support, which is an MMS feature found on many other phones with built-in cameras.

Push notifications

The feature that was supposed to appear in September of last year will finally be making its way to phones in version 3.0. Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development, noted that Apple had been late on this, and blamed the delay on scaling, saying that the original system was too taxing on both the handset's battery and its processing power.

In-app micropayments

Apple has built in a new system for developers to charge users after they've purchased an application. Previously there was no way to do this, forcing developers to hike up the initial price, or use external payment systems, similar to what Amazon did with its Kindle application.

Apple's new system, dubbed "In-App Purchase" lets developers create an application where extra content can be purchased from within it to expand what it can do. All the billing is handled by Apple, and goes through the user's iTunes store account.

Better GPS baked into apps

Apple announced Core Location would now be available for developers to build into their applications, meaning they'll be able to include turn-by-turn directions into their apps. However, they won't be able to build it off the iPhone's Google Maps application. Apple says this is due to licensing issues. However, map providers may step up and start selling mapping data to iPhone developers.

P2P networking and hardware communication

No longer will handsets exist as single entities. A new system, built off Apple's Bonjour technology, will let devices talk to each other. This would let people play multiplayer games with one another, and potentially exchange data files - all without the need to be connected to a third-party server or a central wi-fi hub. To do this Apple is using the iPhone's built-in Bluetooth antenna.

Apple is also opening up how much control accessory makers can have over external hardware. Forstall showed how the iPhone would be able to hunt for FM radio signals using an attached dongle, and even read a patient's blood pressure - putting the controls on the iPhone instead of the attached device. This is very similar to the partnership that Apple has with Nike and its Nike+ running attachment, which could be controlled using an iPod. This new system works both from the dock connector and over Bluetooth.

Original article: iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know from CNET News.com