What's new in iPhone 3.0

What's new in iPhone 3.0

If you didn't find much to gasp at during the iPhone OS 3.0 section of Monday's keynote presentation at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, that's understandable. Much of what was showed off were features that we saw trotted out back at March's iPhone special event where Apple initially introduced the software update.

That said, we did get a glimpse at a few brand new iPhone capabilities as well as a more detailed look at some of the features that were only hinted at three months ago. Let's take a look at what's coming to our iPhone when the update drops on June 17.

As rumored, the iPhone's iTunes Store took a step in the direction of parity with its desktop sibling by adding the ability to purchase and rent movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks from inside the phone's iTunes app.

As with podcasts, music, and apps, any content that's over 10MB will only be available to download via Wi-Fi and not via the iPhone's cellular connection. Apple's also made content available from iTunes U, the store's educational section with classes and lectures from schools around the world.

In addition, the iTunes application will now support users logging into one or more different iTunes accounts and even let you create accounts directly on the phone. Previously, the iTunes app on the phone pulled its account information from whatever account was logged in on the computer that you were syncing with.

Apple also showed off a few additions to the iPhone's parental controls section, most notably the ability for parents to restrict what applications their children can use. This also requires that all developers submit an age rating for their applications, as Apple senior vice president Scott Forstall later said. The App Store has received a lot of criticism for its issues with its approval process, including some apps that have been banned as a result of objectionable content, even in cases where the content was similar to that being sold elsewhere in the iTunes Store. Enabling restrictions on applications and forcing developers to rate their apps could be a way for Apple to absolve itself from some of the responsibility of policing for edgier content.

AutoFill was briefly mentioned in Apple's iPhone presentation back in March, but this was the first time we got a glimpse -- albeit a brief one -- at what it's capable of. As in Safari on the desktop, not only can AutoFill remember the usernames and passwords for your Web sites, but it can also populate contact information fields on forms based on the information you've entered in your phone.