iPhone 3.0 to have copy and paste, Pre-like features -- but no background apps

Digg's Kevin Rose has a solid (but far from perfect) track record when it comes to Apple rumors, and he just drove the nerds of SXSWi crazy with his latest gaze into the crystal ball: he says the iPhone 3.0 will have copy and paste. Kev says that the interface is much like the magnifying glass -- you use two fingers to select the text you want, and then you can cut or copy. Sure, that's great, but we think the bigger news is that Rose says 3.0 won't have support for background apps -- which makes his claim that that 3.0 will bring the iPhone "up to speed with the Palm Pre" a little suspect. We'll find out what's what in just a few days, but in the meantime check the video of Rose after the break.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 9:16AM]

So when is this iPhone going to catch up to S60? Both the features listed in the title have been in S60 for years. It sure is nice to be behind the company that is so far ahead of the curve while watching the rest of the yahoos play catch up.

[glamajamma Posted Mar 16th 2009 10:11AM]

Palm announced the useless webcast to pressure Apple's hand on announcing software updates. Apple under the impression that important things would be announced for the Pre, scheduled their own display of software in hopes to trump Palm. Palm never showed anything and now Apple is scheduled to lay its cards on the table. After the show on 3/17 Palm will follow up with a webcast/press conference or whatever to trump everything Apple displayed on 3/17.
Palm NEEDS to follow the Apple software announcements so they steal the Apple thunder.
The two companies are playing chess with public opinion right now.
Rose is an idiot to argue that the iPhone is up to speed with the Pre. The fact that he even targeted the Pre is evidence enough that he is a shill.
The iPhone with its current hardware cannot match the Pre. There is nothing that can be done with the current software to improve that situation.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 10:29AM]

Two words: Nvidia Tegra

i hope to god nvidia can smear feces all over the face of the iphone, mainly to just stick it to the smug bastards at apple... no video feature because of technical issues!! My Shitstinct has a video feature (instinct), so does the hacked iphone, an iphone is another reason to bend over and smile while you take it.

The Tegra from Nvidia has background app support, full fluid 3d interface, HDMI out which looks amazing... i personally believe if someone can do it, it's nvidia, and if something can make apple shit the bed, it'll be the tegra.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 12:02PM]

Nokia had copy and paste since 2003..
Nokia had apps running in background back then..
Only thing apple is good @ is to teach the tech illetarate people!
Because the USA is just learning these features that europeans been using for years!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 12:44PM]

I don't want background apps. If we let people start making background apps then we'll have to start worrying about what apps are open and why our other apps aren't working, and the developers will decide not to save their data as often. It'll could be a mess. AKA it would end up like windows mobile.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 1:51PM]

@Kelmon

If you want to play at the shallow end of the pool that's great, but I tend to find that hacking things is the shortest distance between what I have and what I want... I wanted better functionality for my iPhone so I went out and got it... In this instance it is just a bonus that jailbreaking was so easy that my 4-year-old kid or my 88-year-old grandma could do it. I would have endured a far more painful jailbreak process had that been the only option.

Personally I think it was a far better use of my time to modify my iPhone to meet my needs than to rant about how the iPhone is NOT meeting my needs on engadget... As if ranting on engadget is actually going to somehow sway Apple to do something differently than they're currently doing it. When has Apple ever listened to anyone?

Regards.

[Addyct Posted Mar 16th 2009 9:10PM]

god, even my Sidekick can run background apps.

[mrkbrtn Posted Mar 16th 2009 10:41PM]

Seems logic to me that Apple will take what they know from the OS they've spent their lives developing on the mac. Obviously, with the App Store such a surprise hit, we all have too many 'home' screens, so some kind of 'folder' system is needed. Spotlight would be great on the phone too. I think the 'settings' could do with some tarting up - to resemble the system preferences on my mac. There's already a sort of dock at the bottom - it would be great to have a proper, multitask dock with the beautiful genie effect. Photobooth perhaps? You get where I'm going with this. They've solved all the problems already on the mac and it would make sense for the two OS's to slowly converge.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2009 9:25PM]

This is ridiclous. People are cheering about having copy and paste on the iphone? lol. i mean its still a good feature- but I had a phone 4 years ago that could do that! Instead of cheering about copy and paste, Crapple should be treating us with better things like [we should be cheering about-] MMS, Flash on MobileSafari, SMS msg forwarding (zomg, it doesnt even have that!), Video Recording, Video sharing (mms again i guess), customizable home screen and apps (like you can with installer and cydia on a jailbroken device) import custom ringtones, and SDK for windows. ;)